Ask HN: What means to live without a phone?
Are there any tech people who use to live without a phone number? How do you manage your digital life and relationship with the Government?
Of course I have a bank account, and I can do online banking on my laptop if needed.
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.
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.
> 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.
To get rid of smart phone is significantly easier than to get rid of phone number at all.
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.