Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- Grace Freeman switched to a flip phone to reduce anxiety and stress.
- Young adults are increasingly choosing flip phones for a "dopamine diet" from notifications.
- Utah's social media regulations for minors highlight concerns about youth screen time.
PROVO — When a buzzing smartphone started to feel like a weight she couldn't put down, Grace Freeman bought a flip phone on a dare.
Freeman, a full-time seminary teacher, had joked with her students about trading in her iPhone. They laughed and said she would "never survive."
"I just bought one right then," she said. "I got it in December, and I wanted to do it until the end of the year. And then after I finished like the first three weeks, I was like, I'm gonna do this till spring break. And then after spring break, I was like, I'm gonna do it till I can't."
For months, the plastic clamshell replaced the glowing rectangle that had been glued to her palm for years. What surprised her most wasn't what she lost, but what she says she felt she got back.
"I lived life more presently," Freeman said. "I stopped caring about unimportant things. I feel like I had less anxiety, I feel like I was less stressed about things. I feel like I was just overall, honestly happier."
She's not alone.
From college apartments in Utah County to online communities around the world, a growing number of youth and young adults are intentionally swapping smartphones for "dumb phones" — flip phones and minimalist devices that call and text, but don't scroll.
A trend with numbers behind it
"Dumb phones" still only make up a small slice of overall handset sales, but recent data suggests interest is rising, especially among Gen Z and young millennials. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation cited Counterpoint data that showed sales of basic "feature phones" in Canada rose 25% between 2022 and 2023.
Globally, companies making minimalist phones — like Light Phone and Punkt — report increased demand from younger users who want fewer apps and less distraction. The Washington Times said sales of "brick phones" among 18 to 24-year-olds jumped by 148% from 2021 to 2024, describing the shift as a kind of "dopamine diet" from constant notifications.
At the same time, parents, doctors and policymakers are sounding alarms about youth screen time and social media. Utah health officials have named lack of sleep, mental health struggles and screen time among the top challenges faced by Utah youth.
A 2025 Pew Research Center survey found that 44% of U.S. parents see social media as the most harmful factor affecting teen mental health, and nearly half of teens say it mostly has a negative effect.
Those concerns helped fuel Utah's first-in-the-nation social media regulations for minors, which require parental consent and limit overnight use.
Against that backdrop, some young adults aren't just talking about cutting back on screen time — they're changing the device itself.
'We're experiencing a third of what life could be'
Freeman is candid about how strong her feelings became after making the switch.
"I think that, and I say this boldly and confidently, that I genuinely believe that we are experiencing a third of what life could actually be because two-thirds of it, we're wasting it on our phone," she said.
Even people with relatively low daily screen time, she argued, underestimate how much their phones shape their thoughts and attention.
"Even if your screen time is less than three hours, even if your screen time is like really low, really minimal, the effects your phone has on your mind is diminishing the rest of your life," she said. "No matter what you're doing."
Multiple studies have found that the mere presence of a smartphone can reduce cognitive capacity.
Freeman said her mental health changed in ways she could feel physically.
"I don't even deeply struggle with anxiety or depression," she said, but "Immediately when I had a flip phone, the immediate amount of anxiety that I lost was — I don't even know if I could explain it to you. My insides felt physically different."
She also noticed a difference in the classroom.
"I was a significantly better teacher with a flip phone," she said. With a smartphone, "if I check my phone as the teacher, everyone in my class thinks, 'Oh, it's acceptable for me to check the time' — that's also checking all my notifications and if someone interesting texts you, you're gonna look. I would never open up my flip phone in class."
As a podcaster and influencer, Freeman still needed her smartphone for certain tasks — social media work, podcast duties and other job responsibilities. So she turned her old iPhone into what she said was "basically an iPod." She left it at home, disconnected from cellular service, and used it in short, scheduled bursts.
"I would just work on my phone at home for like 45 minutes a day," she said.
She points out that not always having access to work was better for her as well.
"It's actually so unhealthy that your work has access to you 24/7, and you feel required to respond 24/7. If it's not worth them calling you on the phone, then you're probably fine to not respond," she said.
The hardest trade-off was relational. She was left off group texts. Friends forgot to include her in last-minute plans. She discovered who would call and who simply stopped reaching out.
"What I started realizing, is it's not healthy to expect that we will be invited to everything. And it's actually really a normal human experience to realize, I actually don't need to be invited to everything to have friends."
The painful part, she said, was realizing how much some of her own relationships had depended on constant digital contact. When one close friendship faded after she switched phones, she said, "I realized, 'Oh, that's so superficial. If that is what was keeping us friends, what a joke.'"
