Mid 50s, first went online on a 70s BBS, JANET user in the 80s.
Not unusual at all. Everyone I know does this. Nothing wrong with you it’s just that age (and birthdays) becomes less important. Also once past a certain age you actively want to forget that you’re old, so you need to consciously think about it.
But don’t worry, once you get into your 80s it becomes a badge of honour and the older you get the more you’ll think about it.
Generally, the reasons for a phone number are:
Account recovery 2FA
If you don’t want to use your number then consider a pre-pay sim. Depending what country you are in this will cost pennies per year.
I would suggest something like ProtonMail or most paid email services won’t require a number.
I hope so, good luck
Mould eats the fibres and dye, so it might be a permanent change I’m afraid. There are specialist mould removers but they might bleach coloured fabric.
It’s impossible to prove that anyone else or anything else exists. It’s also impossible to know whether my brain is deceiving me.
I think this depends what country you are from. Generally, most countries it’s the normal thing to be pleasant and show an interest in people. It actually helps you as well because being insular ultimately ends in loneliness.
But no one should pressurise you into doing something you don’t want.
Phones encrypt the data by default, your password or pin is also needed to authorise the connection with a computer.
However, many people do insecure things like storing passwords etc in Notes applications, or having simple PINs that are easy to guess, don’t update their devices, or even turning off security features (if they can) because they won’t take a small amount of time to understand them.