I Have a Phone Case Addiction

I’ve talked before on my YouTube channel all about how I enjoy changing the color scheme and wallpaper of my Linux set up, and how that keeps me feeling like my workspace is new and fresh. It somehow makes me more productive, as I don’t feel trapped in the same environment day in and day out.

The weird thing is, I do the same thing with phone cases and have for years. I have, as pictured above, many phone cases for my phone, and I switch at least once a day. Sometimes I switch several times a day, depending on my mood. I have favorites, that see the most rotation, but I do like to spread the love around.

This is probably not normal behavior.

I’ve spent a few hundred dollars on phone cases since I received my Galaxy S25 Ultra a few months ago. Before that, I did the same with my iPhone.

The money is one part of this, and honestly the most harmful. Phone cases, especially good ones, are expensive. Buying one isn’t that bad, as it is insurance on a very costly device. But 10? That’s another story entirely.

But even beyond that, there is some phycological thing going on in my brain that needs this to happen. Whether it’s ADD or OCD or whatever, I don’t feel right if I don’t have a different selection of cases for whatever phone I’m using at the time.

And it can’t be to show off for others. I work from home, I don’t travel that much, and I don’t go out and about that much either. I’m the only one beyond my family that will see what case I’m using.

I do reach a limit, which is a good thing. Once I get to around 10 cases, my need for more seems to disappear entirely. I’m sure that I will want to refresh one or two of them in a year or so, but right now, I’m fine.

I do think there’s a part of this that is me trying to do something good. I used to buy every new phone that caught my fancy. I’ve spent probably 10s of thousands of dollars on phones throughout the years. Just iPhones alone would get me near that number, I’m sure. I don’t do that anymore, and I think part of it is that my phone always feels new because I’m always switching cases.

Just a note, for those paying attention, I did get a new phone this year, a year ahead of my usual schedule, but that was because I broke my iPhone. Even with a case, that screen isn’t invincible.

Since 2018, I’ve only had three phones. And it’d be two if I hadn’t broken the iPhone. This is much better than it used to be.

So, if having a selection of over-priced phone cases around so I can switch between them once or twice a day keeps me from having to buy a thousand dollar phone every few months? That’s a great trade-off, I guess.

Anyway, it’s time for me to switch to a new case. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.