Living without my Galaxy S5 smartphone, day 5: I've not gone crazy yet

Several days ago, I embarked on a journey to a parallel universe – one where smartphones didn't exist. More specifically, they existed for everyone else but me. I had my Galaxy S5 locked away and was prohibited from using a personal smartphone of any kind. Instead, I was given a phone that could only make calls, exchange text messages, and double as a flashlight. This was the start of an experiment intended to demonstrate what would happen if a person as dependent on their smartphone as myself had to survive without their gadget. 

Having no smartphone made me feel nervous, as if I had lost my wallet

The first step is always the hardest – that's something I heard in a cartoon when I was little. It was the Dexter's Laboratory episode where Dexter left his lab to explore the great outdoors under his sister's guidance. I could relate. At first, having no smartphone made me feel as nervous as if I had lost or forgotten something important, like I was missing my wallet or car keys. Having meals was not the same as I had no YouTube videos or funny pictures to look at. At the same time, I had my basic handset on me all the time and, driven by habit, I was frequently checking it for new messages and notifications even though I knew it had no internet access whatsoever. Also, when I wanted to check the weather forecast or look something up, I automatically reached for my potato phone since that's what my brain was wired to do. This is how I behaved during the first several days of my experiment.