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[Letters] Freedom by being cellphone free

Is there anyone who doesn’t have his/her own cell phone? Have you imagined life without a cell phone? You may agree that to be without a phone is not an easy thing for a talkative high school girl.

On April 3, I lost my cell phone in a taxi. I tried to get back my phone desperately. I called my phone over one hundred times over the next week. Eventually my phone was turned off and I gave up. The most terrible thing was that I had lost all of my friends’ phone numbers.

Ten days had passed since I lost my phone. After a long conversation with my parents, I decided not to buy another cell phone. I might have an aversion to cell phones in my mind. Actually I had always been worried that my daily life was too dependent on my cell phone.

I wasted a lot of time sending and receiving messages with my friends. It’s impossible to concentrate on studying without being interrupted by the sound of a message. Because I could call my friends I didn’t make a note of my homework and I was sometimes late to appointments because I could call my friends and make an excuse. I used to call my mother to get an answer in deciding on trivial things.

Nowadays, I see the things that I couldn’t see when I had a phone, like peoples’ emotions on their faces, posters and poems in the subway stations and trees and flowers near our apartment. They are the things I missed while constantly looking at my cell phone. To be honest, without my phone, I feel free to some extent. Of course, living without a cell phone does not always bring benefits. I can’t receive urgent calls from teachers and important messages from my friends. Also, I sometimes feel insecure when coming back from academies late at night. So far I have had no serious problems by not having a phone.

My father said that people mature through solitude. Living a life without a phone, now I am maturing by learning ways to think independently. In a few months I might buy another phone but I am satisfied and proud of my decision not to get a new phone straight after losing my old one.

*Letters and commentaries for publication should be addressed “Letters to the Editor.” E-mailed letters should be sent to eopinion@joongang.co.kr.

Cho Hyung-yoon, a student at Mokdong High School