I think my phone heard me

All sorts of apps on my phone started crapping out several days ago.  The list of crashing apps was growing steadily longer:  My Fitness Pal, Shinhan Pay, Gmail, Smart Delivery, etc.  These are apps that I use fairly often, so it was frustrating to watch as my life became more and more circumscribed.*  I was able to circumvent certain problems, e.g., the crashing of the Gmail app led me to access Gmail via my phone's browser, which was still working perfectly.  Gmail-on-the-browser was as easy to use as the app, I discovered.

Then I wrote my frustrated blog post the other day, in which I said I'd be getting a new phone by the end of this work week.  And now, it's almost as if my phone understood what I had written and was scared straight:  since writing yesterday's post, all my apps are now functioning perfectly.  Go figure.

I'm going to guess that my original conclusion of "cascade failure" still obtains.  There's no guarantee that the crashing apps, now un-crashed, will remain problem-free.  I think my poor old phone is on its last legs, and just like the aging human body, once the problems start cropping up, they never really go away.  In other words, I'm still planning to get a new phone this week—probably an S21.

Did you hear that, Phone?  You're retiring.  Thank you for your service.  Soon, you can rest.

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*This was also a creepy reminder of how deeply plugged into the modern hive mind I am.