Darrell Davis: My desperate week without a phone

I just spent a week away from home with a broken phone. I survived. Barely.

Mainstream media — radio, newspapers and TV — kept me updated on the Toronto Raptors and Saskatchewan Roughriders. But after one email account locked me out, and already without texting ability, I had to use the hotel’s business-centre computer to contact people via Twitter DMs or my little-used SaskTel email address.

It’s really quite amazing how much we rely on our hand-held phones. Search engines answer every question for us. Maps and flight schedules, with early check-ins. Paying hotel bills online. Diversions in video games. We’re in constant contact with our homes and offices, always hunkered over that little screen — except while driving, of course.

Not having that typical access was disconcerting. Try it some time. And without your phone, you can’t announce that you’re back in the pre-cellphone 20th century. So if you were trying to contact me, sorry, try again. I just got a new phone.