Gen-Z is Embracing the ‘Dumbphone’ and You Should Too

By Lilly Whitsell

On January 19th, 2025, my life was changed forever. I was laying on my bed after a long day at work and scrolling through TikTok, just as I did every night. I moved from one funny video to another, reading through the comments and laughing at everyone’s jokes faster than my brain could process the information I was taking in. One video took a little longer than usual to load, so I closed the app out and reopened it. That was the moment I learned that TikTok had been temporarily banned in the United States. I panicked – how would I know what was popular? How would I know what was funny? How would I survive? Not 3 hours later, TikTok was back – some temporary block was signed or whatever – but I was a changed woman. I learned I was an addict; and I wasn’t alone. 

Generation Z is the first generation to have had technology present in every aspect of their lives. Laptops or ipads at school, online gaming consoles at home, and smartphones constantly in the palms of their hands. They are also the first generation to be turning away from it. 

It’s no secret that screens are inescapable these days. Work, school, home – even the grocery store requires you to have your nose buried in one. According to a study by Virgin Mobile, the average smartphone user receives 427% more notifications and sends 287% more texts as compared to 10 years ago. There are so many reasons baked into our day-to-day lives that incentivize being glued to your phone that smartphone addiction is soaring. The National Library of Medicine published a study showing that 16% of people under 30 reported a smartphone addiction. 

When I was at the peak of my addiction, I thought I was dumb. I couldn’t remember simple things, I was thinking slower than I had before, and I was anxious and exhausted constantly. The worst part about it was that I wasn’t dumb – my brain was melting away. Stanford University ran a collection of studies that found that excessive screen time can lead to cognitive decline through thinning of the cerebral cortex and an unnatural decrease in gray matter, or brain tissue essential to our ability to function. 

The fix to this is simple: put it down. It’s easier said than done, but it’s possible. In fact, a study from Talker Research found that 63% of Generation-Z is choosing to intentionally unplug from technology and opting for “old school” ways to spend time like reading, face-to-face time, crafts, and outdoor activities. But how?

There’s a whole bunch of options to unplug. The simplest way is to use the Screen Time limiter baked into the settings app on your phone – that’s how I do it personally. You can also turn your phone into a “dumbphone” by blocking every application other than the essentials. There are software solutions – apps like Opal, Bloom, and AppBlock that do this, and there are hardware solutions. Brick LLC is a company that sells a “brick” to “brick” your phone, stripping it down to its barebone features until you tap the brick again. 

In the age of the Digital Revolution, Gen-Z is serving a digital rejection and going analog. Cut down on screen time and unplug.