By pxlz
Caleb, a 19-year-old from Iowa, was addicted to his smartphone. He scrolled TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat like so many others his age, but when his screen time reached 10 hours a day, he knew he had to make a change.
“I put my smartphone in a cardboard box, wrapped it in three layers of duct tape and said goodbye to it for a week,” Caleb, who asked not to use his last name, tells Yahoo Life. Then he switched to a dumb phone. For many millennials, boomers and beyond, a dumb phone is familiar. For teenagers and young adults like Caleb, cellphones using T9 word and lacking bells and whistles (minus Snake, of course) are relics.
Caleb purchased a Nokia 870, and pretty much all you can do on it, he says, is call and text. There’s a camera too, but he uses it sparingly. “I’d much rather write about my experiences in a journal, because it feels so much more personal and emotionally driven,” he admits. Now, he has a flip phone, a notebook and an old-school MP3 player on hand on any given day. His peers, in comparison, carry around an iPhone for those functions and many, many more.
Caleb is part of a larger movement of young people ditching most modern technologies in favor of legacy tech. Pascal, a college student in London, also shuns most smart devices. He uses a Nokia E71 for communication and navigation, a stereo to listen to CDs and a digital camera to take photos. He says the picture quality is “infinitely better” than on smartphones. “I also find that I’m a bit more intentional about what is worth saving a memory of, instead of just taking a picture of everything.”
Caleb and Pascal say they’re happier since switching to dumb devices. Their mental health raises the question: Should digital minimalism be more widely adopted?
What is digital minimalism?
Caitlin Begg, a sociologist and founder at Authentic Social, tells Yahoo Life that she is a part of the movement herself. She’s a New York City-based researcher and podcaster, but relies heavily on a landline she bought off eBay for communication.
She describes digital minimalism as “a focus on the more analog parts of everyday life” where tech is only used when necessary. Legacy technology, however, plays a large part in it. “[Older systems] allow people to focus on one activity at a time, instead of being overrun by algorithms and spending hours on a smartphone,” says Begg. So, phones are used to call and text, while listening to music is reserved for a Walkman.
Cal Newport, a computer scientist and author who writes about the intersection of technology and productivity, is largely credited with the concept after releasing the book Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World. He previously blogged about his criticism of “our culture’s increasingly Orwellian allegiance to social media.” He acknowledged that there should be a solution other than turning off notifications or ridding yourself of these technologies altogether.
Why isn’t ‘Do Not Disturb’ enough?
The addictive nature of both social media and the phones we use to access social media is real. “Smartphones have the same chemical reaction in the brain as drugs and alcohol,” Melissa DiMartino, associate professor of psychology at New York Institute of Technology, tells Yahoo Life. “Getting ‘likes,’ messages and notifications from your phone releases dopamine, which makes us feel good. And, in turn, we want to repeat these feel-good behaviors.”
Looking at your phone to feel better becomes an addictive cycle that ultimately leads people to feel depressed and lonely when they aren’t getting those alerts, explains DiMartino. Increased anxiety and stress can also result from the continuous stream of updates and constant connectivity.
Once you open that phone, it’s like you just opened up Pandora’s box.
Interacting with a phone’s more standard operations, like calls and messages, is just a part of the sequence. “Once you open that phone, it’s like you just opened up Pandora’s box,” says Ari Lightman, professor of digital media and marketing at Carnegie Mellon University. He tells Yahoo Life that just checking the weather can entice a person to click on the app that sits right next to it, whether it is LinkedIn or Instagram. “Then there’s a sort of cascading series of actions that basically snap up all your time, even in ‘Do Not Disturb,’” he says.
Deleting apps is not a solution, because “there’s always a replacement,” says Lightman.
What do MP3 players and digital cameras have to do with it?
The use of dumb phones has ushered in the need for other legacy technology. Caleb’s Nokia flip phone, for example, is limited to playing FM radio, which influenced his decision to use a separate MP3 player to access his personal collection of music.
Some others, like 32-year-old Alex Biniaz-Harris, haven’t made the switch to dumb phones but use other technologies for listening to music or taking pictures, so that they can avoid getting sucked into more screen time. Biniaz-Harris tells Yahoo Life that he opts to bring his iPod on drives, while leaving his phone behind, so he can listen to music without the added distractions of his iPhone. Having more limited options than Spotify makes the experience more intentional and even nostalgic, he says.
Using a device with limited functionality … can be a welcome escape from the pressures of constant connectivity.
Nostalgia plays a key role in the switch to legacy technology among young people, says Riani Kenyon, an anthropologist and behavioral analyst at the consumer insights agency Canvas8. “Despite not having firsthand experience of the 1990s or early 2000s, Gen Z expresses a strong affinity for the era’s tangible, straightforward technology,” she tells Yahoo Life. “For many, using a device with limited functionality, one that prioritizes calls and texts over endless notifications, can be a welcome escape from the pressures of constant connectivity.”
The deliberate use of these tools for specific purposes enables “greater levels of concentration and autonomy of thought,” says Lightman, whereas an iPhone tends to require attention on everything at once.
Digital minimalism is a lifestyle choice
While taking time away from your smartphone might not seem like a big deal, committing to a life where you use your device either more intentionally or not at all is difficult in today’s interconnected world. “The convenience of modern smartphones, which consolidate navigation, communication and entertainment into a single device, is difficult to replicate with older technology,” says Kenyon.
Having a flip phone may bar someone from accessing a menu at a restaurant that relies on QR codes and using transportation methods like ride-share apps, bike-sharing systems like Citi Bike or even scanning into the New York City subway system, where the MetroCard is being phased out.
The limitations have made it difficult for one 24-year-old in Alabama to make the switch. This person (who asked to remain anonymous) has even taken her search for the best dumb phone to Reddit, where a community of digital minimalists convene (presumably during their limited, yet mindful, screen time).
“Trying to find something that’s 4G, compatible with my network and has, at the very least, navigation qualities seems to be harder to find than I expected,” she tells Yahoo Life. But she remains determined to ditch her smartphone and invest in intentional devices. “I want to feel more connected with the world around me and what media I’m choosing to consume, rather than passively listening, watching and wasting away hours I can’t get back. … I’m really craving that kind of intentional communication in 2025.”