The Mobile Rehab is my upcoming YA contemporary humor novel. It’s about four teenagers who must survive in a foreign country without mobile devices. Can you imagine the chaos and the hilarity that would ensue? I wrote this novel for the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in 2019. But I got the idea for it a few months earlier when I forgot my smartphone at home.

My friend and I decided to meet for lunch downtown in our city. On my way on the bus, I realized that I’d left my phone at home. It was too late to go back and get it. Besides, people were fine without their devices just a decade ago, weren’t they? How hard could it be?

I reached the restaurant and sat at a table, waiting for my friend. Even after an hour, there was no sign of her. I wanted to call her by borrowing someone else’s mobile phone but did not know her number by heart. After searching in my bag for another half hour, I finally found her business card. But when I dialed her number, I got her voicemail.   

I ate lunch alone that day, feeling terrible for not being able to communicate with my friend. She probably had something come up at the last minute and had tried to call me to cancel our plan. While eating, since I didn’t have my smartphone with me, I observed other people at the restaurant. Everyone, particularly youngsters, had their heads buried in their phones. A group of high school kids texting each other instead of talking amused me the most. And that’s when I got the idea for The Mobile Rehab. What if a few teenagers were forced to stay without their phones for a few days?

On my way home, I realized the value of having internet on the move. The city had canceled some bus routes due to the weather and road accidents. I wanted to look up alternative routes online but couldn’t. There was a route chart at the bus stop, but it was too confusing without the app. I realized that a digital millennial like me had been pampered by modern technology.

I took a cab back home, paying three times the bus fare thanks to my incompetency. When I returned, I called my friend to apologize and explain the situation. It turned out that there were two restaurants with the same name, and we got mixed up. After hanging up with my friend, I outlined my new novel.  

What would you do if you were stuck in a strange place without your phone or internet connection? Let me know in the comments below.