A few years ago I was driving on a highway at night in pouring rain when I realised that one of my indicator lamps had blown. Since the driving conditions were pretty poor, I pulled up into the hard shoulder and called roadside assistance. 

About 20 mins later, there was a knock on my window from a mechanic in the familiar high-vis jacket. By this time, the rain had intensified and I could barely make out his face until I stepped out of the car. My only protection against the rain was a light jacket which was clearly not up to the task, so before saying anything else he ran into his van and got an extra jacket. He then handed it to me, shook my hand and said with a smile- Hi, I’m Carl. let's get your indicator fixed, shall we? 

After a few minutes of checking the fuses and wires, he'd figured out the fault but a new bulb was needed. Luckily, he had one. A few more minutes of opening up the casing, fiddling with screws, etc etc, and then he called me over to where he was standing and asked me to hold on to the bulb. 

"Let's do this together!", he said excitedly, and so as he held the casing over the socket to prevent it getting wet, I pushed the bulb in while simultaneously thinking that nobody should be this upbeat when getting soaked by the side of the road at 11 pm. 

“You see!” he exclaimed, as the bulb sparked to life and illuminated the drops of water on his glasses. 
“More hands make light work.”

Even though I haven't made any specific new year's resolutions to curb my smartphone addiction, the other day I had a vision of what life could be like if I did. 

It started out with what I thought was going to be a 10 min trip to the bike shop for a minor repair. Unfortunately, while it was only a few minutes worth of work, there were a few people ahead of me in the queue and it would be about 30 minutes before I could come back and pick it up. 

As I wandered around, I suddenly and unexpectedly found myself in McDonalds ordering chicken nuggets and apple pie (no idea how that happened). I printed out my receipt from the self-service machine and walked up to the counter to join the queue for collection, and while doing so I found myself involuntarily reaching into my jacket pocket for my phone. 

Firstly, I was surprised by how disappointed I was to find out it wasn't there. Secondly, I didn't know what to do with myself. 

After about 2-3 minutes of staring at the screen for my number to appear, I looked around the restaurant. It was a Saturday morning and the place was teeming with people of all ages. A little boy was running between the tables chasing a balloon, while people in their seats playfully punched it just out of his reach. A supervisor was accompanying a new employee out of the kitchen to one of the tills so she could order a meal to eat on her break. The young girl held up her new staff card and pointed up at the menu screen as she made her selection, all the while doing a little dance out of the sheer excitement of it all. 

Meanwhile, my order number finally appeared and I walked to the counter, only to be told the nuggets would be another 10 mins. So back I went to my corner, and watched as a grandfather and grandson collected their trays and shuffled slowly together to a corner booth where the grandmother was waiting with a big smile on her face. 

As I stood there, I realised if I had my phone I may have learned more more about Trump's government shutdown, the latest chapter in the ongoing Brexit saga, and Samsung’s latest folding screen, but I wouldn't have noticed any of the things actually happening around me. Had I really become of one of those people- chasing dopamine hits from notifications, alerts and viral ephemera while the magic of everyday life unfolded quietly around me? 

In the end, I got my nuggets and pie and both were worth the wait. As an added bonus, I got a couple of extra nuggets: officially because I had to wait, but I suspect the fact that I was just standing there, phoneless and looking like a lost puppy, might have had something to do with it... 

Nuggets or no nuggets, maybe it’s time for me to get smarter and my phone to get dumber?