alt Hacker News> We don't have to bring Google or Apple into this relationship, it's a choice people make because the prefer texting and being available to everyone they ever met 24/7
You're changing the discussion now.
The original point is this: Given that people want to be able to text with their friends in what is perceived as a normal way, how can they do it without a smartphone?
If you change the rules ("Given that people are fine being disconnected"), of course it changes everything.
I don't think that 24/7 availability is universally perceived as "a normal way". A large number of my contacts will answer several days after a message. In my experience it is usually only inside the nuclear family that people expect answer within 2 hours and these are the kind of people who can always choose to call instead of text if they know their child/sibling/parent is not usually text available.