Like many of us, Conan O'Brien felt too distracted by his phone. Unlike many of us, it was because he was juggling his podcast, an HBO travel series and hosting the Oscars.
"I was getting crazy," the comedian revealed on a recent episode of Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, noting he just wanted to be able to call the people closest to him. So he went to the store and bought a flip phone.
"It's this cute blue little guy, and I like him," O'Brien gushed. "If you have the security of knowing, 'I can call these key people and find out what's going on,' I really like not being tempted to look at the texts, not being tempted to look at the emails."
O'Brien appears to be joining in on the craze of people swapping highly capable smartphones for bare-bones "dumb" phones. These devices can help users digitally detox by prioritizing only key functions like placing calls and sending texts...to a certain extent.
"Everything's 'yes' or 'no' with my answers," O'Brien shared about his texting experience. "You can't send an elaborate thought because it takes 40 minutes."
That's part of the appeal for people who want to spend less time staring at a screen and more time in the real world. Yes, companies like Samsung and Motorola have brought back the flip form factor with devices like the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and the (new) Motorola Razr. But those phones won't do you any good if you're trying to stop staring at a screen, as they're still loaded with the latest smartphone capabilities. They're simply a way to tap into old-school aesthetics with modern-day features.
Instead, there's been a resurgence of phones that can help you stay off your device, since there's not much to do on them anyway. The Light Phone 3, which came out in June, doesn't have apps, email or an internet browser. And the iconic Nokia 3210 made a comeback last year (albeit under new owner HMD). Not to stray from its roots, that phone also doesn't have apps or a touchscreen, and features the ever-so-nostalgic and slightly infuriating T9 predictive text input.
Members of Gen Z, who grew up surrounded by technology, have been especially keen to trade in their iPhones for "vintage" flip phones. There's a general sense that smartphones remove us from the present moment and demand our constant attention. Now, some people are looking for a reprieve.
I'm a 31-year-old millennial who came of age just as smartphones and social media were taking off, but I still had a childhood devoid of attention-zapping tech. That makes my desire for a calmer, quieter and more focused life even stronger. There are days I struggle to pry myself from my TikTok feed, or can't stop checking my Instagram notifications. I put my phone down just to pick it up two seconds later. When I sit down to read, I often have to place my phone in a different room just to remove the temptation. Heck, even watching TV isn't enough when the instant gratification of social media is one tap away.
So maybe I'll take a page out of O'Brien's book and calm my mind with a stripped-down, basic phone. I know it won't be easy, but if someone as busy as him can do it, I'd like to think I can, too.
Ultimately, O'Brien said his "burner phone" offered a humbling experience.
"I ended up not needing to use it as much as I thought, because it turns out not that many people were contacting me," he joked.
Still, regardless of how popular you are (or think you are), there's an undeniable draw to not being sucked into your phone for countless hours as you aimlessly scroll. Unless you just end up dusting off an old game of Snake or Tetris to kill time instead.
English (US) ·