Smartphone Fails: Preventing Smartphone Disasters

Smartphones – we carry them everywhere, they tell us where to go and how to get there, and help us talk to our friends and family instantly. Essentially, smartphones are our best little rectangular friends – but often, we find ourselves flinging, dropping, and otherwise carelessly damaging them. Hopefully you haven’t fallen victim and had to learn your lesson the hard way, and avoid these smartphone disasters.

Walking and Texting

We’ve all done it. Been walking around, feeling confident in our multi-tasking abilities, pulled our phones out and started texting. But what should happen if you miss a crack in the sidewalk? Or you don’t see a wall, post, or sign ahead of you?  Well, it has happened to more victims than one. Not only is it an embarrassing way to fall in public, it’s an even more embarrassing way to crack, break, or drop your precious smartphone.

Phones + Water = ?

Since the beginning of the electronic era, we’ve all known the universal rule – water and handheld electronics don’t mix. Whether it’s dropping it into a pool, the sink, or even the dreaded toilet (ew) – if your smartphone goes on an aquatic journey, you’re going to have a bad day. Now there’s always the rice technique – you dry the phone off, and immerse it in uncooked rice for an indeterminate amout of time and voila no water damage (sometimes). Even so, this isn’t foolproof, and you might be looking at a big bill for a replacement phone, or worse having to reactivate an old phone that’s so 2011.

Worst case scenario you’re walking and texting, and don’t see the fountain ahead of you, ruining your pride and your smartphone.

The Drop

We all fear the drop. Those milliseconds right before, when you feel like you’re trying to grab a wriggling fish but rather, it’s your precious smartphone about to make its way to the cold, hard ground out of your hands. Then the phone drops and you slowly pick it up and pray that the screen has no cracks. More often than one would like, the screen is an array of newly minted cracks and crevices.

For some, the thrill of having a phone drop to its ultimate demise has become a viral YouTube sport called phone pinching – holding your phone above great heights only using two fingers to hold it. A cringe-worthy feat, that has ended catastrophically for many. 

Preventive Care

Now there are ways to prevent these disastrous smartphone fates. First and foremost, a case for your smartphone could be the essential barrier between your phone and the cold hard ground. Secondly, common sense. You’d think this one is a no-brainer, but seeing as ‘phone pinching’ is a thing, well, we thought we’d refresh your memory. Your $700 smartphone probably shouldn’t be soaring 8 floors above ground, only held by two fingers.

All in all, take care of your smartphones. They’ve become a lifeline for many of us and and often you might not even realize how much you love your pristine smartphone until it’s cracked, bumped and bruised.