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Comment by onion2k | Hacker News Reader

The researchers analysed the relationship between mobile phone usage and new-onset hypertension after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, race, deprivation, family history of hypertension, education, smoking status, blood pressure, blood lipids, inflammation, blood glucose, kidney function and use of medications to lower cholesterol or blood glucose levels.

But not having a job or a family member that calls you with stressful crap?

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How about being on hold, listening to repetitive music interspersed with a recorded "you are x in the queue, we'll be with you shortly" in a precisely-calculated interval to get your hopes up then immediately crush them, efficiently fanning the flames of rage as the minutes and hours pass.

But I'm never attent on those calls anyways.

Put them on a speaker and blast, but I can see for people that depend on phone for business, it's going to be rough.

For me these are linked.

The fact that I’m now expected to answer their stressful crap 24/7 definitely raises my blood pressure.

I just leave my cellphone places on purpose. Later I call them back with an excuse like "Sorry, I left my phone in the kitchen and was at my desk." Anyone that calls me regularly knows to expect this. I do keep my phone on and near me during standard business hours, but even then I might not answer a family call and give a work excuse.

I'm not taking the work phone anywhere I don't have to, that's for sure. I get to them when/if I feel it's appropriate. I've had zero problems there so far.

I don't always have MY phone on me either, and even if I do I don't always answer.

It is this phone where I have the biggest problem with people and boundaries. Sometimes I feel like I'm surrounded by needy children but they're in their 40s, 50s, and 70s.

A phone call, a voice mail, a call back, another voice mail to remind me about the first call, maybe a call that night too. Nobody even died. It's not always the same person either.

So the next call I do answer will be mostly a shaming about how I don't answer the phone. You're right and your behavior right now is why. Have a nice day mom.

Does it sound stressful? I don't care probably even as much as I should, but one day it will be something important but the boy cried wolf too many times and got eaten.

Just remember. If you have them, teach your kids that while they may be the main character in their story, they are not the main character in the story, and the difference between the two.

I think there’s definitely something to this, and it’s insidious because the technological ability to reach someone at any time has built social expectations accordingly. Everyone is reachable all of the time, and the threshold for agitation when someone cannot be reached has never been shorter.

I like to spend time in the wilderness, and I’ve thought a lot about this concept of “reachability” and how it contributes to the kind of unique feeling I have when I’m deep in the backcountry.

Over time technology has increased the percentage of the day where someone is reachable: home phones became ubiquitous, then answering machines, then cell phones with limited coverage, now cell phones with extremely broad coverage, even on airplanes. Accordingly, most people now assume they can get ahold of you basically whenever. You can try to manage people’s expectations as an individual, but you will be swimming against the current.

I think being unreachable sometimes is healthy. Heading into the backcountry with no cell service is an incredibly freeing feeling for me, and one I think many people simply never feel these days.

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