Dumbing down, smartly!

Aradhika Sharma

The basic phone is back! No bells and no whistles! The good old dumbphone is slowly replacing your do-it-all smartphone.  The  4G dumbphone market is all set to grow at a mind-boggling pace of 5,000 per cent this year! Could it be that the time has finally come when people want to disengage from their smartphones and take charge of their lives, simplifying things as they reclaim IRL (in real life) experiences?

While the sale of smartphones is still on the upswing, and these are here to stay. Their growth story isn’t like what it was even till last year. Research has revealed that a massive chunk of the market is likely to be captured by dumbphones soon. Companies like Nokia, Apple and Samsung have already entered the market with a new range of basic products. These phones have voice calling and text-messaging features, in addition to basic multimedia and internet functions. And many are ready to shell out big bucks to acquire these and get themselves de-addicted from the smartphone.

Technology overdose is the keyword here. In terms of design, functionality, novelty and capability, there’s already too much to handle. What people now hanker after is the experience of life. As they struggle to unburden themselves from the throes of the screen which bombards them with news, pictures, music, games, experiences, interfaces, they seem to have found a saviour in dumbphones. Also called a features phone or retro phone, it makes it even more difficult for  users to be as connected to mobile technology as they are at present. So while calls and messaging are accessible, like in the good old days, apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter,  Instagram, YouTube, Pokemon Go, etc. are not!

According to Amrish Mehta, director of a Chandigarh-based MNC, though smartphones are essential for his work, yet he realises that these can cause superfluous distraction in terms of the time spent on non-work applications. “I’d like to get a dumbphone at some time in future!”

“It was last year that I realised it’s been more than a year since I’d gone to a theatre to watch a film. I had been watching most of the films online; I hadn’t shopped for clothes because I was buying these from online stores, I hadn’t even gone to a grocery store because these were being delivered at my doorstep by an online vendor! Most of my interactions, apart from the workplace, were through Facebook, and if I missed even one episode of the web series on Pammi Auntie or one tweet by Donald Trump, I’d be devastated! However, it’s impossible to be completely disconnected. An addition of a dumbphone seems to be a safe way out.... I’d like to get the experience of real shopping instead of just clicking for clothes!” says Ankita Singh, who conducts science tutorials online. Psychiatrist Dr Sudeep Roy, who works in a rehab centre in Kolkata, says, “Addicted smartphone users inhabit two worlds. One is the physical world where they live, eat and breathe. The other is the cyber or the virtual world they are glued to, obsessed with and fearful of losing connection with.”

It is to liberate themselves from this overpowering preoccupation that many technology-savvy people are consciously turning to the dumbphones. It is being felt that there has been a surfeit of smartphones. Apps that can track how much you use your smartphone and allow you to set daily limits on yourself are already popular. It’s ironical that people would use an app to limit the usage of their smartphone but perhaps, in this day and age, that’s logical. Users have been downloading Offtime, an app that allows the user to unplug by blocking sidetracking apps like Facebook and games and filtering communications, Moment an iOS app, BreakFree that has an “addiction score” as one of its features, Stay on Task, Flipd, etc. The purchase of a dumbphone is the next logical step.

Sumeet Labana, senior executive with a corporate house, is always among the first persons to buy the latest version of the iPhone. She says she uses her smartphone like a dumbphone.

“When I first started using a smartphone a few years ago, I happily downloaded a few games but quickly realised how addictive these were. Following this, I deleted all these. I was using several other apps as well, but deleted most of these. So I use my phone as a regular/ dumbphone to make calls and for messaging for most part of the day and limit its use as a smartphone to late evening and early morning only, and that too, for a limited number apps. 

“I wouldn’t mind buying a dumbphone which lets me use it only for calling and messaging. That will help me reclaim my mornings and evenings, which I would like to spend reading, gardening or doing some other physical activity.”

Getting off the distractions that a smartphone offers is not the only reason users might opt to buy a dumbphone or a basic phone. “It would probably encourage me to actually use my phone to call people instead of messaging them on WhatsApp. Human connection would be nice instead of good internet connectivity,” says Ravi Chandhok, a graphic designer. 

Ten years back, the first iPhone had entered the market. It became the prototype of smartphones ever since, was constantly reinvented by giant players every year. It was designed to get obsolete in a few months so that consumers are always on their toes. Today, the unyielding fiat of the apps to use, use, use, is starting to feel like a burden. Many have, thus, decided to declare digital independence. 

Clues that point to smartphone surfeit

• Slowing sales of smartphones.
• Increasing sales of dumbphones with the giant mobile companies releasing vanilla versions of basic phones. The sales of feature phones in 2016 in America increased to 24.5 million. 
• Smartphones are both expensive as well as fragile as opposed to tough retro phones. Also, the batteries of the retro phone can last up to a few days!
• WHO and other bodies have been issuing advisories about medical issues cropping up because of the excessive use of smartphones.
• Increasing stress levels, vision problems and chronic pain and inflammation of the joints of the hands (text claw) are attributed to cellphone addiction.
• Nomophobia (the fear of being without your mobile device) is now recognised as a serious issue. There are rehab facilities available to help you deal with the problem in many developed countries.
• The ironic realisation that smartphones, which are said to be great connecters to the world, are actually the devices that hinder connection among people.
• Celebrities have been endorsing dumbphones. Adele, Rihanna, Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue and Eddie Redmayne to name a few.