My cell phone recently started acting up. It worked sporadically for a
while and after trying all the things my carrier said to do, they exchanged the
phone. When I opened the box they sent I realized that they had sent me a
different phone than the one I had. Upon talking to them I was told that
they did not have my old one anymore and had substituted a newer one. So
far, everything is ok. I had backed up my data to this cloud thing so it
would be automatically returned to me when I set up the new phone.
Admittedly, I am not the most tech savvy individual. After a walk-through
installation on the new phone it was up and running. Then I realized how
different my new phone was. There were all these new functions I did not
understand and the menus were completely different. What was most
troubling was the fact that none of my data was there! At that very moment
I realized my entire life was in my old phone. The pictures and video I
had taken were gone. So was the history of all my texts and the phone
number of everyone I knew in the world and might ever want to call. My
whole life had shrunk down to some microchips and a touch display in my
hand. My world stopped turning. How could I find all that data
again? I have long since abandoned keeping numbers in my paper phone
book. All the funny texts and information I would look up within were
gone. The cute pictures of my grand-daughter…history. All the
applications I had downloaded and taken for granted were suddenly gone from my
memory. I could not even remember my own password for my email. It
had been saved in the phone. I imagined just how long it would take to
re-enter all of that data if I could even find it all again. It really hit
home just how much my life revolved around that phone. It felt like I was
being held hostage by my own electronic device. As I sat there staring at
the phone I wondered if this had ever happened to anyone else or if I was the
single lost soul in the digital world. Then I called the wireless company
yet again and explained to three different people what was going on with the
phone. They kept saying, “Didn’t everything come back?” If all my
data had come back, why would I be calling for help? Finally a fourth
person took out their own phone and walked me through the steps to retrieve my
data. One minute I only had the numbers for the wireless
company. The next minute, my world was restored! Not only
numbers came back but the texts, pictures and video. The person even
showed me a place where I could see every application that I had ever downloaded
to that phone number. The next several hours were spent retrieving that
information and learning the new phone. I still do not have it all down
yet but the important part is, my data is in hand again. I know there are
people much more proficient on their phones who might laugh at me, but it was a
horrifying event. There is no way I could imagine a surgeon with someone
else’s life in their hands when I came this unglued at the thought of my digital
life being over. If anyone else has had a similar event, let me know.
while and after trying all the things my carrier said to do, they exchanged the
phone. When I opened the box they sent I realized that they had sent me a
different phone than the one I had. Upon talking to them I was told that
they did not have my old one anymore and had substituted a newer one. So
far, everything is ok. I had backed up my data to this cloud thing so it
would be automatically returned to me when I set up the new phone.
Admittedly, I am not the most tech savvy individual. After a walk-through
installation on the new phone it was up and running. Then I realized how
different my new phone was. There were all these new functions I did not
understand and the menus were completely different. What was most
troubling was the fact that none of my data was there! At that very moment
I realized my entire life was in my old phone. The pictures and video I
had taken were gone. So was the history of all my texts and the phone
number of everyone I knew in the world and might ever want to call. My
whole life had shrunk down to some microchips and a touch display in my
hand. My world stopped turning. How could I find all that data
again? I have long since abandoned keeping numbers in my paper phone
book. All the funny texts and information I would look up within were
gone. The cute pictures of my grand-daughter…history. All the
applications I had downloaded and taken for granted were suddenly gone from my
memory. I could not even remember my own password for my email. It
had been saved in the phone. I imagined just how long it would take to
re-enter all of that data if I could even find it all again. It really hit
home just how much my life revolved around that phone. It felt like I was
being held hostage by my own electronic device. As I sat there staring at
the phone I wondered if this had ever happened to anyone else or if I was the
single lost soul in the digital world. Then I called the wireless company
yet again and explained to three different people what was going on with the
phone. They kept saying, “Didn’t everything come back?” If all my
data had come back, why would I be calling for help? Finally a fourth
person took out their own phone and walked me through the steps to retrieve my
data. One minute I only had the numbers for the wireless
company. The next minute, my world was restored! Not only
numbers came back but the texts, pictures and video. The person even
showed me a place where I could see every application that I had ever downloaded
to that phone number. The next several hours were spent retrieving that
information and learning the new phone. I still do not have it all down
yet but the important part is, my data is in hand again. I know there are
people much more proficient on their phones who might laugh at me, but it was a
horrifying event. There is no way I could imagine a surgeon with someone
else’s life in their hands when I came this unglued at the thought of my digital
life being over. If anyone else has had a similar event, let me know.
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