Could it really be those damn phones?

Words: Sophie Charlotte Graham (She/Her)

Generation Z is officially the loneliest generation. But is it really our own fault? I decided to see if the reason for our loneliness really is those damn phones that we have glued to our hands, by abandoning my beloved iPhone 11 for a week to use a hot pink Nokia 2260 flip phone. After seeing video after video popping up on my YouTube recommended section, multiple Substack posts, and articles in The Conversation about life with a “dumbphone”, I decided to make the bold decision of trying it out myself. Mission: to see if it is possible to leave the modern day tech dystopia behind in favour of simple technology. 

Throughout my flip phone week, I became increasingly aware of how weird we all look when we constantly have our necks craned over our little flat internet boxes. Everyone seemed to be locked in their own little social media bubble when waiting for lectures to start, in café lines, and even for the 2 second elevator journeys. I started to make up my own theories about why we turn to our phones when we feel the slightest tinge of boredom. Do we feel pressure to look occupied and busy? Are we too concerned about how we project ourselves to others around us? Has our addiction to screens meant that checking our phones is as natural to us as drawing breath? Perhaps our constant social media usage means we put on a constant performance. In response to these questions, I started to think that social media might make us a lot less social after all. I began to theorise that maybe our loneliness could be our own fault. Or at least partially. 

Despite the isolation I observed in others throughout my week, my flip phone was actually a conversation starter itself. I would pull it out a couple of times a day to (painfully slowly) answer a text and a friend would ask, aghast, if I’m ‘actually using that’ as my real phone. I would go on to explain my week-long experiment and the reasons behind it and surprisingly, this was often met with a positive reaction: ‘such a slay’ or ‘so iconic’. Clearly I’m not the only one who wants to un-glue themselves from their phones. However, an all too familiar sense of FOMO often creates an insurmountable barrier. This was one of my preconceptions before giving up my smartphone, however I found that once I reunited my sim card with my iPhone and scrolled on social media for a grand total of 10 minutes, I hadn’t missed out on anything worthwhile. To be completely honest, I only had one thought after my hard-earned scroll: ‘Well, what was the point in that?’. After a week of abstinence, I found myself questioning why I was so addicted to it in the first place. Was it the slot machine style algorithm? The little and often dopamine hits? Probably. 

  I did, however, notice some things which inconvenienced me due to my lack of smartphone. QR codes and my Apple Wallet being the main two. All my membership cards for every café and supermarket under the sun are on my Apple Wallet with little to no physical alternative. QR codes also posed a slight struggle with things such as accessing seminar activities and menus. Despite these two slight inconveniences, having a flip phone really does help with a “dopamine detox”. Without having a smartphone to pull me into its grasp with the constant pinging, buzzing of notifications,  and screen flashes, I felt my attention span and concentration improve exponentially. 

Mission? Very possible indeed. As a result of my week-long flip phone journey, I have decided to make the luddite-like decision to delete TikTok from my phone. I know. Shock. Horror. The relief of abandoning social media and the digital hellscape outweighed the minor inconveniences too much to try and deny that I actually loved the experience. The longer in-person conversations with people that weren’t constantly interrupted by the bleep of an Instagram notification, encouraged me to leave my phone behind and go and “touch grass” once in a while to remind myself that smartphones and social media aren’t the be all and end all of socialisation. So, what is causing our generation to be so lonely? Maybe it really is those damn phones.