This week, I joined the ranks of millennials before me and got my first smart phone.
No, I didn’t buy the iPhone 6. I traded my old, faithful basic phone—you thought it was a brick, I know—for a sleek new Galaxy S4.
I may be late to the party, but let’s be honest, I’ve always been late to cell phone-related parties.
In sixth grade, all of my classmates were texting with their colorful Motorola Razrs. You forgot about them, didn’t you? My parents didn’t want me to have a phone that young, and in reality, I didn’t want one either. It wasn’t until my mother sat in the school parking lot for 40 minutes—while my sister and I sat hidden in the shade of a bush not 10 yards away—that she realized we needed a change. So we shared a thick phone with a front reading screen. And no, there were no texting capabilities.
My sixth-grade teacher took pity on us when the phone turned on inside of my sister’s purse. She just laughed and didn’t punish us. Maybe it was because we cried. But let’s be real, a piece of paper could’ve turned that phone on. I’d like to believe my teacher knew that.
It wasn’t until my ninth-grade year that I got my own phone—and it was a flip phone. It felt so high-tech to me—but not to my classmates, who already had the latest and greatest QWERTY keyboard phones. And this time, I actually got text messaging. But my plan only allowed 250 texts a month – I burn through that in a day now – so I had to tell my text-happy friend that he had a limit.
The summer before my senior year of high school, I finally upgraded to the QWERTY keyboard. I’m now a senior in college, and until now, I had that phone for my entire college career. I don’t think I’ll miss it, but maybe in some ways I will.
This sleek new Samsung is beautiful but worrisome. What if I drop it? It’ll crack instantly. I’m pretty sure that if I threw the old brick at the wall, the wall would’ve suffered, not my phone. Everyone says I should buy a sturdy case, recommending one that costs more than $70. Really? My previous basic phone cost less than that case.
And then there’s autocorrect. It’s nice for the grammatically challenged, but sometimes it just doesn’t get it. The first night I had my phone, I was typing in my name. The phone autocorrected to Jennifer Lopez. I’m not sure if I should be flattered or insulted. Probably the latter.
Since I got the new phone, I’ve been tweeting my adventures using #teamsmartphone. My roommates have been getting a kick out of it, so maybe you will too.
