I'm all for disconnecting from the world and putting your phone aside to have actual in-depth conversations with people around you, and I'm the first to get angry when my friends would rather stare at a screen then talk to me. BUT- when I walked to class in the middle of a torrential rain storm and my phone stopped working, I wasn't too thrilled. Currently, my phone is sitting in a bag of rice, since I hear that's what you're supposed to do when something like this happens. I'm actually content with not looking at my phone every five seconds, because I hate having that thing attached to me at all times of the day. During class, I didn't have the opportunity to stare at my phone once, I had breakfast with my thoughts to myself, and I wasn't distracted while doing my homework. Disconnecting from society has these benefits, but unfortunately, we live in a media-driven world. This is a subject that I've been studying for the past two years of college. In journalism, media is vital because it gives reporters a chance to spread their work to a vast amount of people. I personally love posting my stories on Twitter and Facebook because all of my friends and family can see my stories. Without this advantage, journalism would be at a stand-still. During one of my classes freshman year, my professor gave everyone an assignment: try to go as long as you can without using your cellphone. Most students in the class laughed and pulled out their phone upon leaving the room. As for me, I actually tried to do the assignment, but it ended up causing issues for me. My roommate happened to be frantically looking for me, and since I turned my phone off, I had no idea what was going on. Similarly, today, I did not set an alarm because my phone was in the rice bag, and no one woke me up for class. Thankfully, I woke up 20 minutes before class and caught the shuttle bus outside. Having a phone is definitely vital-at least in the 21st century. Without my phone, I'm unable to contact my family two hours away from school, none of my friends can get in touch with me, and I can't receive the urgent emails for my two on-campus jobs. I don't know what's up-to-date on social media, or even what's newsworthy unless I pick up a local paper. Although I would love to live in a world where communication is only face-to-face, I know that's never going to happen again. Moral of today: take a break from your phone every once in a while, it'll cause you to relax and have time to yourself. Also, don't walk through a rainstorm with your phone in a pocket of your wind-breaker. On another note, I'm completely broke, because that's what college usually does to you. Although my birthday is coming up, I can't afford to have my phone break right now. Hopefully this DIY treatment works, but if not, looks like I'll just have an uncooked bag of rice and a broken phone. (crossing my fingers/praying/doing some exotic chant that it works!)