My phone had just fallen off of the chair that I was sitting in and it did the death spiral on the way down. It rotated so that it landed perfectly flat on the floor and I knew before I even turned it over that I had just cracked my screen. This was one fall too many and now the only thing left to figure out is to assess the damage. I turn the phone over and the screen is absolutely shattered. There are a million and one lines running through my screen. It is the first time that I have shattered a phone and here are some things that I have learned that come with it.

Glass Splinters

When a phone screen shatters, it creates little splinters and shards that will end up working their way into your thumb. This will make your mood go from bad to worse incredibly quick. Not only did you just crack your phone screen, but the next few times that you use it, you will end with glass splinters in your thumbs. It is quite painful and it brings back memories of getting splinters from my childhood which I apparently failed to suppress. Also, if you are a person who still uses a cell phone to make voice calls, you may end up riddling your face and or ear with splinters.

Misspelled Words

This effect will vary depending on the severity of the crack(s) in your screen. If they happen to spider-web right where your autocorrect options come up, typing a sentence with the proper words becomes much more difficult. It is very hard to see what word you are inserting into the sentence, leading to not only many misspelled words, but also to just incorrect words. This leads to being ridiculed by your friends in group chats for your inability to compose a coherent message.

Decreased Ability To Social Media Creep

Let’s be honest, the majority of the time that you spend in class is spent looking through social media feeds. A cracked phone screen is not conducive to this national hobby. Not only are you more likely to get glass splinters as you scroll through your Instagram timeline, but it is harder to make out all of the details through Charlotte’s web. This may lead to missing out on certain jokes or conversations, as you were not able to see that weird thing in that one person’s picture. Or, even worse, it may lead you to posting a less than stellar picture.

Missing Parts Of The Screen

If having many cracks in your screen is not bad enough, eventually chunks of glass will begin to fall out of the screen. This leads to many black craters on the surface of your phone. Black craters on your phone will just magnify all of the problems of a broken screen and really impede the usage of your phone. I believe that the proper time to replace a phone with a broken screen is when parts of the screen begin to fall off of the phone.

Bad Touch Reception

Cracks on your screen will also decrease the performance of your screen. It will lead to touch inputs being sensed in areas where you clearly did not touch. This can lead to accidental liking of tweets and images, which is often embarrassing.

You Are Viewed Differently

When people see a person with a broken phone, they see a reckless, careless, and clumsy person. This is, by far, the worst effect that a shattered phone screen has on you. Never mind the glass splinters and poor spelling, those can heal and be improved over time, but your public image takes much longer to repair.