Dumb is the new smart
Rummaging out an old phone is the way to social relaxation
They may seem weird nowadays. You can call, send texts and take mediocre pictures with them, but not much more. Alan Jacobs writes in the paper The Atlantic about how he one day half a year ago decided to put his smartphone away and found his old one from 2005.
The reason for the change was that he felt followed by social media that constantly came with new information that was hard to avoid. Unfortunately the old phone turned out to be dead so he had to buy a new one, but with just two functions. The only things the new phone Punkt MP 01 that came out half a year ago can do is call and send texts. He immidiately felt less stressed and had an easier time focusing on things without the neverending flow of information in his pocket.
Psychology professor Larry Rosen is on the same track in an article in Huffington Post. He calls many peoples relations to their smartphones for an obsession. According to him they don't use the smartphones for entertainment, they use them because they get stressed and anxious without them. However neither him nor the manufacturer of the new-old Punkt MP 01 says that it's necessary to completely avoid todays newer phones.
Those who don't look down at their phones on the bus are often easily counted. Larry Rosen hopes that the large obsession is just temporary and that our addiction decreases with time. Maybe that is what's about to happen. More and more have started to skip the joys of the lastest phones and gotten something simpler. Dumb phones look like a smarter and smarter decision. Both rediscovering or buying old phones and buying new phones with few functions becomes more and more popular.
And then there's the stuff that we all agree on were better back then, even those of us that don't feel any significant stress from Facebooks and Twitters constant cry out for attention. After all it was pretty nice only having to recharge the phone once a month, and being able to drop it from high height or throw it hard into a brick wall without a scratch.
Three other areas where old has come anew
1 Cassette tapes with everything from Green Day to Metallica have found their way into trendy stores in Las Vegas.
2 Kodak launched an updated version of the super 8-camera at the tech fair CES early this year.
3 Casio-watches that were originally released in the early nineties are popular again. Just like the phones they have few functions, can take hits, and has a battery that lasts long.
PS:
I tried to translate the text pretty much literally and that takes its tow on the language. Both because of that I'm better at Swedish than English and that certain phrases can sound great in one language but bad in another. I asssure you that it's quite a lot better in Swedish.