what do you do when you need a phone number?

Not OP, but I've been meaning to pick up a used business phone and connecting it to a VoIP number for a home phone

how do you listen to music then?

I still use an ipod classic. My music taste hasn't changed in 2 decades.

Listening to music isn't a networked activity.

I'm genuinely amazed that this question exists, but then I grew up with radio, then CDs, then MP3 players.

It is not physically possible to listen to music without paying $100/mo to Verizon or AT&T and $12/mo to Spotify.

Haha, ya, this is along the lines of “You can’t send HTML over HTTP without JSON.”

I personally got bone conducting headphones with built in storage. It's a wearable mp3 player.

This is great advice. I deleted everything that has an infinite scroll of new stuff and set my phone on airplane mode where possible. Life is better. I frequently go about with no phone and I have better focus. Paradoxically I now enjoy my phone much more. It has a compass a camera and a bunch of cool utilities. It’s easier to appreciate how nice maps or translate is when you need to jump for them.

Can confirm that physically separating myself from my phone has had benefits for me. For the last two years it's usually either sitting in another room when I'm at home, or in my bag when I'm out, always on silent. Switched off an hour before bed. This is enough to eliminate the distraction for me.

The main benefit is really just having more free time, focus and attention that you can channel into things you actually care about. So if anyone needs motivation to un-tether, think of it like this: being a phone user cuts your life roughly in half (in terms of the portion of time that's actually available to you to use).

I could go even more extreme on the phone decoupling, for instance I still bring it with me if I'm going to a bar or something, but at the moment I'm more focused on whittling down social media usage on computers as well. It does feel like the endgame could be a better life through just abandoning most of the tech that was cooked up in the last 15 years.

This is what I want to do, but as a husband, father, homeowner, etc, I find it is not in my best interest to be unreachable by phone.

So I think about carrying a flip phone for my telephone, an e-reader for entertainment, and a smartphone in airplane mode for (mainly) maps, photos, music, notes. But then I'd be carrying three devices, which seems worse in its own way.

Probably worth the change ultimately?

It drives me NUTS that nobody makes a decent e-ink device with a GPS app.

It seems like it'd be ideal for the backcountry use-case. Super long battery life because you could just wake up the GPS every few hours and get a new fix, reframe the map, then go back to sleep and use the latent image like a topo map.

I have a few use cases like this that would go towards replacing my phone. I'm on the lookout for a hackable/linux ereader.

I thought the reMarkable was that, but they hardware-disabled the Bluetooth radio in the wifi/bt chipset, and that really wrecked most of my use-cases.

I would never read books today if it wasn't for e-ink. I can adjust the font or the line spacing and at the end of the line I will read the correct next line instead of a 20% chance I will start at the same line.

I never had a big relationship to my phones simply because I can't stand typing on them. My plan (prepaid) is 1€/month for 1GB and 9cents per min/SMS.

I have a similar problem but my miss rate is closer to 5% so I empathize, I'm so glad you've found a good solution. truly nothing more inspiring in tech.

I think there's a lot of gains to be made in tailoring UX/UI to the individual. Not just for individuals (this person reading more books) but for societal advancement. (this person reading more books, generalized)

Is this the new "we don't have a TV in this house?"

I think so. Also half of the people don't have children and/or have a lot of free time. I am not even talking about responding to emails/family chat.

How do they do 2-factor auth to Heroku/Gitlab/whatever? Maps in a foreign country where you can't even read the letters? On way to job interview when the interviewer has an emergency and needs to postpone? Good friend is in the town and calls you to hang out? Translation when a tourist comes to ask where something is?

I get the general point, especially as IRL payment options are also increasingly assuming you have a smartphone, however maps and translation can also be done offline.

Hah, I hadn't even thought of banking/payments on the go. And true regarding the offline maps - a few sister comments mentioned leaving phone at home though.

My mum. And very grateful she did it, even if it was brutal at the time.

A phone often is necessary if you run into issues while being outside. Let's not ignore the importance of being able to call for help if necessary. Can't blame the phone for yourself not being able to detach properly.