Foldable phones are having a moment.
It’s true: People are snapping up those basic early 2000s clams faster than a bag of discounted Reese’s the day after Halloween.
The reasons are simple: We are burned out by our smartphones, social media, and passively allow years of our lives to melt away pointlessly, stuck on screens.
According to recent statistics, the average person spends nearly five hours a day on their smartphone, which equates to six days a month and a mind-boggling 12 years in a lifetime.
Our human willpower and band-aid fixes like built-in social media app limitations don’t help.
“If you took an alcoholic who had a drinking problem and couldn’t control it, then the best thing to do is to get the alcohol out of the house, right? So I kind of looked at it,” said tech entrepreneur Will Brawley, 49, from his home office in Waxhaw, North Carolina.
Brawley, who founded and co-owns the popular restaurant management software company Schedulefly, decided to trade in his iPhone 11 for a basic Verizon flip phone exactly four years ago this month. He says he doesn’t miss him – not at all.
“I didn’t like who I was when I had the iPhone,” he said. “I have not attended with other people. I was constantly checking email, texting, sitting at traffic lights and looking at my phone and just constantly grabbing the phone, getting distracted and distracted when I was with my wife and my kids.’
Now having just a flip phone is “a mental health boon for me,” he said. “The little inconveniences are so far outweighed by the positives just for my presence, my mental health, my anxiety. All of that has improved dramatically.”
I’m sick of 9 hours a day on my iPhone
It’s a feeling more people can relate to. Lately, I feel like the hours spent on my smartphone are one endless chain of a hamster wheel of time wasting. I hate it. I want to change. But I just… I don’t.
Tired of spending nearly nine hours a day engaged with my iPhone recently in email, texting, social media, watching “Baby Reindeer” and listening to podcasts or audiobooks, I switched to using a prepaid Total from Verizon Nokia 2760 Flip in overtime at night and on weekends.
I’ve already cut my smartphone time in half, which the screen time calculator says gives about six years of my life back overall. My friends and family have the number if there is an emergency.
Flip phone searches and sales are on the rise
Sales of phones with simple flip “features” — not the fancy new Samsung Galaxy Flip5 or Fold5 smartphones — rose in the U.S. for a second year. According to tech news site ZDNet, flip phone searches are also up “15,369% in the past year among Gen Z and younger Millennials,” contributor Artie Beaty writes.
Some people credit Gen Z influencers on TikTok like Sammy Palazzolo (@skzzolno), who garnered more than 17 million views in 2022 when, as a college student, she posted why she only takes a flip phone when she goes out at night. The essence? It keeps her and her friends more present, eliminates “drunk texting” and bad relationships and “all the bad things about college and all the good things about the phone, which is connecting with people and taking pictures and videos,” she wrote.
Others point to nostalgia for all things retro, just as we saw the return of the Sony Walkman and instant cameras this past year.
But the biggest reason for the rise of digital churn seems to be closer to why I picked up a flip phone: I refuse to let a thousand-dollar gadget make me feel powerless over my time, focus, and energy.
Williams College student Wyatt Olson, 20, feels the same way. He said spending too much time on his smartphone really hit him in late 2023.
“I felt like every single second of downtime I had was on my phone,” he said, “whether I was walking between classes or like I’d just finished a class. … And when I looked up and looked around, everyone else was on their phone, too.”
Olson tried many of the tricks to spend less time on her phone that I’ve been talking about since 2018. He set his phone to grayscale and set time limits on the app. It wasn’t enough. On January 1, 2024, he left his iPhone at home with his mother and sister in Maryland and headed out for a semester of “self-improvement time” with a Nokia 2760 Flip.
“I love it. I’ve always loved phone calls, and it actually makes it easier for me to talk to my friends instead of texting. I have a valid excuse because I’m not going to spend two minutes answering you,” Olson says. He misses streaming music from his phone, which he now does with his laptop. Navigating without Waze or Google Maps can also be a challenge. “But honestly, it feels empowering,” he said.
Doomscroll’s out, “dumb phones,” digital detoxes are in effect
The r/Dumbphones subreddit is in the top 2% of the most engaged communities on the platform, with nearly 60,000 members. This is by far the best place to research “dumb phones” online.
The moderator, 28-year-old church pastor Jose Briones, took on the role in early 2020 after switching to a Lightphone — a simple phone with an e-ink screen for calling and texting — in 2019. Prior to that change, Briones registered “12 or 13 hours of screen time a day — pretty much every waking hour I just spent online,” he said. “And I didn’t mean to do that, you know. I didn’t want to change the way I interacted with the world, with all the online (activity and omission) so much more rich experiences in real life.”
Briones also created a helpful tool called the Dumbphone Finder to help people figure out what they can—and can’t—live without.
You take a short quiz with questions and options like “Do you want smart apps?” and “Choose your preferred style” (folding phone, all-in-one, touchscreen) and it might recommend the Cat S22 Flip or the TCL Flip 2.
Since taking the helm of r/Dumbphones, Briones says he’s been surprised by how widespread this problem is with people feeling addicted to their smartphones. “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 to pay attention to. I don’t want a device to dictate this.
Is digital downsizing right for you?
Briones recommends taking small steps before making the full switch, such as using a $49 3D-printed device called a Brick.
It’s a small plastic magnet about the size of an AirPod case. You download the appropriate app (iOS, Android), choose which apps and features you want to block—calls, messages, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube—then tap the little brick, like you do when you pay for something with your phone. All these functions remain blocked until you physically touch the Brick again.
I bought one about two months ago and highly recommend it, as long as you’re willing to put it in another room so you don’t disable it at the slightest twitch.
The Minimalist Phone app works well on many Android phones, turning shiny app icons and backgrounds into dull shades of gray. The Dumbwireless website is another good resource for checking your options when it comes to digital downgrade. It includes everything from the more expensive Lightphone II ($299) to the AGM M9 ($50).
If you’re considering buying a “dumb phone,” I recommend starting like I did, with a cheap device that costs very little and uses a prepaid wireless plan. That way, if it works, great. If it doesn’t, you’re out less than the cost of a nice dinner.
However, if you want the broadest overview overall, go for Briones and r/Dumphones. In addition to the basics, the forum is a great place to ask specific questions and get advice about your specific needs. It also has plenty of helpful reviews and honest reviews from people at the forefront of the dumb phone movement, which includes the latest, most hype-worthy, and most expensive stripped-down devices:
- Light phone III ($399 pre-order until July 15th, then $799): Dubbed the ultimate digital detox phone, this ultra-watered-down monoblock with an e-ink display now comes with a pair of front and rear cameras. There’s even a camera-like hardware capture button. Other additions include a USB-C port, a flashlight, a fingerprint sensor, and 5G support. However, it will not be delivered until January 2025.
- Item MP02 ($255.20): A candybar that looks like a phone from the early 2000s with 4G support.
- F1 Horizon (Bluebird) from Sunbeam Wireless ($249): Classic flip phone with Hotspot and Waze.
- Wisephone II by Techless ($399): Just starting to ship. A smartphone-like dud with a great camera and a custom operating system.
Bottom line? You don’t have to spend a fortune to save yourself from yourself. Another benefit of pairing is that it saves money—about $3,000 over two years.
Jennifer Jolie is an Emmy Award-winning consumer technology columnist and on-air correspondent. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY. Contact her atJJ@Techish.com.
