Some Gen Zers swap their smartphones for “dumb” phones to curb social media habits

Kendall Schrohe remembers the moment she swapped her smartphone for a flip phone. 

“For me, like the second that my iPhone was gone, it was just like heaven on earth,” the 23-year-old Washington, D.C., resident told CBS News.

Schrohe is among the growing number of young people who are ditching their smartphones in favor of stripped-down “dumb phones” in an effort to unplug from social media amid concerns about the platforms’ impact on mental health. Some also feel nostalgic for an era they never knew before the advent of mobile devices.

According to Pew Research, roughly half of U.S. adults in 2025 visited social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook at least once a day. Research from the American Psychological Association showed even higher usage among young people, with the average U.S. teen spending nearly five hours a day on social media, according to the group.

What is a dumb phone?

So-called dumb phones are a broad category. At one end are old-school flip phones, popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, that handle calls and texts but little else. Then there are devices that use flip-phone hardware but integrate messaging and other apps. Another approach involves using smartphone technology that blocks social media.

Schrohe got her flip phone from Dumb.co, a startup that sells devices loaded with practical tools like Uber, maps and Spotify, but no social media. Dumb.co said it has more than 5,000 active users and that their typical customer is a 24-year-old woman.  

Other dumb phone providers include The Light Phone company, while technology companies such as Brick sell companion devices that connect to smartphones to block social media. 

Although she’s happy she made the switch, Schrohe acknowledged social media is a hard habit to break. 

“Young people, because we grew up on these platforms, it’s very hard for us to imagine a life where we’re not addicted to it because that has been the norm our entire existence,” she said.

A form of substance abuse?

In March, a jury ruled that Meta and YouTube were liable for creating products that led to harmful and addictive behavior by young users, a landmark decision that could set a legal precedent for similar allegations brought against social media companies.  

Dr. Jason Nagata, a pediatrician and professor at the University of California, San Francisco, studies social media’s effects on young people. His research found that social media usage can mirror patterns seen in substance abuse. 

“In teenagers and then even in adults, the sort of features of the design can lead to symptoms similar to substance-related addictions, which can include impaired control, withdrawal, tolerance and relapse,” Nagata said.

Nagata also said the research suggests a genuine payoff for people who commit to reducing their social media usage or staying off the platforms altogether. “In the long term, many do notice improvement in sleep, better concentration, less overall stress.” 

Schrohe said she spent years trying to wean herself off social media and reduce the amount of time she spent texting and scrolling on her smartphone. She finally succeeded with the help of a program called “Month Offline,” which partners with Dumb.co to challenge participants to ditch their smartphones for 30 days and engage in communal screen-free activities instead. 

“I needed that extreme measure, like to physically not be able to access social media in order to realize, like, that I actually preferred life without it,” Schrohe told CBS News. “The concept of social media, it’s not like inherently evil. It’s the way it’s designed to keep you on it. That’s like the negative part.”

She added, “If you feel like you want to change your relationship with technology, like, you can. It really opens up your mind.”