What means to live without a phone?

I haven't had a personal phone for a couple of years now. My employer gave me a phone for work related tasks and this phone is on during business hours and switched off otherwise. My 'digital life' is contained in my laptop and pretty minimal. There are a few blogs I read and I use the internet to search for information and for interacting with companies and the government. I try to minimize my online time. And I'm certainly no luddite. I develop software for a living. I just don't find even more screen time all that attractive anymore.

I can't think of a use case where a phone is or ever would be mandatory.

I can walk into:

- the banks I do business with and prefer this so they know my face. This also allows most accounts to be set read-only from the internet and to set additional security on ACH transfers that require me to be physically in the bank.

- the DMV/courthouse.

- the power company.

- the trash company, so I can pet their dog.

- I can mail a cashiers check to the IRS, though it makes me uncomfortable to do so because there is no receipt beyond delivery and I just have to wait and see if they send me a letter, but it is still an option. It would be nice if the USPS had a kiosk for this.

Anything else is entirely optional for me, or what some might call "nice to have". I do have the Mumla app so I can use my own self hosted uMurmur server but that is a nice to have. For driving in strange places I have a couple GPS map systems that I update at home and they just use GPS, no cell networks. I do have to remember to print out my proof of insurance and keep copies in the vehicle.

Maybe not the answer you're looking for, but I use VOIP numbers because I need a US number but I usually don't live in the US and don't have a US SIM card. Google Voice and Hushed are two options, you can find other services.

I have found banks, credit card companies, and government agencies accept the VOIP number. I can't remember the last time I got called by any government agency, or the last time I had occasion to call one.

A couple of services have refused to accept a VOIP number. Square Cash comes to mind, I just stopped using that.

When traveling or living abroad I may get a local phone number, but since everyone I need to communicate with, including businesses, seem to use messaging apps like WhatsApp and Line I generally use those with wifi or a data-only SIM.

When my current phone dies I won't be buying a new one. I will be buying an LTE smartwatch. That way I get to keep a number and will still be able to contact family and friends.

> How do you manage your digital life

The hope is that without a phone I won't be distracted by all the garbage that we call our digital lives. I already uninstalled all social media from my phone, including youtube. Sometimes I still get the urge to watch videos in my browser and obviously still lurke on HN.

> relationship with the Government

This stuff I do on the computer anyways.

Hopefully the experiment will work and allow me to be more open in life in person. It is so weird seeing everyone on public transport glued to their phones.

> relationship with the Government

I'm probably a bit of an oddball but I still do everything by paper. I print out forms, fill them out by hand, and mail them. It's how I do my taxes. It's how I renewed my public health insurance recently. If I run into an issue, I don't call but generally write a letter, and mail it to the ministry responsible. Few things are actually urgent enough for that to not be fast enough.

I do have a phone number. But I avoid using the phone because I'm hard of hearing. And people tend to assume deaf relay calls are crank calls.

I think nowadays it is selfish to live without a phone. Your loved ones need to have a way to contact you fast if they need you.