Is America Headed for an Age of Dumb Phones? – ryan
Matt Thurmond SEEMS LIKE A CHILD FOR TECH -FORWARD MILENNIals. He Runs an AI-ASSISTED PLATOR FOR MORTGAGE PROFESSIONALS. He leads a nonprofit that Connects Longgevity Researchers, Investors, and Startups. He was the copresident of a technology conference at Harvard, where he got his his mb.
So it’s a little surprise that thurmond is almost never on his phone.
Count Him Among The “Appsintent” – One of a Growing Number of Americans, Mostly Millennials and Zomers, Vowing to Live A Life Free Outless Scrolling. “Screen time was just cowding out Other Things,” Sayys Thurmond, Who’s 41. “That not where to get my entertainment, and it is not really where to have any substantive conversation.
Three Years ago, Thurmond Became World that HIS Smartphone us was Making Him Less Present, Social Social, and Less Productive. He traded in his android for a light phone, a so-Called “dumb phone” that allows him to text and make calls but doesn’t give him access to email and social media. With its Simple Interface and Limited Features, IT’S BUILT to Ward Off Phone Additionion.
The switch wasn’t totally seamless. Thurmond, A Self-Professed “Long-Winded Texter,” Struggled with the Phone’s Ink Keyboard, which can take time getting use to. And not being glue to his phone also meant he was Slower to Respond to Texts, which Quickly Became A Point of Friday with his No Ex-Girlfriend.
But as he reduced his screen time, thurmond realized he didn’t need his android as much as he though he did, and that many of the Light Phone’s inconveniences are actually “benefits in disguise.” He Started Calling People Rather than Texting, Which LED to More Satisfying Interactions. He Began Each Morning Sketching Out the Day’s Goals on a Whiteboard, Rather than “Just Reacting to Things” like emails. And instead of using his android to unlock the citi bikes he use to get Around New York, he requested a $ 10 key from the company.
IT FELT LIKE THIS INCREDIBLE, Secret, Competitive Edge that I wanted to share with Other People.
“I was more relaxed, Becusee i didn’t have all this stuff rattling around in my brain,” he says. “I was just more fulfilled by Things in Day-to-Day Life.”
“Appstinence,” A Play on Absinence, was coined by Gabriela Nguyen, A 24-Yaar-Old Graduate student at Harvard. Nguyen, who grean up in silicon dance and got her first iPod touch when she was 9, came to view her to phones and social media as the enemy of productivity and living in the moment. She finds her calling in encouraaging people to wean thermoves off their Phones. LAST YEAR, SHE STARTED A CLUB CALLED Appsinence at Harvard and Launched a Website of the Same name.
“AFTER ADOPTING THIS LIFESTYLE, IT FELT LIKE THIS INCREDIBLE, Secret, Competitive EDGE I WANTED TO SHARE WITH OTHER People,” Ngyen Says.
Still, evening isn’t Completely Phone-free. She has three dumb Phones, Including the Light Phone, which Alternates BetWene Based on their usefulness to what Task She’s Tackling.
For Her, appsinence is a bridge to a healthier Relationship with Technology. “Leaving social media is not a resignation,” Ngyen Says. “IT’S NOT THIS THAT THAT YOU’VE BEEN DEFEATED, Now You Have a Walk of Surrender.”
AS EVIDENCE MOUNTS OF OUR COLLECTIVE PHONE ADDICTION – AND THE TOXIC Effects of Social Media – there’s Appetite for the Gospel of Appstinence. Searches for Dumb Phones have been surging. From Amsterdam to Brooklyn, there’s a growing trend of nightclubs requesting that revelers leave their Phones at home – or at least kep say off the dance floor.
Adults like thurmond and nguyen, who grease up we do the internet and social media be just taching off, are spreads the most desperate to recalim the attention and focus that technology has taken from. But lately, the appsinence movement has Also begun to Capture Teens and College Students, Many of the Whom Grew Up Seeing Phones as Integral to Their Social Lives. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center Found that Most American Teens Have Access to Smartphones – and Nearly Half Reported Being “Almost Constantly.”
Constant Scrolling Has Changed US in Ways Large and Small.
Samantha palazzolo was in sixth gradle when she got her first iPhone, and she spent most of the middle and high school years glue. “I WOULD STAY ON Social Media, scrolling instead of going to sleep, if I was tired,” Says Palazzolo, Who’s Now 20.
She began quesvioning her social media Additioning During Her Freshman Year at the University of Illinois. AFTER WAKING UP ONE MORNING FEELING DEEPLY EMBARASED BY AN Instagram Story Posted the Night before, she began reflecting on how social media was consistently killing the vibe. “Going into College, Everyone was telling us, ‘You’re going to remember these moments forever,’ She Says. But her phone was distracting her from actual experience. “We were going out to these parties and People just just scrolling on their Phones,” She Says.
So She and Two Friends Bowht Flip Phones – An Old Technology that was totally new to say. She love how the antique-looking gadget served as a natural conversation starter in social situations. And to declare her newfound freedom from social media, palazzolo tourned – where Else? – to social media. Time Ticket PAEAN TO FLIP PHONES WENT VIAL, GARNING OVER 18 MILLION Views. She Also Joined A Growing Number of Gen Zers On tiktok who unbox and offer Reviews of their Favorite Dumb Phones. CULT FAVORITES INCLUDE AN HMD BARBIE-BRANDED MODEL OF THE CAT S22, A FLIP PHONE Compatible with Most Apps But With A Small Enough Screen to Deter DoomScrolling.
Seán killingsworth was an Eve Earlier convert to appsinence. At 15, he traded in his smartphone and started hosting Phone-free Events at his High School. A Few of His Peers Parodied His Events in Mocking Posts on Instagram – Precisely the Kind of Online Bullying he was hoping to get away from. But killingsworth stack with it. Today, he Runs The Reconnect MovementWhich Hosts Phone-free Events Across College Campus “to Create a Fully Engaged, Uninterrupted Social Environment Gen Z Rarely Experiences.”
Killingsworth, who’s now 22, recently partner with Nguyen and Jonathan Haidt, the author of “the anxious generation” and a leader in the growing Phone-free Movement. Together, they’ve linked up with InitiativeWhich Advocates Against Youth Nicine Additionion, to plan an international “Day of Appstinence” to Encourage Gen Zers to Delete Their Social Media Apps.
“It ‘Like a Muscular Atrophy of Our Social Skills,” Killingsworth Says of Our Phone-Centric Lives. Luckily, he found that the condition is temporary if it is caught Early Enough. “They Come right back in 15, 30 minutes,” he says.
Thurmond’s Journey to Appstinence Started in 2022. Craving More In-Person Interactions As the Covid Pandemic Wound Down, He Began Hosting Monthly Digital Detox Events, WHICH ATRATRACTED PEOPLE WHOSE HAD EXPLODED DURING THE LOCKWNS-INCLUDING ONE WHAT WHET WHET WHET WHET WHET WHET WHET WHET WHAT WHET WHET WHAT WHET WHAT WHET WHAT WHET WHAT WHET WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHET WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO WHAT WO HAD His time messaging with an he chatbot. The Attendees, Thurmond realized, were far more divers than the people in the algorithm-fueled bubbles of his social media. At one of the events, Thurmond Invary Joe Holier, A Cofounder of Light Phone, to Make A Presentation.
The Light Phone is unabashedly a niche Product – a “Simple Device” That’s “Designed to Be Used As Little As Possible.” GIVEN ITS PRICE TAG OF $ 699 FOR THE LATEST MODE – $ 100 More than an iPhone 16E, but with light fewer Features – Only a true believer would one. Most of the Customers Are BetWeen 25 and 40. “The which value is in it not distracting you, but giving you the Peace of that if there, you have a Phone,” Hollier Says.
Appstinence May Be Liberating. But a digital age requires digital tools.
The idea for the Light Phone Came to Holly A Decade Ago. At the time, he and his cofounder, kaiwei tang, were taching part in a google Incubator program for creation who were desicing apps. But Hollier and Tang Found the Experience to Be More Insidious than Inspiring. In the World of Phone Apps, Addiction was a byproduct of Success Goal. “If an App was sticky, then there was a business model to be made,” Holier Says. He wanted to do the opposite.
Hollier Developed A Prototype of the Light Phone Phone Completing His Bachelor’s Degree at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Since then, Riding the Wave of the Appstinence Movement, He’s SOLD 100,000 Phones. In 2023, The Company Collaborate with Pglang, Kendrick Lamar’s Creative Agency, to Release a Limited-Eiding Light Phone. It sold out in mess than a day.
But Hollier has Also Witnessed the Limits of His Dumbed-Down Phone in Our Hyper-Asline World. One Couple Gave a Positive Report after Taching a Light Phone Out with me a Date. Being unplugged was so refreshing, They Said, that it gave say butterflies again. But the Evening took a turn we are all couludn’t order an uber, and they got into an argument as they tried to the best way to get home.
And the Biggest Boosters of Appstinence Can Find Theelves Pulled Back into the Habit of Constant Scrolling. Palazzolo, Who Just Graduated from College, Says SHESSE Her Flip Phone a Few Nights a month when she goes with friends. But she expects to start using her smartphone more as she hunts for a job and spreads to a bigger City. A dumb Phone May Be Liberating, But A Digital Age Requires Digital Tools. “It ‘really impractical,” Palazzolo Says.
For Those who are sticking it out, the harDest thing about liberating themeslves from smartphones has been existing in a world of Phone Addicts. Thurmond Feels This Acutely When Traveling Around New York City and Navigating Horses of People Staring Into Devices or Using to Create Content. It”s like giving up alcohol while living 24/7 in a bar.
“It ‘almost like being in zombiand,” Thurmond Says. “There’s this Spell Cast on People and They Don’t Realize, ‘Hey, you can get out of that.’”
Julia Pugachevsky is a senior Reporter on Business Insider’s Health Team.
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