When the original iPad 2 released with a SIM card slot, I happily went phone-free for about two years. I had a messenger bag that allowed me quick access to the

When the original iPad 2 released with a SIM card slot, I happily went phone-free for about two years. I had a messenger bag that allowed me quick access to the iPad (https://www.previousmagazine.com/hex-recon-15-charcoal-messenger-bag-ipad-review https://www.previousmagazine.com/hex-recon-15-charcoal-messe...). I no longer use an iPad, in fact I haven't used anything Apple since ~2013 post-Jobs. These days, phones are increasingly used for multi-factor authentication via apps, and a lot of these don't ship with a tablet version of the app, or they rely on a phone number as well as the app. Unfortunately, I do use an Android phone. Do I miss being phone-free? Yes. But here's what's changed with how I treat my phone: All of my social media notifications are completely disabled. I look whenever I feel the urge or I'm doing a marketing campaign. I no longer use umpteen different comms apps, the cognitive load and battery life was terrible because of it. Instead, I aggregate everything via bridges into my Matrix Synapse server, and access it via Element, meaning all of my devices have one app for all of my comms. I triage email once every 2h automatically. The exception being that important notifications containing x in the subject line or y in the from field will get my attention on each device, and flash my lights a certain colour until the message is read. (Gmail scripts are cool) I no longer give out my personal phone number. I only give out SIP numbers, this way I have greater control of who can contact me, and blocking numbers en masse is simple. Android has SIP support baked into the default dialler on most ROMs. This also means I can use my SIP accounts from any device. Other than a handful of the absolute most essential apps, my smartphone is increasingly like a feature phone, and that's not a bad thing. I do most of my reading on an Android e-ink device. My eyes thank me for it. For about six months I was using eyedrops to mitigate sore eyes from staring at screens all day, every day, but then realized I had to treat the source. FWIW, despite having a high-end desktop, most of my day-to-day work, particularly stuff most people would use a phone for, has been replaced by a modded ThinkPad. Swappable batteries are great.