Just Quit My Number—Let’s See What Happens
Posted: Tue May 27, 2025 3:52 am
I did it—I canceled my phone plan, ditched my number, and walked away from the whole system. No backup VoIP line, no burner phone, just… silence. At first, it felt like stepping off a cliff. What about two-factor authentication? What if someone needs to reach me in an emergency? But then I realized: how many of those "emergencies" were actually just spam calls, group chats I never wanted to be in, or work pinging me after hours? For the first time in years, my pocket isn’t buzzing with someone else’s demands. It’s unsettling, but in the best way possible.
The reactions have been fascinating. Friends acted like I’d moved off-grid ("Wait, how do I even contact you now?"). Colleagues panicked when emails became their only option. Meanwhile, I’ve been rediscovering the lost art of planning ahead—actual face-to-face conversations, set meeting times, emails with substance instead of frantic "Hey, call me!" texts. And special database the privacy? Glorious. No more data leaks from carrier breaches, no more location tracking disguised as "network optimization." It’s shocking how much of our autonomy we trade for convenience without even questioning it.
This isn’t some Luddite manifesto—I’ll probably get a new number eventually. But this experiment has been eye-opening. We treat phone numbers like oxygen, but what if they’re more like… caffeine? Something we’ve convinced ourselves we can’t survive without, until we try. For now, I’m savoring the quiet. The world keeps spinning. The "urgent" things turned out to be anything but. And the people who truly need to find me? They always do.
The reactions have been fascinating. Friends acted like I’d moved off-grid ("Wait, how do I even contact you now?"). Colleagues panicked when emails became their only option. Meanwhile, I’ve been rediscovering the lost art of planning ahead—actual face-to-face conversations, set meeting times, emails with substance instead of frantic "Hey, call me!" texts. And special database the privacy? Glorious. No more data leaks from carrier breaches, no more location tracking disguised as "network optimization." It’s shocking how much of our autonomy we trade for convenience without even questioning it.
This isn’t some Luddite manifesto—I’ll probably get a new number eventually. But this experiment has been eye-opening. We treat phone numbers like oxygen, but what if they’re more like… caffeine? Something we’ve convinced ourselves we can’t survive without, until we try. For now, I’m savoring the quiet. The world keeps spinning. The "urgent" things turned out to be anything but. And the people who truly need to find me? They always do.