“Disconnect to Connect”

(I read that phrase somewhere in Facebook and thought of it as an appropriate title.)

My two-month old S4 suddenly went berserk. It would turn off in the middle of my Facebook stalking, disturbing my guilty pleasure three times that night. The next day, my boyfriend and I went to Ayala. He would always drop by Data Blitz to check on or buy a game for his 3DS; I didn’t mind because it would give me time to peek through my FB notifications and do mass check-ins on Foursquare.

While I was happily doing these, my phone did it again. This time, it would turn off and back on repeatedly. Panicking, I carried my phone like a baby having an asthma attack as we rushed to find the nearest seat. I removed my phone’s battery to save it from further torture. (Pardon me if I sound like an obsessed little girl but I can get really crazy with anything I fancy.)

We then went to Smart to get that certificate that says I’m subscribed to their post-paid plan, and finally to the Samsung shop at Ayala’s New Wing. Being new, this branch was less crowded, we didn’t need a priority number to be assisted.

The technician told me to back up all my files as my phone may need to be reformatted. Gladly, it still turned on; I hurriedly transferred all my selfies and food photos from my internal memory to my SD card. With a stroke of luck, I was able to do all of these before my phone turned off again.

When we came back to the shop after a wait time of 2-3 hours, we found out that it was only a battery problem which can be fixed by (of course) battery replacement. Because they had to order the battery from Manila (I think), this meant having a dead phone for 7-10 business days. I thought of all the photos I would not be able to take during this hiatus so I decided to buy an extra battery. (Me and my irrational passion for capturing daily memories.)

The technician told me that the reason why my phone kept auto-restarting was overcharging. Yes, I admit to have overcharged it . . . almost everyday. Aside from overnight charging, I also charge my phone while using it. Here are the things that the tech told me to do to avoid this from happening in the future:

1. Turn off the phone (or do not use it) while charging.

2. Do not overcharge it.

3. Once a month, ‘overcharge’ it a little by unplugging it ten minutes after it says battery full. This prolongs battery life. (He used a term to describe this method. With my goldfish memory, I could not remember the exact word. When I downloaded Battery Doctor, I figured it was called ‘trickle stage‘.)

4. Charge the phone when it says battery low (duh). Do not wait for it to be drained completely.

Well these are just basic stuff which I, unfortunately, did not follow.

I am not sure if what the tech said were 100% true and accurate. I learned my lesson though and by following what he said, had more time for things I have not paid attention to before. Now that I have to wait for about two hours for my phone to be fully charged, I already have time to talk to my siblings, do some cleaning or even the laundry, and prepare for the next day at work.

I remember this post that I wrote a few months ago: Nowadays, many people are “participating” more in social networks than in real life. With these sites being accessible anytime and anywhere, everyone is just glued to their smartphone, iPod, iPad or whatever, often forgetting that there’s a person beside them they can have an actual conversation with.

Turning off my phone for about two hours a day has indeed taught me that there’s more to life than my 5″ Full HD Super AMOLED display.