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?’.”
Can you believe it? I am now avant garde!
It hard to find traditional dumb phones now. I hope this report creates more of a market for them, and more of them become available.
I have an old TracFone, aka CrapFone. My sister has one too, and it recently stopped working when her city switched on 5G. I’m out in the boonies, so no 5G yet. I’ve been thinking of switching to a Walmart phone. Are they the cheapest? I only need it for the rare emergency and when traveling by car — in case I need to call AAA. What is the absolute cheapest option? Perhaps a “burner” phone?
$99.00, tempting to me too.
I have the Kyocera flip phone.
It’s heavy and bigger than some others but I like the way it works much better.
A Verizon store should have a display model.
I use a smartphone w/o a SIM card as a transistor [internet] radio.
It does seem to have a few more transistors than the compact, portable radios of the 60’s.
Tracfones are still around $20 for 3 months service, if just needed rarely.
Plenty of deals on newer phones.
I can, and do use the screen keyboards on an Apple IPAD,
and an Amazon Fire HD7 Android tablet just fine.
But they are bigger. And I don't like 'stabbing at ants'
with a stylus pen on a phone either.
Just picture Fred Flintstone trying to use the teeny-weeny
keyboard on the screen of a cell phone - that's me.
Thx
I’m a Luddite who agrees with you.
We see so many errors from people using phones to post; lots of times people don’t even see entire emails on their phone, because they ‘assume’ they’ve seen all they need on the first ‘page’; and I even prefer an old fashioned desk-top - don’t know how anyone really WORKS on a laptop.
“I even prefer an old fashioned desk-top”
I use my laptop to fight my way to a local Linux Desktop....
I have a basic Nokia candy bar. I only have it because my job requires that I have a cell phone. For actually calling people I use my land line. My cell service costs $100 per year.
We use Linux, and haven’t missed MS at all.
The only problem is that some things have to use Windows - like certain craft machines, sewing machine apps, etc.
But that’s the only reason I’ve ever considered getting a cheap laptop that runs Windows.
My Nokia candy bar was $40 and the battery lasts about 8 days and charges in an hour.
My Nokia candy bar is 4g and cost $40. The battery lasts 8 days and charges in an hour.
A couple of decades ago I was very excited about the possibility of technology to give people greater freedom and security.
That dream is stone dead—Big Tech and Big Government killed it.
I am a Luddite now.
I recommend that you not buy an Android phone. Android has an infinite number of infuriating ways to not do whatever you want it to do.
I would totally get a
Nokia 225 | Unlocked | 4G Cell Phone | Black
if it had hotspot capability.
The laptop runs Win7 which is needed to run Diagnostic CAN interfaces to various cars hanging about the compound.
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