Walking the streets of Cambridge without a smartphone, with nothing to do but look at blue jays and squirrels has replaced buzzing notifications in my pocket.

There's a middle way. Turn off the notifications. Or, go crazy (and this also foils most tracking): airplane mode.

This article is becoming a bit of a chestnut. IMO the cold-turkey advice is only appropriate to some personality types (maybe most of them, admittedly). It also occurs to me that "right to be unknown" is basically exactly the same as "right to privacy". Still, the author writes well and it would be great if people listened.