Ask HN: Do you turn your phone off ever?

Always set to silent. Never turn it off but I tend to not even take it with me most of the time. Important stuff never happens via mobile phone or social media anyway.

I recently went on a trip to Europe where I had to swap out my regular SIM card for a European SIM card, then swap back when I returned. Changing the SIM card on my phone requires removing the battery, so, yes, I powered my phone off to do this.

Otherwise, I almost never power off my phone. I do switch it to airplane mode when I fly, and set it to silent when appropriate.

On silent by default. I have an iPhone and Watch. When the phone rings, it displays on the watch. I can answer if it's important enough.

I turn it off in flight, sometimes. Airplane mode otherwise.

Very rarely off completely.

Every night. I love not being oncall any more. I started out as a sysadmin, then Dir Ops, and now I'm a consultant/trainer. 15 years of on-call was enough.

I rarely turn it entirely off, since it takes an annoyingly long time to start back up again, but it stays in silent mode most of the time. I don't use email sync, either, and I leave location services disabled unless I'm about to launch an app for which I think location services would be useful. Basically I want the phone to sit there and do nothing until I decide I want something from it.

Airplane mode when I'm at work and at night when no one should be calling. So pretty much, my phone is only ever "on" for a few hours a day.

Mine's on silent 24/7, no vibration, but never off. Also, being a millennial woman with small pockets that don't fit my phone, I almost always have it in my hand so I can see anything I've missed every 15-20 minutes at least. I have all of my notifications for social media turned off.

In theaters, when I need to conserve battery and before passing airport security.

Also, an incidental reboot happens because the battery runs out.

I turn mine off. I have an android smartphone.

It's not very important to me. I live in a rural area with bad coverage, but more importantly--I own a computer, and I spend most of my day on it. I can't see the use for my phone when I'm sitting at my computer.

Always to fully silent, vibration off too. Watch is set to silent and vibrate, and I take it off between 6-8PM for family time. Do Not Disturb on the Watch is switched on when I go to sleep, so I can still track my sleep.

I probably restart it every couple of weeks, and I switch it off at the movies, because the alarm can turn sound back on.

When I was on-call, and then got a weekend off, I turned it off. Someone always tried to call. But I'm not in that 24/6 space anymore.

It mostly stays in my pocket, and is often set on silent. It is never in a room where I'm sleeping unless I am using its alarm function. I rarely think to turn it off, unless for some reason I've let the battery run low.

If I have low battery while travelling and really need it when arriving I might do it.

I don't turn it off, but I put it on airplane mode regularly when I'm going to be in a low signal area where it will rapidly drain the battery trying to connect to towers, e.g. while backpacking.

At the movies, while at work, international travel if going long periods w/o easy access to an outlet, and in some countries where I'm particularly worried about security concerns.

Nope. It's a Nokia 130 or something with no internet stuff, and the only people who know the number are close friends who only call when it's really necessary.

My phone is almost always on silent (no vibration or anything) but it is almost always on. I reboot it every couple of weeks though.

In theaters. Partly because phones cannot be trusted to make zero noise otherwise (terrible OS design, in my opinion).

I don't but i keep my phone in another room while i'm at home / airplane mode when necessary.

These responses seem completely alien to me.

Do those of you who turn your phones off or leave them places not have spouses/children to be responsible for, aging parents/grandparents to help out with, or in generally want to be available for friends when they need anything or just want to grab a beer and catch up?

Always on silent, DnD at work, and usually have it turned off the entire weekend.

Never off. Sometimes silent mode or airplane mode where necessary.

I never turn it off, but in the night it is silent.

Never.