I posted on the monthly post about the more modern pop culture “Papers, please.” But I remembered someone mentioned about having a phone number that was purely internet-based (at least I think it was on this stream).
One thing to consider with that is having a regular number and a VOIP (internet-based) phone service. Banks and everything like that operate under “know your customer,” so you don’t want a number you use for privacy for that, nor do you want to give it out to people who are going to call you through lame-stream phone services (because they’ll link people through that).
Use a standard phone line for all your public stuff, and a VOIP line for all of your private stuff… at least while you can get some privacy in such service. So, in regards to James not wanting to give his phone for something like Telegram (which I would consider more valid lately than earlier), you have options based on how much you trust Telegram with your data.