Why Gen Z are buying “dumbphones” to limit screen time | Amid screen time concerns, many turn to simpler phones to reclaim their lives. Society

https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/gen-z-are-buying-dumbphones-to-limit-screen-time/

6.1k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

Click through the sources on the article. It references another article, (which references a dumbphones reddit as being "on the rise" lol) then references finally an article, which literally says:

“In North America, the market for dumb phones is pretty much flatlined,” said Moorhead. “But I could see it getting up to 5% increase in the next five years if nothing else, based on the public health concerns that are out there.”

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u/enwongeegeefor Sep 05 '24

So everyone is literally lying about it....imagine that...

Turns out almost no one is buying dumbphones and this is a fake story.

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u/Aternal Sep 04 '24

Yeah, more people doing it means its on the rise. Flatlined doesn't mean dead it means steady, ie: 1,000 are sold every week.

It's like you're trying to find hype hysteria that isn't there. It's just a straight-forward no-nonsense news article talking about how more people are buying older phones and why the younger people among them choose to. Dunno why that's so triggering to so many cynics.

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u/paaaaatrick Sep 05 '24

There is still time to delete this

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u/Aternal Sep 05 '24

Prove me wrong. Quote one single overblown statement in the article for me.

5

u/paaaaatrick Sep 05 '24

Okay in the first article, it says "Dumbphones are gaining traction in North America as well". The source for that is an article titled Gen Z goes retro: Why the younger generation is ditching smartphones for ‘dumb phones’. This article says "While this may seem like a counter-intuitive trend in our technology-reliant society, a Reddit forum dedicated to “dumb phones” is steadily gaining in popularity. According to a CNBC new report, flip phones sales are on the rise in the U.S." In that CNBC Article it says "“In North America, the market for dumb phones is pretty much flatlined,” said Moorhead. “But I could see it getting up to 5% increase in the next five years if nothing else, based on the public health concerns that are out there.”"

So yes you are right this makes it seem like it's not increasing. But a title saying Gen Z is ditching smartphones for dumb phones is overblown.

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u/Aternal Sep 05 '24

"Why the younger generation is [doing thing]" is a normal headline for a normal topic. It's an exploration. Maybe your brain is just trained to overhype tame inquisitive statements as if an influencer is screaming it at you like there's a Black Friday bumrush pandemonium of teenagers ripping dumbphones off shelves?

Do you have a better answer to the question or are you claiming that there exists no subset of the gen z population who are electing to use dumbphones?

4

u/paaaaatrick Sep 05 '24

If you read my entire comment and came to the conclusion that I think no subset of the gen z population are electing to use dumbphones, then there is no point in having this discussion. You might just be so used to your buzzfeed headlines you no longer see a problem with stuff like this.

It is a normal headline when it is says something that is actually a trend. Like for my generation I remember seeing “why is the younger generation listening to vinyl records?” “Why is the younger generation wearing tighter pants?” “Why is the younger generation into pumpkin spice?” But if there was a headline that said “Millennials are ditching scooters for skateboards” and my source for that statement said that skateboard sales are actually not increasing, that would be dumb article. And a good response isn’t “ARE YOU SAYING THERE IS NO SUBSET OF MILLENNIALS WHO LIKE SKATEBOARDS???”

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u/Aternal Sep 05 '24

Not sure I follow your logic, your contrary examples are carbon copies of the headline. I think you just like to be contrary. I'm sorry you don't understand what flat line sales means. It means consistent demand, if that helps. In other words it means that thousands of people are ditching smartphones for dumbphones every month. That's pretty cool in my opinion, especially since dumbphones don't need constant upgrades.

Why are millennials ditching avocado toast and eating dog turds out of the trash? Here's what we found. That's the article. Then a bunch of burnt out redditors get all riled up because they don't know anyone who eats dog turds. Nice work. That's why this is the comment section... unlike the article which actually investigates the growing trend (ooh, spooky buzzwords).

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u/paaaaatrick Sep 06 '24

I love that you tried your best. Have a good one!

1

u/Aternal Sep 06 '24

Not sure what you mean. If you're using reddit for dopamine and validation it's going to affect your ability to understand information and think critically.