Pop star said phone was preventing real-life connection
Endless doom scrolling. Social media toxicity. That pressure you feel to respond to your friends’ texts quickly so they don’t get upset.
There are countless examples of how smartphones can stress us out, and now more than ever, it seems people are wondering: Is it possible to go back to a time without smartphones?
You may already be hearing about people putting their phones in drawers for days, opting for dumbphones without internet access, or getting rid of their phones entirely.
And as it turns out, even celebrities have taken the plunge.
This week, pop star Taylor Swift mentioned on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon that she couldn’t tell Ed Sheeran about her engagement to Travis Kelce because he doesn’t have a phone.
“You have to email him, and then if you want to set up a FaceTime, he has to find an iPad, they have to give it to him like he’s a child,” she teased.
Indeed, Sheeran told People magazine last year that he hasn’t had an internet-connected phone since 2015.
“I just was losing real-life interaction, so I got rid of [my phone], I got an iPad, I moved everything onto email, which I reply to once a week,” he told the magazine.
A recent U.K. study found that half of young people would rather live in a time before the internet. (Image credit: Shutterstock)
He explained that he’s not always “in the headspace” to answer texts, and if you don’t reply, it’s seen as rude.
“But then you reply, then they reply back… and suddenly you’re in, like, 40 conversations at once.”
And yes, Sheeran is in his 30s, but even young people are craving a time before smartphones made us all constantly online.
Earlier this year, a U.K. study found that half of youth aged 16-21 would prefer to live in a world without the internet.
The question is, would you? Let us know below.
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TOP IMAGE CREDIT: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images; graphic design by Philip Street/CBC