Too dependent?

Today, my cell phone broke. Well, more accurately, my touch screen broke. The phone still turns on and receives calls and text messages. I just can't access them. It's dang frustrating; I'm not gonna lie. Since this happened, I've received three texts from who knows whom? Gerald graciously gave me his phone to use. “You need it more than I do.” Yep, he's awesome like that. I immediately contacted my kids who text me regularly: “This is Mom. Until further notice, if you need me, text Dad. I have his phone.”

Okay, I breathe easier, knowing the most important people know how to get in touch with me. Gerald, though. He's running around phoneless, and I'm receiving all his notifications, so so many! He receives alerts from CNN for every last news event, large or small. Then he gets a bunch of other political stuff from various places along with weather notifications. The phone is constantly sounding, and I really hate his ring tone, and I don't know how to change it.

I know. I shouldn't be complaining. I should just be grateful he gave it to me. And I am. But it's caused me to ask myself, “Am I too dependent on this little device?” At least a dozen times in just this afternoon, I've tried to glance at Facebook, but couldn't because he doesn't have the app. Then I wanted to check my bank account. Nope, he doesn't have that one either. But if I wanted to know about the weather or the latest news or politics, ….okay, I'm complaining again.

Then it occurred to me that my calendar is in that phone, and no, I haven't backed it up anywhere. My calendar! I can't even imagine all the stuff I'm going to miss. My list of contacts, with addresses, is also there. I have a working draft of my annual Christmas letter that I'm liking more and more as I revise it each day, but I won't be able to send it out because I won't have anyone's address. Ugh.

There are worse things I could lose, and as I said, my kids know how to reach me, but this is still awfully inconvenient. What do you think? Are we too dependent on our cell phones?