Your smartphone does a lot of cool things. It lets you arrange plans, talk to your friends, find a date, and most importantly, order Seamless. It's essential in New York City.
However, every rose has its thorn. This marvelous product of technology and engineering becomes a useless (and expensive) paperweight when the battery is dead, and no one uses paperweights anymore because all our paper is now on phones.
So when your phone hits you with a low battery warning, you have a moment of silent panic; a fleeting pang of desperation.
The despair you feel is especially real when you're still 9 stops away from your home-- also know as the place you can charge your phone.
You know you don't have long. Do you tease fate and lament about your hopeless situation on Twitter, or just go into Airplane mode, turn down the brightness, and milk it as much as you can?
Remember, with great power comes great responsibility, so you must guard the remaining juice carefully.
Here are the 5 stages you unfortunately go through as your phone is dying.
1. Denial
Confidence on blast. You're on top of the world.
Why did you ever think you needed your phone to begin with? You are far too dependent on that pesky piece of technology. It's weighing you down anyway!
Tomorrow you'll leave the house without it! Who needs it?
Well now, look at you, superstar. Even in the very unlikely scenario that you do wind up needing your phone, 10% is more than enough. You're almost home. There is no need to stress because you got everything you need.
You clearly remember the time when you made it with even less battery. No need to curtail your phone usage at all. Go ahead, send that text. Write that tweet. Oh, is that your mom calling? Answer it, why not!
Oh... because your phone's about to die. How are you going to get to the restaurant where you're meeting your friends without Hopstop? Is that even possible?
2. Anger
Your 10% is now 8%.
You can't help but notice all the people around you absorbed in their phones, crushing candies, and flapping birds. They're all happily tapping away, probably ordering Ubers to go home to charge their phones even more.
You're now frustrated with yourself for forgetting to charge your phone before you left work. Ugh.
How are you going to listen to music? How are you going to check your Facebook? What if your crush invites you over tonight and you miss the message?
Worse still, the simplicity of charging your phone hits you. It would've been so easy to charge your phone at work. It would have required nothing but a simple plug-in.
And now, here you are, trapped on the subway and helpless, watching your battery tick to zero. Soon, you'll be completely out of touch with the world.
3. Bargaining
You check your bag again. Maybe you magically acquired a battery pack.
Could there be an outlet somewhere with the exact phone charger you need already plugged in? Could there possibly be a kind, old woman near you with extra battery packs?
You know, the people with the battery pack phone cases are just laughing at your problems.
There has to be something!
Need. Electricity.
,4. Depression
It's dawning on you that you don't have much left; that you can't check in anywhere, and that Instagram photo you put up probably hit double digits likes already, but you're too afraid to check.
Did your crush like your photo? Has she seen it yet? Is that last text even worth answering?
Your friends will probably think you're mad at them or in some sort of grave danger if you don't answer within the next twenty minutes, and that's the last thing you want.
Everyone else on the subway is busy tapping away. Does anyone even care about you anymore?
5. Acceptance
You finally accept it. There's nothing you can do about it. Why delay it?
Your helplessness fills you with a strange serenity. So what if your roommate wanted to text you to see if she should come out to dinner or go home and clean. No longer your problem since you couldn't possibly respond.
People survived for dozens of decades before cell phones, and they didn't die from not having cell phones, right? (Well, maybe some of them did die from not having cell phones... ?)
Brimming with acceptance about your situation, you turn your phone off. Maybe that 4% will become useful later on, if you can get it to turn on.
Break that dependence and explore the world. Your mind is a fascinating thing even without a phone. Maybe let your thoughts and imagination run wild.
Think about some crazy stuff. Like sugar cubes. How does that even happen? Who makes them, and how big are their hands?
Then again, most of the crazy stuff you think about comes from your cell phone: your music, your text messages, and the crazy stuff you read on Tumblr.
How are you even going to write down any thoughts without your Notes app?
Let's face it, you're completely dependent on an inanimate object, and without it... you're completely screwed.
Check out Now Feed Me! 6 Infuriating Stages of Being Hangry in NYC.