In celebration of the dumb phone, a rare sanity-saving tool

I miss the phone. No no that A slab in my pocket we call it a smartphone.

Yes, this device can Represent like a phone. But it also doubles as a laptop, camera, alarm clock, console, TV, wallet, and so many other things – I’m not sure what that is. But one thing is for sure: calling the iPhone is just a “phone” like never before.

It’s easy to lose sight of just how vast a smartphone’s capabilities are. Hidden within our pockets is a powerful machine that seems to be able to do everything, everywhere, in one go. There is a reason Courts have been restricted recently Sam Bankman Fred the founder of FTX just a stupid phone. A smartphone is a powerful tool, especially in the hands of a math geek who lost billions of other people’s money overnight.

And while my smartphone has greatly improved my life—and I’m not about to throw it away—it’s also made some things worse. And she is my mind. A smartphone allows us to easily check things constantly and instantly, whether it’s the news or our loved ones, but at the cost of our attention span, mental health, and relationships. Hell, lately I’ve realized I can barely remember most of the parties I’ve been to, and why? I was so busy taking hundreds of videos and sharing them on Instagram using my phone. Funnily enough, I didn’t watch the videos after that and only watched them when I needed to delete them to free up storage space.

That’s why I want the cheap dumb phone back, and I’m so excited it’s about to do so More Gen Zers are increasingly embracing it. I need a break, and as long as my iPhone is fine, I don’t think I’ll give it to myself right away. I need a phone that lacks apps while waiting in line to feed my caffeine addiction so I can’t shake it and distract myself with fear-inducing news or vacation photos. A phone, ideally without a camera, that wouldn’t pull me away from enjoying the present moment with my little nephew as he flashed me one of his first smiles.

I want him to be a thing too. Something is common again, so I don’t feel like a freak because I’m drawing attention pulling out a stupid phone that looks like it’s from the early 2000s, which it really is. I also want it to be affordable so everyone can have one, not a few hundred dollars that many popular dumb phones like the Light Phone cost right now.

And yes, I know what you’re thinking. Why don’t you put your phone in Do Not Disturb mode? I own. many times. On good days when my willpower is high, sometimes it helps. But I’m only human, and smart phones And Apps Designed to be addictive. On those days when I’m really feeling down or exhausted, the temptation to pull out my smartphone for a quick, easy rush of dopamine becomes all too strong. I know I’m not alone.

We’ve suggested dumb phones back before, back in the days when Trump ran the country by Twitter and rattled our collective nerves with every new tweet. Having to log out used to be great, now it looks even bigger.

Since then, we have experienced a global pandemic while the United States witnessed an actual coup attempt. Russia invaded Ukraine, which has cost more than 200,000 lives It destabilized the region and contributed to massive food shortages. As this struggle continues to unfold, we’ve been hit lately with — what? – The major financial crisis million in 15 years? Every two weeks, we live in unprecedented times, and it’s no wonder why Diagnosis of depression is on the rise.

At the same time, technology is getting better — and it’s even more distracting. There are more addictive apps as well as more capable smartphones and AI tools to improve our lives. And as social media companies continue to add more and more distracting features, research is increasingly demonstrating the negative impact it all has on young people’s mental health and grown ups Both. No wonder: Reading the news sometimes makes it seem like the world is about to end, but somehow it makes your Instagram and LinkedIn feeds feel like everyone wins at life every day, all the time. And they do it all while looking like supermodels, too thanks to the incredibly good AI filters.

And that’s why — no, we — we need the dumb phone to come back. We need something to help us temporarily disconnect from the fake digital world so that we can be more connected to the real world. Getting out of the house used to be the way I could unplug but now I can’t with my smartphone in my pocket and technology everywhere. We can’t hit the pause button in the world, but we can forcibly log out with a stupid phone instead of a smartphone.

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t want smartphones to go anywhere, and I don’t want them to stop getting better either. Instead, I imagine a world where we have our smartphones, but it’s also normal to have inexpensive phones to use while you’re out of the house, for example, or when you need a break. Just a basic phone that we all can use to just text and make calls. No cameras, no apps, no internet, none of that stuff. Just a phone – not another constant distraction.