By Kathleen McAleese
Managing Editor

I know very few people who do not a have pass code on their smartphones,  yet I know so many who do not feel the need for an external case that will provide them with that same protection. The lack of effort put forth in phone safety comes with phone cases.

A startling fraction of expensive smartphones are shattered completely. These phones that are considered desirable, such as iPhones and Androids are not built to last. The screens are easily shattered and totally overpriced to fix, simply for the replacement of a thin layer of glass.

First off, there are the minimalist cases. Simply a hard plate of decorative plastic, offering nothing but a false sense of security for a gullible consumer. Realistically, if your brand new 300 dollar slipped out of your hand and fell a few feet to the ground, no weak piece of hard plastic is going to protect your phone. This makes the purchase of a new phone case asinine and pointless. I am baffled that after someone shatters the entire screen of their phone, they choose a minimalist, do-nothing case.

Truthfully, the safety of your phone is worth more than an seven dollar phone case you bought on Amazon. Plus, if you have enough money to buy yourself a 300 dollar phone, I’d be willing to bet that you would be fine with saving thirty extra dollars to get a substantial phone case.

The consumers of said minimalist phone cases, as brave as they may seem to the naked eye, they come across as more ignorant to the potential dangers that is the lack of protection.

Next, and of more acceptable protection, is the happy medium. A practical case like an Otter Box provides both the effective protection with a soft inner shell, but has hard plastic outer shell, providing the crash protection that has found itself invaluable for many careless people, high school students and otherwise.

There is a line to be crossed, however. I have never been a big believer in the indestructible, waterproof, bulletproof, fireproof, atomic bomb resistant phone cases made from the same materials that tanks are made from. If you need to bulletproof your smartphone, you may need to either rethink the setting in which you are using your phone, or you may need to work on your phone handling skills. These “life proof” cases are really unnecessary unless you plan on taking your phone to the moon or perhaps the core of the earth.

Personally, I have a very hard time sacrificing the physical safety of my relatively new iPhone 5, and although I have both a cute, impractical Lily Pulitzer green and pink phone case that has a slot for a credit card (which I suppose would be semi-useful if I, in fact, had a credit card), I find myself gravitating toward my Otter Box. Admittedly, it is not the most feminine of options, but my phone is intact, and my screen is not shattered and I am six months into the ownership of a smartphone.

I have dropped my phone on the tile floor, concrete, down the stairs, and its spent a night in my backyard last summer but is still at it’s top condition, which is what I would like to credit to my reasonable phone case. For the daily bumps and bruises I put my phone through, I really do not need a bulletproof phone case.

So during this holiday season where a thin, gaudy phone case may seem like a great filler gift for a friend or family member, you may be doing them a disservice by indirectly asking them to break their phone. If you are asking for new phone or a new phone case, be mindful that your phone is not a disposable item. If you are willing to protect the information you hold inside your phone, you should be willing to protect the outside of your phone.