Posted on 03/28/2022 5:26:37 PM PDT by blam
In a time when various “developed world” intelligence agencies are filling up petabytes of hard disk space with domestic phone recordings and tracking their own citizens who – in the pursuit of a “liberal” agenda – have been escalated to a greater terrorist threat than actual foreign terrorists, some people have had enough and are throwing their smart phones into the trash and replacing them with “dumbphones” instead.
One among them is seventeen-year-old Robin West, who according to the BBC is an anomaly among her peers: “she doesn’t have a smartphone.” Instead of scrolling through apps like TikTok and Instagram all day, she uses a so-called “dumbphone”.
Those readers who had a cell phone in the late 1990s are all too familiar with these; for everyone else these are basic handsets, or feature phones, with very limited functionality compared to say an iPhone. For the most part, you can typically only make and receive calls and SMS text messages. And, if you are lucky, listen to radio and take very basic photos, but definitely not connect to the internet or apps.
Robin’s decision to ditch her former smartphone two years ago was a spur of the moment thing. While looking for a replacement handset in a second-hand shop she was lured by the low price of a “brick phone”. Her current handset, from French firm MobiWire, cost her just £8. And because it has no smartphone functionality she doesn’t have an expensive monthly data bill to worry about.
Two phones pictured in 2005, two years before Apple released its first iPhone, and 11 years before TikTok
“I didn’t notice until I bought a brick phone how much a smartphone was taking over my life,” she says. “I had a lot of social media apps on it, and I didn’t get as much work done as I was always on my phone.”
The Londoner adds that she doesn’t think she’ll ever buy another smartphone. “I’m happy with my brick – I don’t think it limits me. I’m definitely more proactive.”
According to BBC, dumbphones are enjoying a revival. Google searches for them jumped by 89% between 2018 and 2021, according to a report by software firm SEMrush. And while sales figures are hard to come by, one report said that global purchases of dumbphones were due to hit one billion units last year, up from 400 million in 2019. This compares to worldwide sales of 1.4 billion smart phones last year, following a 12.5% decline in 2020.
Meanwhile, a 2021 study by accountancy group Deloitte said that one in 10 mobile phone users in the UK had a dumbphone.
“It appears fashion, nostalgia, and them appearing in TikTok videos, have a part to play in the dumbphone revival,” says Ernest Doku, mobiles expert at price comparison site Uswitch.com. “Many of us had a dumbphone as our first mobile phone, so it’s natural that we feel a sense of nostalgia towards these classic handsets.”
Doku says it was the 2017 relaunch of Nokia’s 3310 handset – first released in 2000, and one of the biggest-selling mobiles of all time – that really sparked the revival. “Nokia pushed the 3310 as an affordable alternative in a world full of high-spec mobiles.” He adds that while it’s true that dumbphones can’t compete with the latest premium Apple and Samsung models when it comes to performance or functionality, “they can outshine them in equally important areas such as battery life and durability”.
The Nokia 3310 phone is one of the best-selling handsets of all time, selling 126 million units
Five years ago, Przemek Olejniczak, a psychologist, swapped his smartphone for a Nokia 3310, initially because of the longer-lasting battery. However, he soon realised that there were other benefits.
“Before I would always be stuck to the phone, checking anything and everything, browsing Facebook or the news, or other facts I didn’t need to know,” he says.
“Now I have more time for my family and me. A huge benefit is that I’m not addicted to liking, sharing, commenting, or describing my life to other people. Now I have more privacy.”
However, Olejniczak, who lives in the Polish city of Lodz, admits that initially the switch was challenging. “Before I’d be checking everything, such as buses and restaurants, on my smartphone [when travelling]. Now that is impossible, so I have learned to do all those things beforehand at home. I got used to it.”
One maker of dumbphones is New York company Light Phone. Slightly more clever that the norm for such products, its handsets do allow users to listen to music and podcasts, and link by Bluetooth to headphones. Yet the firm pledges that its phones “will never have social media, clickbait news, email, an internet browser, or any other anxiety-inducing infinite feed”.
The company says it recorded its strongest year for financial performance in 2021, with sales up 150% compared with 2020. This is despite its handsets being expensive for dumbphones – prices start at $99 (£75).
Light Phone co-founder, Kaiwei Tang, says the device was initially created to use as a secondary phone for people wanting to take a break from their smartphone for a weekend for example, but now half the firm’s customers use it as their primary device.
“If aliens came to earth they’d think that mobile phones are the superior species controlling human beings,” he says. “And it’s not going to stop, it’s only going to get worse. Consumers are realising that something is wrong, and we want to offer an alternative.”
Tang adds that, surprisingly, the firm’s main customers are aged between 25 and 35. He says he was expecting buyers to be much older. Tech expert, Prof Sandra Wachter, a senior research fellow in artificial intelligence at Oxford University, says it is understandable that some of us are looking for simpler mobile phones.
“One can reasonably say that nowadays a smart phone’s ability to connect calls and send short messages is almost a side feature,” she explains. “Your smart phone is your entertainment centre, your news generator, your navigation system, your diary, your dictionary, and your wallet.”
She adds that smartphones always “want to grab your attention” with notifications, updates, and breaking news constantly disrupting your day. “This can keep you on edge, might even be agitating. It can be overwhelming.”
Prof Wachter adds: “It makes sense that some of us are now looking for simpler technologies and think that dumbphones might offer a return to simpler times. It might leave more time to fully concentrate on a single task and engage with it more purposefully. It might even calm people down. Studies have shown that too much choice can create unhappiness and agitation.”
Yet back in London, Robin West says that many people are bewildered by her choice of mobile. “Everyone thinks it’s just a temporary thing. They’re like: ‘So when are you getting a smartphone? Are you getting one this week?’.”
Same with my softball team, notifying them of practices or what not. I hate having to make an actual phone call to those who only have land lines...
I did like Win7; my acer laptop still runs it, and I’ve zero plan to ever upgrade that. (Famous Last Words, I know)
I have an old COMPAQ that runs XP.
But my HP is a Linux experiment. I liked how it was working, and even used it to Remote in to my office quite a bit. But, it has an NVIDIA graphics card, and that’s been a notorious source of pain in the Linux community, so — yeah.
I’m looking at the Unihertz Titan Pocket, and the Unihertz Titan:
[I did like Win7; my acer laptop still runs it, and I’ve zero plan to ever upgrade that. (Famous Last Words, I know)]
“(A retired software engineer Luddite.)”
Hubby is a retired Physicist, and is so over high tech. I’ve been digging through drawers to retrieve his old flip phones so see which of them can be reactivated with Verizon. I’m sure that one can but will check on the others.
“Verizon Kyocera,”
Do you have that Kyocera XV Extreme? We’re considering that one.
The article must be correct in that people are going back to the basics. As soon as our local Verizon and Cellular Sales get a batch of these in, they’re gone in a few days.
People did not take photos of their food at restaurants back then. People also did not back up to the edge of Grand Canyon so they could get that "selfie". In fact, if you said you were taking a selfie back in the 1980s, people just assumed you were playing with yourself.
Those were the good old simple days. You shot your roll of film and then went to the Fotomat at the strip mall, a tiny little building in the middle of the parking lot, and you filled out a long white envelope with all your pertinent information, dropped the film into the envelope, sealed it and dropped it into a big box with a slot on it (if it was after hours).
Five days later you would show up to collect your developed photos only to be told that they weren't ready yet. So you went to the arcade, played a few games of PacMan and went home.
A few days later, your photos were ready and you paid the disinterested clerk the seven dollars and went through your photos in the car. Out of the 15 or so photos, two or three were of total blackness, three or four were all blurry and if you were lucky, you got about a half a dozen keepers that you would eventually insert into the plastic sleeve of a photo album and carefully print out a sentence or two about who was in the picture and where it was taken.
More likely however, you wrapped the photos in a rubber band and put them aside in a desk drawer for sorting out later. Eventually, they ended up stored in cardboard boxes up in your attic. Go ahead, go check them out. They are probably still there today.
“I even prefer an old fashioned desk-top - don’t know how anyone really WORKS on a laptop.”
My desktop died so I’ve been using a laptop. It’s an aggravating toy. Later this week I’ll be ordering a NEW Windows 7 desktop from NIXSYS. They have a section of “legacy” computers and will build Windows 7 and XP desktops.
I might. The HP got a big boost doubling the RAM to 8GB (it was out of the factory as an XP 64 machine and shipped with 4GB), so going SSD on the drive side would be the logical next upgrade.
I might do that to this acer too, come to think of it.
Good tip. Thanks.
I wish you good luck on your quest, M.M.!
I'm a retired chip-maker, son is a physicist. I keep getting text messages from Verizon of a $50 dollar off deal on a new phone because mine will stop working at the end of the year, 3G.
“Anyone finding this FORCED SHIFT to 4G and 5G, SHUTTING DOWN 3G, results in worse coverage and signal ?”
Absolutely. My flip Motorola v60s from 2002 was much better than the current smart phones. It had a much stronger signal, and the replaceable battery lasted forever. I still have it as a memento. It looked excellent.
We’re looking for a new desktop, too. Freeper GaltAdonis posted about mini computers, which I hadn’t heard of, and I’d really like one if it works with everything we use. (We run Linux, and don’t do anything very complicated; but we have lots of things we plug into the computer):
https://freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/4050489/posts?page=56#43
Also, these don’t seem to have CD/DVD drives, so I assume you’d need an external drive for them.
“My Blackberry Passport from 10 years ago was finally at ‘end of life’.”
My BlackBerry Classic is no longer supported, although the icon on the screen does say 4G. Loved that device. My BB Priv still is supported but it’s having battery issues.
“the one thing that would be hard to live without would be Google Maps for travelling and avoiding traffic jams,”
That’s the only reason I have a smartphone. We just have a Garmin GPS with free lifetime updates for traffic and maps, and I’ll see if that can fill a void of Google GPS.
“the one thing that would be hard to live without would be Google Maps for travelling and avoiding traffic jams,”
That’s the only reason I have a smartphone. We just have a Garmin GPS with free lifetime updates for traffic and maps, and I’ll see if that can fill a void of Google GPS.
When I retired, the group I worked in were using 30, $3 million dollar each Nikon steppers (cameras) to print patterns for intergrated circuits.
US Patent number 4902608 is my patent for an improved developer machine and process for developing wafers.
Things have really changed.
I have one of those strange Holga 120 cameras. I’ve never taken it out to play with, but it does interesting, quirky things:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holga
[I might. The HP got a big boost doubling the RAM to 8GB (it was out of the factory as an XP 64 machine and shipped with 4GB), so going SSD on the drive side would be the logical next upgrade.
I might do that to this acer too, come to think of it.
Good tip. Thanks.]
“Google Voice is a good option for non-activated phones”
That sounds interesting. Have never used Google Voice.
To use it on a non-activated phone do you set it up via wifi on that device, or would you have to set up Voice on a PC first?
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