We switched to flip phones for 4 days as a smartphone detox

For many people who bought their first cellphones in the late 1990s or early 2000s, flip phones were chrome and neon portals into popular culture and newfound social circles with their peers.

Now a constantly accessible gateway to millions of people, information on everything and breaking news from around the world, the digital world seems frustratingly cluttered for a growing number of the same one-off flip phone enthusiasts.

Some Gen Zers and Millennials use apps or hardware to block their access to social media. set smartphone screens to grayscaleor buy “dumb phones” that can’t access the internet. Reddit’s “r/dumbphones” forum It has 185,000 weekly visitors as of Friday afternoon and has an “offline groups” offering 30 days of stupid phone challenges which encourages groups of participants to meet in person.

Curious about the excitement surrounding a smartphone detox, two CNBC Make It reporters — Megan Sauer, 29, and Renée Onque, 26 — hid their iPhones from themselves and purchased flip phones to use for a four-day experiment from Friday morning to Monday evening. Their phones could only make calls, send messages and take low-resolution photos. In the spirit of the detox, reporters agreed to stay away from social media on laptops and tablets.

Neither reporter wanted to test for five or more days because of the consequences at work: On flip phones, they couldn’t access authentication apps, resources from previous projects, or record audio from phone calls. But even a four-day break can improve your mental health, he says, “if you replace your smartphone activity with the right kind of activity that stimulates your senses, like walking in the sunshine, or your imagination, like reading.” Carissa VélizAssociate professor of philosophy at the Institute for Artificial Intelligence Ethics at the University of Oxford.

Experiment parameters, academic research, including the period of Véliz and Anastasia Dedyukhinadirector Conscious Digital InstituteAiming to help organizations and individuals develop healthier relationships with technology.

Blocking internet access on smartphones for just two weeks improved mood, restored attention, or improved well-being in 91% of participants. Small study in February 2025 It is led by researchers at institutions such as the University of Alberta and Georgetown University. However, in another study, participants eager to change their smartphones Researchers from Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that dumb phones reported greater psychological benefits than participants who felt neutral in a one-week experiment.

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In preparation for long weekends, reporters logged their pre-scheduled appointments on physical calendars, wrote reminders on sticky notes, and made plans based on friends who could help ride the New York subway or hail rides around New York and New Jersey. They then turned off their smartphones.

Their experiences were flawed; One had to turn their smartphone back on during Day 1, but both say they would do a similar detox program again. Neither of them will be giving up their smartphones permanently.

Here are the thoughts, challenges, and outcomes they documented during their four-day break.

Day 1: Friday

Renee Onque, 08:22: We can work from home on Fridays and Mondays so I don’t have to get up early. I set my alarm clock wrong, though. My friend texts me “Good Morning” and my flip phone rings so loud it wakes me up instead.

Megan Sauer, 8:30 a.m.: Instead of my usual morning routine of checking news alerts and app notifications, I see a single text message from a friend asking if I’ve officially launched my trial. When I realize I forgot to write down a source’s contact information for an interview, I briefly pull my smartphone out of the drawer and log in to my laptop for the workday.

Sauer, 13:17: Our jobs don’t require much interaction with our phones beyond simple phone calls, so work feels pretty normal. I wrap up the interview, make edits to my two stories in progress, and finally have lunch. I feel a familiar, restless itch to scroll through social media while eating. I use this energy to text a friend to see if she’s free for dinner tonight.

Sauer, 18:30: At the restaurant after work, my friend laughs about how she failed to check my location. I’m chronically 10 minutes behind, so I don’t mind if my closest friends use Find My Friends to gauge my actual arrival time—but it strikes me as a smartphone feature I could live without.

Onque, 18:40: My sister is calling me. Instead of texting me the photos, she said she would email me pictures of the cupcakes she baked and her cats’ first outing on the patio. I send him some kombucha recommendations via email. Surprisingly, this doesn’t bother me and actually makes emailing more enjoyable and carefree.

Onque, 19:45: This is the first time I’ve successfully combined phone calls as a replacement for Group FaceTime. I have a maximum of three people on my flip phone – including me – which is disappointing and limiting because the four of us are trying to make weekend plans. We relay the details to each other over multiple phone calls.

I’m also learning that my flip phone won’t charge effectively if I use it while it’s plugged in, forcing me to put it down more often. This is annoying but probably good for me.

Day 2: Saturday

Sauer, 8:30 a.m.: With nowhere to go and no Instagram to scroll, I start my morning by reading John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden.” Normally, when I’m reading a particularly intense book, I need to put my smartphone in another room to focus. However, even with the flip phone next to me, I can respond to incoming messages and return to reading instead of being distracted by the screen.

Onque, 14:30: I’m watching a movie with a friend and I can’t see the purchase confirmation QR code on my flip phone. My friend, still holding her smartphone, meets me at my apartment, calls us an Uber, and shows us the QR code to get our tickets to the movie theater. I apologize often because I feel like a burden. He reassures me it’s no big deal.

Sauer, 18:35: I leave home late because of my plans to go to the cinema, and the subway is delayed. I wait anxiously, suffering the consequences of being late because I can’t call an Uber. I run from the station to the movie theater and, breathless, show the ushers a blurry screenshot of the QR code my friend sent directly to my flip phone. It scans without any problems. “Thank God,” I say. The bailiff laughs.

Onque, 20:15: I feel a little embarrassed using my flip phone in a restaurant and later in a bar. Everyone who notices this wants to ask me. I hear people whispering, “Look! He’s got a flip phone.”

Sauer, 22:30: After the movie, people stopped me at a bar and asked me about the flip phone. “The fact that you are willing to go offline really says a lot about you as a person,” says one user. I shrug.

Even though I know how to get home afterwards — and at no point do I feel unsafe — I feel uncomfortable taking the subway without my smartphone. I’m not exactly sure why.

Day 3: Sunday

Onque, 12:00: I dropped my flip phone during the call and its battery died. This ends the call and hangs up. I accidentally drop my smartphone very often. Dropping a flip phone has bigger consequences.

Sauer, 12:30: I feel much less tempted to check my phone or answer calls and messages until I finish a day’s work, a TV episode, or just relaxing. I don’t think about my flip phone when it’s not in my hand. I feel like a bad friend when I delay getting back to people, even if I have “Do Not Disturb” turned on on my smartphone. The flip phone feels like a buffer of digital necessity.

Onque, 19:28: I try to check my messages while talking to someone and the call hangs up. But the limitations of my flip phone, which have been forcing me to put it down more often than usual over the past few days, aren’t that bad. I don’t panic about cleaning my apartment or finishing other tasks on my to-do list because I feel like I have more time. In short, I’m more in the present. I wonder if this feeling will stay with me after I get my smartphone back.

Day 4: Monday

Sauer, 7:30 a.m.: I jumped out of bed when I realized I had forgotten to tell my therapist, who was conducting phone sessions with me on Monday afternoons, my new temporary phone number. Once the panic subsided, I realized I was much more relaxed working than I was on Friday. Even before my morning cappuccino arrives, I can focus on completing my morning tasks efficiently.

Onque, 14:30: In general, my work day is like a typical Monday. I’m making edits to an ongoing manuscript, researching and writing a pitch for a larger project, scheduling interviews for upcoming stories throughout the week—standard stuff. I usually use my smartphone to listen to music while working. It keeps me energetic and focused. If I were in the office, I’d probably listen to Spotify on my laptop. I challenge myself to turn to vinyl records at home and it works, except I have to stand up multiple times to flip each record to side B.

Sauer, 17:00: In the afternoons I usually hit the wall. Not today. I complete my day’s work, including more draft revisions, a series of confirmation emails, and somehow a single meeting, by 5pm, feeling peppy enough to go for a walk.

Onque, 18:15: I figured I would spend these four days retreating socially, reading more, focusing on my personal goals, and maybe trying to feel connected to my loved ones without the ability to send them a bunch of memes every day.

Instead, I spent much more time than usual interacting with people through phone calls and snap chats. Life and work were harder than ever, although not significantly. I had to approach some things differently. It wasn’t challenging. If I had to do this every day, I’m not sure I’d be comfortable with it.

Sauer, 18:40: I usually fight the urge to buy clothes when I’m awake. But as I was booking travel on my iPad, I realized that I hadn’t thought much about online shopping or about my appearance, wardrobe, hair, or makeup in general over the past four days. Until this experiment, I didn’t realize how often my iPhone encouraged me to stare at its screen. Hundreds of notifications a day make me feel like I’m falling behind.

Without them, my fear of missing out is further quelled and I feel less guilty when I don’t immediately respond to a phone call or text message. When I turn on my smartphone on Tuesday morning, I turn off notifications for many applications, including social media, shopping and gaming platforms. I don’t need reminders to distract me.

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