A friend of mine has a phone, and she loves it. She's constantly on it, doing whatever she's doing, and she's told me more times than I can even count that she wouldn't know what she'd do if she lost it. (I'm sure she'd replace it, but I'm sure you can understand, if not relate, to the sentiment.) I make jokes about her phone a lot, but not because it's a bad phone or anything, but because she goes out of her way to make sure that the device is protected from just about anything.

Protecting our gadgets isn't new by any means, and I have no doubt that there are many people out there who go to the same lengths as my friend does, and maybe even further, to make sure that if something catastrophic were to happen to their device, there's a strong line of defense to make sure nothing truly awful happens.

I don't think it's just the people who are addicted to their phones, or just the folks who "can't live without them," who go out of their way to protect their devices, though. I'd imagine that there are a lot of people who don't want to spend an inordinate amount of money to replace an expensive phone, so just spending a little extra to wrap up that handset in a protective shell could be totally worth it.

I've used cases a few times, and I've had my off-and-on-again relationships with screen protectors in the past, but I never last long. Having used a lot of devices before 2007, and seeing the transition from "utility device" to equipment that is quite honestly beautiful (Aaron likes to call these things, "sexy," and don't you believe him if he says otherwise!) meant that I had no desire to cover them up. And it's stayed like that ever since.

I really dislike cases, simply because I don't want to cover up my device. Especially with a phone like Apple's iPhone 5s, HTC's One or a customized Moto X from Motorola. These devices are meant to be showcased, and the only way to really do that is without a case. Especially if you don't want to remove and replace that case every single time you want to show off your new phone.

But, what if we don't have to worry about protecting the body of our phones anymore? 

Just look at the advancements we're making from companies like LG. They've got their "Wolverine phone" in the G Flex and it's self-healing back case. What if we can get that technology to wrap around the entirety of our devices, from front to back, so that our cases aren't necessary anymore? If we could manage that, then it would only be our displays that need our attention and protection.

Until companies find a way to give us displays that can heal themselves (how great would that be, right?), it's up to us to make sure that we don't scratch them up -- even if we all know dropping our phones is pretty commonplace. Sure, companies like Corning have developed some pretty tough material in their Gorilla Glass lineup, but how often do we hear about scratches and whatever to this day? It's still something that people consider, and that's why the screen protector market is still so lucrative.

Protecting our screens is important, considering the display is pretty much the most important part of our touchscreen devices. And there are several different ways to protect it, whether that be your traditional do-it-yourself screen protectors or having a protective film installed by someone else, they all offer their own positives and negatives.

So this is where you get to chime in, and hopefully give some helpful information to someone who maybe doesn't know how they want to protect their device's screen. How do you do it? How do you keep your display safe? Let us know!

image via Engadget