Just had a couple of months with mobile data on my phone not working. (Fixed by Apple store guy in 20 seconds, after probably 10 hours on the phone with Boost/Telstra tech support, but that's by the by).
I wasn't too rushed about fixing it because I thought it would be an interesting experiment in living more disconnected. Wondered if I'd become more mindful, remember what life was like before smartphones, etc. But no, not really.
Main positive was breaking the reliance on using maps... (1/)
all the time. Turns out I don't really need to check google/NextThere and find out that a train is leaving in 5 minutes, I can make it if I rush, otherwise it's in 15 minutes, etc.... Most of the time I don't need to be in that much of a rush, I know roughly how to get home, I can just go to the station/stop and take what's there. For unusual/new trips I'd look them up on wifi and take screenshots beforehand.
Main negative was not being able to use my commute (20 minute bus) to catch up ...
on family messages that had arrived overnight, which is quite a nice and efficient use of time.
I liked not getting messages when I was heading to meet people though. None of the 'I'm running late' etc shenanigans... I just had to turn up at the appointed place and time and hope they did the same.
No real conclusion here, was just interesting going 'back to the past'. Overall I prefer the future, if only because I can watch AFLW games on the long train back from climbing in the mountains :)