someotherkyle | 5 years ago | on: Ask HN: Have you ever tried to live without a phone?
I'm doing this currently. I had a job that had zero respect for my personal time and any notification from my phone would chip away at my mood to some degree. It got to the point that my phone made me miserable and I stopped answering calls / texts even from the people I would otherwise want to hear from. I've been separated from that job for years but the resentment of people I don't know being able to 'sound an alarm' on my end (hyperbolic, I know) lingered. Early this year, I canceled my phone contract and transferred my existing number to Google Voice when my physical phone died. Using this for a few days and borrowing my SO's phone to control media to the TV and I quite liked being reachable on my terms. I have since gotten a WiFi only tablet that I use for messaging / calls on the go and to deal with the TV. This works well for me as I can easily contact people when needed with minimal prior planning. I've even road tripped helping a friend move with maps.me downloading my route to my device, stopping at a McDs parking lot for wifi to place a call letting my ride know I needed pickup in ~ 20 mins, etc. It is very doable with the availability of WiFi these days (at least in my area and even along my route in rural US) and I have no plans of getting another phone any time soon. I feel like its like when I was only accessible by land line. If I'm not home or my voice app is closed, sorry -- I'll get back to you when I can.