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I am a member of the gen Z community and I am 23. That being said, I was exposed to a decent amount of technology growing up. But I also remember the simpler times of people just having a basic phone and an mp3 player.
I am a big fan of physical media and have been collecting vinyls, cds, and dvds for a long time. But I realized a couple months ago that I have really lost touch with reality. It all started with a video I was watching about iPad kids. And I was sitting there laughing about how absurd kids these days are and I simultaneously realized that I was using my phone while "watching" this video. I then sat back and thought, "Damn. I'M the iPad kid."
This then lead me down a rabbit hole of the affect of technology on our current generation and I stumbled across a video of this guy who changed his life by using 90s/early 2000s technology instead of a smart phone. (If I find his YT user I'll put it in the comments.) It was very amazing to me because I had toyed with the idea of getting a regular degular flip phone before but I always came up with an excuse not to like, "What about music?" Or, "What about my friends?" The guy from the video had a solution to all of those problems which finally led me to decide to do it for real.
I planned a date a couple weeks out so I could slowly ease out of my phone addiction and ordered the new phone. Let me just say, I just feel so much lighter. Yes, there are things I miss but most things I have been able to replace one way or another. Spacehey has been one of the replacements. And honestly I don't really miss all of the shit I was consuming. I do check facebook or instagram in the evenings for a bit but most of the content on there feels so brain rotting to me now that I don't really look at it anymore.
I'm very happy I decided to do this and I feel much more free as a person. If anyone wants to see my phone or know the mechanics of it just comment and I'd be more than happy to share details.
Thanks for reading and have a great day. :)
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xxRebellious_Emmaxx
I'm 18 and I did the same thing. My story is very similar to yours, but the biggest "push" for me was watching the episode of That's So Raven on demand where Raven gets her first cellphone after school back in May 2023 and thinking to myself (in a pretty angry and frustrated way) "why can't my cellphone look like that?". It was the straw that finally broke the camel's back.
It's important to note that I started realizing how consumed by addiction I was in July 2021 and proceeded to start taking steps to reduce my usage of my smartphone as much as I could from then, even going as far as to hardly ever touching it at all and leaving it at home while I was out (much to the dismay of my family, who seem to have all forgotten proper phone etiquette by now). Long story short, I had to threaten to drown it in a large body of water or smash it against the wall in order to persuade my folks to take me to get a 4G flip phone in June 2023 right at the end of my junior year of high school, which I still have and love to this day.
I feel free and unbounded to these homogenous slabs of glass that are becoming increasingly commonplace and addicting and like I finally have the chance to live out my life to the fullest once again without a stupid smartphone the way I did as a kid from 2009 - 2014. It's no wonder as to why I feel as if my life had changed for the worse in 2015, as that was the year I was first exposed to a mobile device (a Samsung tablet), which slowly but surely ensued an addiction to such devices as a 9 year old kid. I do not wish to ever own a smartphone or tablet ever again, although should the worst come to worst in the near future, I do have the Unihertz Titan Pocket in mind for usage as a PDA connected to a pay as you go plan (I won't be giving up my old reliable flip phone anytime soon as long as it continues to work and 4G coverage continues to remain in place here in the United States, as it should for a while thanks to dynamic spectrum sharing with the very overhyped 5G).
Maë
Hey !!
I really enjoyed reading your post, especially since i've been considering getting a flip phone or at least a "least advanced" phone. I first started thinking about it when i watched Nana. Maybe it's not a good representation of real life, but being born in 2006, and having my first laptop at 8 and my first phone at 12, i feel like i wasted my teenage and childhood years on internet and in front of a screen, and i often missed 'and still miss) how life was before, when i was playing outside all the time, when i had to get out of my room to see and talk to my friend. It's indeed easier now to communicate quickly, but at the same time, i'm pretty sure if i have social anxiety and feel awkward every time i'm having a face to face interaction is because of how i got used to a virtual social life 'only'. All that to say that, when i watched Nana, i realized that rotting in bed, in front of your screen is DEFINITELY NOT a lifestyle to have, and i want to be able to hang out with my friends, to enjoy the outside more and all, i feel like i'm missing out on so many things.
The only things that keep me from actually switching to a flip phone is the feeling that i'll be left out, like while i'll be able to stay away from my phone, my friends are still gonna be on theirs a lot and keep talking to each other without me ; if one day i want to go out with them, so that all the time spent talking on insta becomes time spent irl, i'm afraid they'll refuse because they won't have the same relationship with reality yk ?
Music and camera ins't really an issue to me tho, as i can use my mp4 or a little camera
Anyway, thanks again for your post, even though i still don't know if i'll be able to switch like you did to a flip phone, it helped me a lot ^^
I'm glad you liked my post! And yeah when I watch retro tv (btw love nana) I feel like life these days kinda sucks compared to the fun ppl seemed to use to have. Also pro tip, I get feeling left out as I felt that way for awhile and it kept me from switching. But if your friends arent willing to talk by phone number and plan to hang out. They aren't your friends. (unless they actually can't afford a phone plan. Regardless, everyone that knows I switched has my number and those who didn't want my number aren't my friends. That's that. Also another thing that helped is I did keep my socials I just use my tablet or computer to check them from time to time. It's just one of those things I realized I didn't need to be up to date on stuff all the time and social media was more toxic for my mental well being. I will say, I have been pretty lonely but I've been filling time with hobbies and being on here and socializing or writing. Hope this helps and good luck on your journey :)
by Bunni; ; Report
I'm glad you liked my post! And yeah when I watch retro tv (btw love nana) I feel like life these days kinda sucks compared to the fun ppl seemed to use to have. Also pro tip, I get feeling left out as I felt that way for awhile and it kept me from switching. But if your friends arent willing to talk by phone number and plan to hang out. They aren't your friends. (unless they actually can't afford a phone plan. Regardless, everyone that knows I switched has my number and those who didn't want my number aren't my friends. That's that. Also another thing that helped is I did keep my socials I just use my tablet or computer to check them from time to time. It's just one of those things I realized I didn't need to be up to date on stuff all the time and social media was more toxic for my mental well being. I will say, I have been pretty lonely but I've been filling time with hobbies and being on here and socializing or writing. Hope this helps and good luck on your journey :)
by Bunni; ; Report
thank you so much for your answer, it helped me even more!!
Also, i've been thinking a lot about it all again thanks to your post and right before i checked spacehey, i was reorganizing the songs i had in my mp3 so i could use it instead of my phone and try to avoid it as much as possible ^^
Anyway, thank you again
by Maë; ; Report