I survived my first two months of college without a smartphone
Everyone told me I had the phone of a drug dealer
All through high school, the number one way people remembered me was as “Olivia, the girl with a TracFone.” It was never as terrible as everyone thought it was.
I learned how to be resourceful with my minutes – which weren’t unlimited – and how to monitor how often I texted until my plan upgraded to unlimited text. But that was after having the phone for four years.
I was told more than once I had a drug dealer’s phone, but I grew to love my little Samsung SGH-T105G, which is no longer even sold on Samsung’s website.
Then August came and I figured if I could last all of high school with this brick, I could definitely make it through college, too.
The first week of the semester proved to me how wrong I was.
Having a TracFone meant having no access to Internet. Being a first year who didn’t know anything about using the Rutgers buses or where any buildings were, not having a smart phone made getting to class much more difficult than I ever expected it would be. It’s safe to say I got lost more than a few times.
To make up for not having Internet access on my phone, I did have a tablet – a Kindle Fire HD 6. My tablet was the most advanced piece of technology I owned, but even that failed me from time to time considering I wasn’t always in an area with WiFi. It didn’t help the Rutgers app wasn’t available on the Amazon App Store either.
On top of all that, I don’t have my own laptop either. I might as well have been living in the Stone Age.
So I didn’t have a laptop or a smartphone and my tablet wouldn’t allow me to download Google Docs. All of that combined made for some long Sunday nights handwriting essays since the computer lab closes at midnight on the weekend.
I made it a habit to check my email before I left my room just to check if my professor canceled class. It paid off to do this while I was in an area with WiFi instead of making the journey all the way to class for nothing.
After a few weeks, I adjusted to college life without a smartphone. But a part of me still felt left out when it came to social media.
I couldn’t watch the Rutgers Snapchat story or laugh at the funny posts on Yik Yak. So, I finally gave in. On November 12, my brand new smartphone arrived in the mail. Which, of course, had to be Snapchatted and commemorated.
Although I do miss the simplicity of my TracFone and being able to text without looking at the screen, having a smartphone has already made my daily life a lot easier.
I can check what time the bus is coming before I leave instead of arriving to the stop just as the bus pulls away. I can ask to borrow a charger and know it will most likely be the correct one. I can finally see emojis instead of boxes.
I am grateful to have joined the world of smartphones – even if I’m five years late.