I understand where he is coming from, but I think that there always is a healthy balance. Either you use something or you completely avoid it, that&#x27;s not a reasonable choice.<p>For me that actually is a symptom of having some sort of problem. He actually somewhat admits that.<p>If someone says: &quot;I hadn&#x27;t had a drink for months and I feel great, I will never drink again.&quot; Good for you, honestly, but you know the opposite of total abstinence does not have to be to get drunk until you blackout two times a week. What&#x27;s wrong with having one beer at a party, a glass of wine to dinner? If you have to drink 10 beers because you can&#x27;t control yourself, then it seems like you have a problem, though whatever works for you. If the only solution is abstinence, then by all means, do it.<p>He has a problem in finding a reasonable balance.
I am also glad he readily admits that a phone is a symbol of his own stressful life he once had, so he rejects it for that reason mostly.<p>Now I won&#x27;t deny that I am in a somewhat different position, since my schedule is not nearly as busy as his, and the metaphor does only work to a certain extent, but I for one tend to not use my mobile phone that often. People know they can reach me if something happens, at least in theory, since they know I don&#x27;t check it that often.<p>It&#x27;s on mute most of the time, and if I don&#x27;t want to take a call, guess what, I don&#x27;t. And I mostly communicate with E-Mail too, but I can do that from my phone.<p>I call people back when I have the time, I also always have it with me, I can enjoy the comfort of any application I want to, but it certainly does not control my life. And with a modern phone you actually can streamline your experience a lot (give your contacts various priorities, some can reach you, some can only during a given time frame and lots of other things you can do). I guess on an old Nokia, you can&#x27;t do a lot in that area.<p>You don&#x27;t need to take a phone call when you don&#x27;t want to.
You will have to deal with people saying &quot;Did you not have your phone with you?&quot; and if the answer is &quot;Well actually, I did&quot; they might get a little bit angry at first, but being available is not something you have to be at all times. People in my circle all know how I stand on this, and I read Telegram Messages and sometimes reply days later, if it&#x27;s not crucially important. They are used to it, and it&#x27;s not an issue these days.<p>So while I sympathize, it&#x27;s not &quot;being enslaved&quot; versus &quot;being free&quot;, there is a healthy middle ground we should aim for. It takes work, adjustment, is not maybe as easy as just throwing your phone away, but it&#x27;s worth it.<p>PS: I don&#x27;t like touch either, my mobile phone has a physical keyboard and I am happy with it.