When Lydia Peabody saw her friend pull out a phone at a party last year, she laughed.
“I was like, ‘Girl, what are you doing with that thing? That’s got to be a joke!'” Peabody told TechCrunch. But it wasn’t just a prop — his friend was participating in Offline Month, a community challenge where a group of people swap their smartphones for flip phones.
Peabody couldn’t fathom giving up her smartphone, but her friend encouraged her. A year later, his life seems different. He left his job as a licensed therapist to become the founding CMO of Dumb Co, a phone company that came out of Month Offline. You are happier.
“I went offline for a month, and I was like, ‘Wow, why am I even worried? Am I feeling good?'” she said. “I didn’t even know that this was what I needed, and that spending so much time on my screen after work made me feel so happy.”
Dumb Co sells flip phones that sync with your smartphone, rather than replacing it, creating a happy medium between the endless connectivity of the iPhone and the impossible limitations of the early 2000s mobile phone. Funded by friends and family, the company has been run by a small team for twenty-three years since its inception. Like their peers, they are not satisfied with the fast pace of a connected, conflict-free life. They grew up with iPads and Instagram, but now they want something simpler.
Dumb Co uploads its software so users can access apps like WhatsApp, Spotify, Apple Music, and Uber. You can even access iMessage through a third-party app (shh, don’t tell Apple). By packing standard conveniences like music streaming, maps, and blue-bubble text into a flip phone, Dumb Co is creating something for people who want to reduce their screen time and be more present but struggle to completely disconnect from the smartphone world.
“We’re trying to create something where you can leave your smartphone at home and live your life and interact with other people,” Afreka Ebanks, director of communications for Dumb Co, told TechCrunch. “And if you want to be on your smartphone and come home, you can use it, because the call forwarding and text forwarding feature can be turned off.”
I spent more than a month testing the device — which Dumb Co calls the Dumb Phone — motivated by the knowledge that in case of an emergency, I always had my iPhone handy. I didn’t use the Dumb Phone much at first, but when I carried it around to show my friends, I realized that they weren’t confused by my dumb phone – they were jealous of it.
“I’ve been getting into a lot of interesting conversations with people as I’m walking and someone saw me at the bus stop like, ‘What’s that thing you’ve got?'” said Ebanks, who hid his flip phone. “I think it’s a great conversation starter, and I think it’s amazing to watch people — myself included — work through the difficulties of meeting others, because I’m no longer distracted because I’m looking down at my phone.”
Dumb Phone is weird sometimes. It’s slower than I’m used to, and I end up spending more time typing T9 texts than just using my iPhone (what I really want is a dumb Sidekick with a QWERTY keyboard). Yet there’s something undeniably refreshing about knowing that if you want to open social media, take a photo you’ll never look at again, or check your email, you can’t.
When I spoke with Peabody towards the end of my month of dual iPhone/flip phone ownership, he asked if I ever left the house with my phone flipped. I admitted that I didn’t. I explained that sometimes I need to check public transit schedules, or keep up with Slack if I’m going to an appointment during the day.
“The truth is, when you say the word need, it probably conveys the same meaning as, ‘I need food or shelter,'” Peabody told me. “Yes, it’s really useful to know when the buses are coming, but if you don’t have that information, you turn to your neighbor and say, ‘Do you know when the next bus is coming?'”
Peabody dared me to leave my iPhone at home. The day we spoke, I had already planned to report on an event at a library across town. I tried to explain that I had never been to this library and I wasn’t sure which subway stop to get off at. He told me to just write down the directions before I left. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to record the interview at the event. He told me that the Dumb Phone can record sound.
“I really want you to do this, because I know this is a very common thing,” Peabody said. “When I switched to a dumb phone last summer, I didn’t use my smartphone for seven weeks, then I took a cross-country trip to New Mexico. I didn’t think I could do it, but I’m telling you you can.”
I was running out of excuses. Peabody has driven thousands of miles without a smartphone. How can I tell him I need my iPhone so I can triple check that Tasker-Morris is the right train stop?
Smartphones and social media are not mutually exclusive. It’s really useful for connecting with friends online, sending pictures of your dog to your grandma, and using Apple Pay when you forget your wallet. Although researchers do not distinguish smartphone addiction as they would drug addiction, there are similarities. Not everyone has an adversarial relationship with their phone, but for people like me, too much screen time can often make me feel very anxious, unfocused, and ungrounded. Peabody even compared his relationship with his phone to being stuck on a Juul in college.
“It was really hard, but I completely broke that addiction, and now when I see a vape or something, I really hate it – I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t want that,’” she said. “When I turned off my smartphone for seven weeks, I thought about using it again, and I felt disgusted. I didn’t actually look at it or touch it.”
I was nervous about leaving my iPhone at home, but I relied on my knowledge of the transit system and managed to get across town without my iPhone (I’ll admit, I texted someone to extra super guarantee that the library is out of Tasker-Morris stop). When I needed to send a text that was too long for the T9 to type, I sent a voice message. I felt very connected to the world around me, and nothing was wrong.
I don’t see myself switching to just a dumb phone, but I find it useful as a tool to help me pay more attention to how and when I use my smartphone. Dumb Phone comes with a black velor bag, which you should put your smartphone in when you leave it at home. I can’t quit the iPhone cold turkey, but I throw a velor bag in my bag for beach trips, just in case. I used it for a few things, like ordering food and checking train times. But while I was enjoying a day at the beach, I didn’t take out my phone. I had a book, a sandwich, two bottles of water, sunscreen – what more could I need?
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