More and more people are giving up their smartphones, exhausted by social networks. Thus, people began to purchase simple phones, according to USA Today.
People are ditching their smart phones. Photo: adobestock (Archive)
According to recent statistics, the average person currently spends almost five hours a day on their smartphone, which is six days a month and 12 years in their lifetime.
“If you were to get an alcoholic who can't control his drinking, then the best thing you can do is get rid of the alcohol in the house, right? That's how I saw things”technology entrepreneur Wil Brawley, 49, tweeted from his office in Waxhaw, North Carolina.
Brawley, co-owner of software company Schedulefly, replaced his iPhone 11 with a simple clamshell phone four years ago. He confessed that he doesn't miss his smart phone at all.
“I didn't like how I was when I had an iPhone“, confessed the entrepreneur. “I wasn't paying attention to other people. I was constantly checking email, texting, sitting at traffic lights and looking at my phone, and just constantly picking up the phone, being distracted and absent when I was with my wife and kids.”
Nowadays, just having a flip phone “it was a benefit to my mental health“, he says. “The small inconveniences are so far outweighed by the positive results in terms of my mental health, my anxiety. All of this has improved dramatically“.
Sales of simple flip phones are up in the US for the second year. According to news site ZDNet, searches for flip phones are also on the rise, with about “15,369% in the last year among Gen Z and younger millennials”.
It seems that people are ditching their smart phones to be more connected with those around them. In addition, some of those who have said goodbye to smartphones are tired of the devices taking up all their time and draining their energy.
Digital “detox” is all the rage
“r/Dumbphones” is in the top 2% of the most active communities on the Reddit platform, with almost 60 thousand members.
Moderator Jose Briones, 28, took over the role in early 2020 after doing a simple phone call in 2019. Prior to this change, Briones spent “12 or 13 hours a day” on the phone.
Briones also created a helpful tool called “Dumbphone Finder” to help people figure out how long they can — and can't — live without their smartphones.
Since taking over r/Dumbphones, Briones says he's been surprised by how common this problem is of people feeling dependent on their smartphones in a way that negatively affects them. “Most people think it's a device problem, but it's a lifestyle problem“, he says.
“Technology is designed to amplify our vulnerabilities and capture our full attention – as much as possible. I want to choose what I pay attention to. I don't want a device to dictate that to me“, he added.
