YouthTalk

All of my friends have ‘fond’ memories of my old phone. For years I had constantly rejected my parent’s offer to buy me a new device as I simply saw no need in having one.

I finally gave in and acquired a smartphone, namely an S4, when I was 15. This was the phone I used for two years.

It is indeed true that all good things must come to an end.

While at first possessing an S4 was met with envy, new models suddenly outplaced and outranked it.

My camera quality was horrendous. Despite just having images and music on my phone I would constantly be faced with zero storage space.

All my WhatsApp chats got deleted at one point. I would just like to take this opportunity to apologise to all my friends for the appalling group selfies and the random phone calls caused by my eternally glitching phone.

And, yet throughout those two years, I never worried. My parents kept insisting I change to a newer model but I constantly refused (sorry for all those arguments about ‘keeping that awful phone’). In fact, the only reason I have an iPhone now is because they secretly bought me one for my birthday.

I’m sure the question you all must be having on your minds is, why? Why would I keep that S4 for two years despite all the nightmares it caused me?

In all honesty, the only possible answer I can provide is this being a classic case of human attachment.

As a species we find it very hard to let go of the familiar, whether it be a mere decrepit device or a relationship. It is indeed bizarre that we hold onto old memories in the hope of reviving their former glory, when in fact they only pull us down.

It took me two years to realise but I’ve now learned to not allow the past to influence my future decisions. Just because a phone serviced me well for months doesn’t mean it will for years. Now, here’s to better camera quality!