My 12-year-old daughter surprised me a few months ago when she asked me to buy her a flip phone. She adamantly didn’t want an iPhone. Why? Because she doesn’t like the way her older brother, her father and I are always glued to our devices. Phones, she explained, hog attention and interrupt conversations when they buzz and ping.
She’s right, of course. And so I proudly went shopping for a flip phone. Turns out there are a lot of options on the market. Most of the buyers, it seems, are older people who prefer a simpler interface, big tactile buttons and fewer options. But a growing sector of the flip phone market is young people who are appalled by the way iPhones have corroded our attention spans.
My daughter is now happy with her retro phone and all its limitations. So is Ned Moran, a Gen Zer who has written a piece for Maclean’s about renouncing their smartphone in favour of a flip phone. “Smartphones were created to help us connect with others,” Moran writes, “but now they’re designed to be as addicting as possible. Instead of keeping us connected, they keep us in our own bubbles.”
- Sarah Fulford, Editor-in-Chief
