By Elie Monnickendam, Year 12
Have you ever closed Instagram only to reopen it immediately? You’re not alone. I’ve recently witnessed a massive increase in people talking about “Digital Minimalism” on social media. Seeing a counterintuitive topic like this struck me as relatable, so I got involved.
Most people who discuss and experiment with digital minimalism usually go to Reddit, an anonymous text-based social media platform where each topic is separated into “subreddits.” The r/digitalminimalism subreddit, with 78k members, discusses and debates the various benefits of its movement. I’ve realized the massive amount of people talking about “Dumbphones.” Dumbphones are simple mobile phones with intentionally limited features. These dumbphones help weaken the urge to open social media to limit distracting phone usage. They turn a phone into a phone again, not a mini-computer. The majority of the community (when talking about dumbphones) mentions the Cat S22, not to be confused with the Samsung S22. This device is a simple, rugged, and efficient product manufactured for workplace and construction purposes. However, people have taken a liking to it. To understand the whole concept and how it affects our lives, I purchased one of these phones for under 100.- CHF on eBay. It arrived promptly for the summer holidays.
Using a dumbphone for 2 months was an exciting experience. My social media use, of course, plummeted to 0, and I realized how much I missed it. The urge to open Instagram faded after a few weeks, bringing me a clear schedule with all the free time I would have used to scroll. After some research, I found out how social media hooks you so well. Social media uses a combination of FOMO (Fear of missing out), an expectation of availability, emotional reasoning, and dopamine & serotonin boosts, to name a few… The expectation of availability resonated with me because I felt I was a perfect example of a victim of this. I have my phone on silent, yet I always reply to messages as soon as possible; this also occurs when having conversations. It is easy to say that getting a dumbphone with a Numpad solved that; typing out messages using individual numbers like a Nokia is slow and arduous, so it makes messaging very selective. It makes you think if the conversation you’re having is worth having. Music also took up a massive chunk of time I usually spent online. The best way I found not to get bored of music is to listen to everything you can get your hands on. I started listening to classical Turkish funk, 70’s soul, country, everything under the sun. He’d be very confused if I told my past self what I was listening to. The massive amount of music I was listening to really made me appreciate the beauty of music itself. This and the nature I witnessed during the holidays gave me many pensive, nearly stoic moments.
Off to statistics. The increase in the “dumbphones” Google search peaked in the second week of June 2024, ironically one of the lowest points for the “Social Media addiction” Google search. We can assume that the sudden popularity of dumbphones is related to social media addiction. This requires more research, however. Please refer to the graph linked here.
Let’s not forget that digital minimalism has its criticisms. This new concept is (simply put) asking us to remove significant parts of our lives, socially and professionally. Removing applications from our phones or leaving social media platforms can limit your social life, depending on how you make up for it. Dumbphones also pose a problem because many applications we use are necessities, like ManageBac or Google Classroom. So, taking a significant step into digital minimalism can be quite tolling.
How can you do it? Many people suggest putting your phone in Black and White mode. Why not do it now? Try it out for a day and see what you think: IOS: Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Colour Filters → Grayscale. You can also enable Do Not Disturb to prevent notifications from distracting you. Or leave your phone on the opposite side of the room at night. Do your research to find what works best for you.
Cover Photo: © Jamie Coleman – Smithsonian Photo Contest
