Call me maybe

PEOPLE ARE DUMBING DOWN THEIR PHONES, REVIVING THE 2000S FLIP AND RELEARNING HOW TO BE OFFLINE.

- BY CAITLIN STALL-PAQUET

Last spring, an iPad Pro commercial in which musical instruments, games, books, art, TVs and cameras—basically all of culture—got crushed down into a single sleek device thinner than a dinner plate sparked controversy. Apple ultimately apologised to all the creatives who metaphorically got smooshed therein, but the idea of carrying our entire lives in a single device has been drawing broader backlash too. Rather than boomers (who love taking vacation photos on their tablets), it’s the ultra-connected gen-Zers who are leading the charge on reviving so-called “dumbphones”—communication devices that give millennials flashbacks to low-rise jeans and butterfly clips. Yes, these are the flip phones and candy-bar-size Nokia devices of the early 2000s, which were primarily designed for—gasp—making calls. But now, some “feature phones,” to use their official designation, are evolving to ease points of friction with old designs; for example, it no longer takes eons to compose a text on one, and they now incorporate features that make them a bit more competent, such as WhatsApp or Google Maps. These evolutions are part of what makes Statista Market Insights project that sales for the devices will hit $10.6 billion (about S$10 billion) this year.

Morning Consult brand analyst Ellyn Briggs' research confirms that interest in dumbphones is strongest among 13- to 27-year-olds, with millennials dipping a toe into the reminiscence pool, too. "A desire to limit screen time and decouple from devices was the top selected answer [in our survey], but an appreciation for nostalgia or just the nostalgic feeling of a flip phone was one of the most cited answers after that," says Briggs. Ironically, the trend has taken off on TikTok and Reddit, the very platforms (along with Instagram) dumbphone users have grown fatigued with.