Can you hear me now?

We had a gnarly thunderstorm roll through Columbus yesterday and, I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure lightning struck one of the 5G towers behind where I work.

Our power stayed on, but our phone and internet, alarm system, and even my cellphone all went down for hours.

Usually your cellphone is your lifeline when all else fails. Not this time though. I couldn’t even get ahold of our main office to tell them what happened for hours, and when I finally did, my reception was still so spotty it took five or six dropped calls before they could piece together what I was trying to tell them.

It got me thinking about just how closely we’re tethered to a rectangular piece of technology that hasn’t even been around that long.

I haven’t felt so powerless to communicate since the days of 1-800-CALL-ATT and pay phones.

I can’t even handle making the commute to work without GPS. I don’t have a CD book in my car anymore; I have Apple Music. In between customers at work, I’m not reading a magazine or a novel; I’m doomscrolling. I’m forever on a fool’s errand to find the ultimate social media post or news story worth talking about.

Back in the day, no one expected your full, undivided attention on-demand. If you called and no one picked up, they probably weren’t at home. Or they just didn’t have time to drop what they were doing, sit down by the phone and talk to you. Now if you don’t respond within five minutes, people assume you’re mad at them for some silly reason they concocted in their head the second it clicked over to voicemail. After that wears off, they start going through the stages of grief because, clearly, you must be dead.

I think we’re too far gone to ever go back. Plenty of people have switched to dumb phones, or even stripped down smartphones with e-ink screens, but not in any significant way. It’s a cool niche market like vinyl records or instant film cameras, but it’s not even a blip on the radar really. Our tether is not going away unless society collapses and we’re forced to give it up.

I don’t have some grand solution or a lecture to make about being less reliant on your smartphone. Just an observation. All things considered, it’s the least destructive addiction I’ve ever taken part in.