It is such a sick feeling when one drops their phone into the water. All of a sudden there’s a mad scramble to retrieve the phone before significant damage is done because we depend so much on our smartphones. They act as our photo albums, our password holders, our note takers, our address book, our bank, our gaming system, and…oh yeah, we can can phone people on them too! I hope I’m not alone when I first said “this phone is not going to hold me hostage!” Well, how quickly we become reliant on the darn things and fall into that trap of doing everything on it. How many times have you, or someone you know, stated they’d be so much happier if they weren’t tied to their phone, yet feel incredible amounts of anxiety if it’s forgotten somewhere or misplaced? I have a feeling a great deal of us know that feeling. Smartphones are a necessary evil, I suppose.

I remember vividly the day I dropped my smartphone in the water. Ok, I’ll be honest, I dropped the phone into the toilet at home as I was messaging my brother. We were messaging back and forth about a hockey game and as I pressed “send” on my phone it fell out of my hand, bounced off the edge of the nearby counter, and into the toilet. All I heard with “plop!” Thankfully I had not used the toilet yet, but it was the just the thought of dipping your hand into the water to get that phone. I think I washed up to my armpits after that. Also, I nearly wet my pants when it happened. Too much info, perhaps?

The first thing I did was dry the phone off and get it into rice because that’s what everyone said to do. Apple now recommends to not put your phone into uncooked rice after getting it wet because they think rice particles may damage the phone. They also don’t recommend using a hair dryer, heat gun, or a cotton swab to dry off the phone, especially around the charging port because it may also get damaged. Apple says to gently knock the water off your phone using your hands with the connector down and to place it in an area where there is good airflow in your home to help dry the unit out. By doing these simple things, Apple thinks your phone will stand a better chance at recovery and once again you can scroll Facebook while in the bathroom!