Long ditched her iPhone earlier this year because she felt she was wasting her life on a phone addiction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d established that really the only reason that we have phones is to talk to people.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I was like, well, what is something that I could replace with this, you know, slightly devilish piece of technology that still fulfils that function?\u201d<\/p>\n
Long is proud of her quirky phone, bringing it to her work as a paralegal.<\/p>\n
She gets some questions, of course, but says most people envy her self-restraint.<\/p>\n
University of Sydney PhD student Isaac Gill decided to ditch his smartphone for a black Nokia after years of sometimes deleting his social media apps, or turning his notifications off.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThen eventually I read this book that really pushed me to do the switch,\u201d he says, urging others to also approach the change slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes, I think, years to comfortably do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his first week with a flip phone, Gill also carried his iPhone to fill in any unexpected gaps, such as two-factor authentication.<\/p>\n
While both Gill and Long recommend dumb phones, they are realistic. Both have taken their smartphones on international holidays.<\/p>\n
Online, Generation Z\u2019s love of dumb phones has been criticised as \u201cperformative\u201d and attention-seeking.<\/p>\n
Fares thinks these critics are missing the point.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn all of these trends, there is consistently a performative element, and that is fine,\u201d he says. \u201cAs long, though, as the push is towards something healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n