{"id":213771,"date":"2025-10-15T02:29:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T02:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/213771\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T02:29:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T02:29:13","slug":"would-you-ditch-your-smartphone-like-ed-sheeran-did-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/213771\/","title":{"rendered":"Would you ditch your smartphone like Ed Sheeran did? | story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        Pop star said phone was preventing real-life connection<\/p>\n<p>Endless doom scrolling. Social media toxicity. That pressure you feel to respond to your friends\u2019 texts quickly so they don\u2019t get upset.<\/p>\n<p>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?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>You may already be hearing about people putting their phones in drawers for days, opting for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/kidsnews\/post\/want-a-phone-dumb-and-kid-friendly-phones-could-address-parents-safety-concerns\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dumbphones<\/a> without internet access, or getting rid of their phones entirely.<\/p>\n<p>And as it turns out, even celebrities have taken the plunge.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This week, pop star Taylor Swift mentioned on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon that she couldn\u2019t tell Ed Sheeran about her engagement to Travis Kelce because he doesn&#8217;t have a phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou 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\u2019s a child,\u201d she teased.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Sheeran told People magazine last year that he hasn\u2019t had an internet-connected phone since 2015.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI 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,\u201d he told the magazine.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A group of teens look down at their smartphones.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot_2025-10-09_at_11.59.09\u202fAM_.png\" style=\"width: 860px; height: 476px;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A recent U.K. study found that half of young people would rather live in a time before the internet. (Image credit:\u00a0Shutterstock)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He explained that he\u2019s not always \u201cin the headspace\u201d to answer texts, and if you don\u2019t reply, it\u2019s seen as rude.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut then you reply, then they reply back\u2026 and suddenly you\u2019re in, like, 40 conversations at once.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And yes, Sheeran is in his 30s, but even young people are craving a time before smartphones made us all constantly online.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>The question is, would you? Let us know below.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Loading\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\ufeff\ufeffHave more questions? \ufeffWant to tell us how we&#8217;re doing? Use the \u201csend us feedback\u201d link below. \u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>TOP IMAGE CREDIT: Matt Winkelmeyer\/Getty Images; graphic design by Philip Street\/CBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pop star said phone was preventing real-life connection Endless doom scrolling. Social media toxicity. That pressure you feel&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[49,48,190,61],"class_list":["post-213771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}