I challenged myself and feel great about it - Join me!

About 2 years ago I turned my ringer off and left it off. I only turn it on if I know I'm waiting for an important call or something of that nature. I return your phone calls while I am at home or if it's important enough to call from where I am at the time. If you called me 3hrs ago you may be waiting a bit longer til I'm done what I'm doing. Same goes for text messaging, but that works differently while I'm out or busy. I never needed a cell phone while I was out and about back in the day so I know that I can go without one now or at lease carry it while on silent. I will admit a cellphone does come in handy for maps and transit info as well as price checking while in a store. There are good things you can use a connected cellphone for. I get that I can't completely cut it out of my life, but I can sure restrict myself from using it. I gotta say, I love that my ringer is off and that I am more aware of what is around me while I am out. I wouldn't change my decision if I had the chance to.

11 Comments

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Sigh.....

Oct 18, 2019 at 8:00pm

Yawn city.

Lemme guess, old guy.

back in the day

Oct 18, 2019 at 10:11pm

You seem like a sweet person who's super stoked about not using your ringer, but over here in my day it would be socially rude at the very least to not pick up a call from someone you know.

Reponding promptly is not a bad thing when it's in the right context. I would hate to be the person who has to wait on you until you are "not busy" then receive a call back when there's an emergency.

I prefer simply having my phone on vibrate when I am busy.

Still, that way

Oct 19, 2019 at 4:00am

About 4 years for me.
Thus why wearables. I don't mind vibration so much, and screen phone calls very aggressively. Those who matter, know me to be a low-bandwidth, infrequent respondent. And those who don't, need no access anyway. The robocalls and spam texts, especially, have gotten completely out of control.
I'll even break up text responses with line feeds in a single answer. Sucks (for me, anyway) to be bombarded with odd bits of thought and information, and worse to have it in an irregular drip, pause, drip, drip, longer pause, drip...
The communication equivalent of waterboarding in the former, and water torture in the latter.
Though I do play music through an earbud (just the one). Still get the situational awareness, but screen out noise pollution. The world is shrill and discordant these days.
Noise is an environmental stressor - a mental and physical health risk.

Agree

Oct 19, 2019 at 10:29am

100%

I have..

Oct 19, 2019 at 12:14pm

... had to get a cellphone for work (I made it to 2019!) and that's mmostly what I am doing, I don't have the ringer on, I'll use it to text like it is a mailbox in my office, that is, I check it a few times a day, I am not going to have a buzzer in my pocket interrupting what I am doing like one of those gag-rings from the old Joke Shops.

We went from church bells to factory buzzers to school bells to now having bells bells bells 24/7. I do not know it is a good thing.

yay!

Oct 21, 2019 at 1:11am

someone who feels as i do....I have my finger off all the time, and like you, maybe turn it on if I'm expecting an important call. the only time it is kind of funny and a bit of a hassle when I can't find my phone and people say "oh hey I'll call your number so you can hear it ring and you can find it!" and then i remind them my ringer is off so thanks, but....they think I'm crazy haha

I think cell phones are so rude...

Oct 21, 2019 at 9:11am

That's it

Duh

Oct 22, 2019 at 2:04pm

Hey OP, this is fairly normal. Literally no one I know my age or younger ever has their ringer on. I don't even think kids these days know phones once rang.

Same Boat

Oct 24, 2019 at 1:02pm

I turned my ringer off two years ago after a bout of depression. I couldn't stand hearing the rings and the pings and various other sounds it made. I'm out of that depression now but my phone still remains on silent. Not vibrate - silent. It's amazing. And now that I have a smart watch, I never have to watch for emails or texts or calls I'm waiting for. I feel my watch buzzing and can look quickly.

@Same Boat

Oct 28, 2019 at 1:16pm

. <--- the point

o <-- your head
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