Dumb Phones

👩‍💻

This post was written by Irene Morales

Introduction

The back-to-basics revolution

Recently, my youtube feed has been ambushed with videos of people switching their smartphones for dumb phones. If you're reading this, chances are you've also encountered videos like "I used a dumb phone for a year and this is why you should too" or "My experience with a flip phone". Is this just the same as the actual back to 2000s model skinny low-rise jean very inconvenient trend? Or will this get through to people and solve some of our tech society problems?

This post covers...

📞 What dumb phones are
✅ Why you should consider the switch
🗃 Different options
🔆 Conclusion
🔗 Sources

What is a dumb phone?

Dumb phones are basically your basic 80s to early 2000s cellphone. The ones you had to click a hotkey a certain number of times to write a single letter, the flip phones, the phones where you would slide down to uncover the keyboard with no touch screen, no internet... The primary distinction between a cellphone and a smartphone is that a cellphone uses radio frequency links to make calls and receive messages. Smartphones, on the other hand, are used to access the internet, shoot high-quality images, and remain connected on social media in addition to making and receiving calls and texts. Cellphones lack an operating system and offer a straightforward user interface. Whereas, smartphones, come with an operating system and a complex and confusing user interface.
Some of the most popular ones where the Motorola Dynatac 800x known as "the brick" for its durable hardware, the Siemens' S10, Nokia 1100, Motorola Razr, Blackberry 6210... They included stuff like a physical keyboard, lasting battery, blurry cameras (since the year 2000) and extremely slow internet browsing if any.

Why you should consider having one

Now why would anyone want to have one of these phones when they could have an iPhone with amazing camera, a high quality touch screen, fast access to the internet, all kind of apps like instagram, TikTok, snapchat, twitter... Well here's why: How many times have you been distracted from doing something else just because you were on your phone? Social media apps are tailor made for us to be on them as much time as possible, they make it so our phones become an addiction and before you realise it, your screen time is 5h just on these apps. So much of our time is wasted just because of how easy it is turn it on and start scrolling.

Apart from the dependency this has created, it has also made us more detached to the non-virtual world. I myself suffer from this, sometimes when I'm with my friends or my family, I disconnect from them to check my instagram, go on tiktok for a while or even do things like scrolling through my camera roll.

I believe dumb phones prevent all this whilst still enabling you to communicate with people which is the greatest part of phones. You can still write messages but because it's not as convenient you won't do it as much. You can't have social media on it so there's no temptation there, and the same with other apps. Your phone will become a tool instead of an entertainment device.

And if you feel like you'll miss out on things like capturing moments you can always carry a digital camera with you and then save the videos and photos on a computer. And if you want social media as well to keep contact with far away friends you can always get an account and log in on someone else's phone once or twice a month.

Some options

Some people are willing to go all the way with dumb phones and get the simplest there is with calls and not much more. Other people are not and that's where the research comes in. If you are on the less compromise here are some options.

Sunbeam F1: No touch screen and you can't install apps but you have simple messaging, calls, alarm, maps, calendar, music (you have to download it first), a camera and a photo app.
CAT S22 Flip: It has everything you have on a smartphone but because it's a flip phone you won't really want to use it for entertainment because of its convenience. So you'll reduce your time on it but you'll still have access to the same things.
The light phone 2: This in my opinion is the best one. It is a 4G LTE mobile phone with a similar look to a newer phone (no keyboard and a full screen), it has a touch screen, and it looks very minimalistic. It includes calls, messages (and group texting) as well as an alarm and hotspot. There is a customizable toolbox menu were you can add an alarm, calculator, simple music player, podcasts tool, Notes tool, and Directions.

Conclusion

So basically everyone has a level of compromise, some people aren't willing to compromise at all. The objective is to be more mindful of the value of our time and how more features isn't always better.