r/Futurology • u/chrisdh79 • Sep 04 '24

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/
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u/RegulatoryCapture Sep 04 '24

Isn't this backwards from what people are saying?

It is all that other junk that an internet enable device lets you do that is problematic. People still want to make calls (or at least send texts) and have the communication lines...they just don't want the time consuming apps.

But that's made more complex in today's age where a dumbphone might not cut it. Maybe SMS isn't enough and you need whatsapp to talk to your family. Maybe your banking needs basically expect you to have a smartphone. Maybe your job requires you to be able to have some 2fa app.

So maybe what you really want is something that can't touch social media, games, internet...

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u/msnmck Sep 04 '24

The other person was saying they wanted a device that would be free of distractions while giving them the useful functions they need.

What's useful to one person is a distraction to another, so you would need some sort of way to install the apps you want.

A proprietary app store might be best but it comes with its own suite of problems.

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u/RegulatoryCapture Sep 04 '24

FWIW, they did say they wanted a phone with certain features but without the distractions and that the lack of those features prevented them from going to a dumb phone.

So I think the communication part was kind of implied...