Stupid life, eh r/Dumbphones moderator Jose Briones told me it’s about “reclaiming the time and attention for the things you truly value.” Of course, getting sucked into a subreddit because of my expansive one is the opposite of it Online browsing was suggested by an algorithm. But that’s how I found r/Dumbphones, now my favorite place on the internet.
“The phone you had in 2009” is a good approximation. Briones joined at the end of 2019. Back then, he spent 12 or 13 hours a day in front of the screen. One evening, around 1 a.m., he was watching Netflix on his phone and thought, “Enough.”
He tried going cold turkey with a Light Phone, a tiny, simple device with an e-ink screen and just a few basic features. It did not work. Life without Google Maps was too hard. The smartphone’s siren song was too loud, so he picked it up again. A few months later, amid the isolation and stress of the pandemic lockdown, he tried a dumbphone again. This time it clicked. He walked his dog more often, read more books, joined a sports club and tried other hobbies. He also discovered r/Dumbphones — via the algorithm, of course — and soon became its moderator, helping the subreddit grow from fewer than 10,000 members in 2020 to over 50,000 four years later.
I am part of this growth. Like Briones, I had tried a light phone back then, and like Briones, I too had failed. When I moved, the Light Phone wasn’t there.
That was fine, at least that’s what I learned from r/Dumbphones. In this community, owning a dumbphone isn’t about success or failure or even about being anti-technology. It’s about asking yourself what you really need from your phone. “It’s a helpful, happy sub,” says Alex Locklin, who joined in 2024. “We’re all looking for something similar, but not identical.” I think everyone realizes they’re scrolling too much and missing out on life.” There are no ideological purity tests. Nobody will accuse you of being a counterfeiter if your device isn’t dumb enough. I didn’t have to throw my iPhone into the nearest body of water to get it cleaned and clean. The sub is more generous. In the six months I was there, I didn’t see anything resembling an argument. Arguing with strangers online isn’t exactly stupid.
Newbies to the subreddit usually search Dumbphone Finder, a tool Briones created to find dumbphones. You take a quiz with questions like “Do you want smart apps?” and “What style of phone do you want?” (candy bar, flip or touchscreen) and tells you whether a Cat S22 Flip or a Dot MP02 might be right for you. Briones recommends starting with what you have: Android phones can be rooted and modified; iPhones have parental controls that block apps.
All I had to do was put down the phone and use a few tips and tricks I found on r/Dumbphones. I removed all social media apps and tried grayscale. When I realized that I was still using my phone to check the time, I looked at some of the photos that users had posted and sure enough, almost everyone had a watch. I got a cheap Casio. I also started putting my phone in a bag instead of my pocket. Makes it much less convenient to absentmindedly pull it out on the subway.
Even these small steps have made the phone feel less like an extra appendage and more like the multi-tool in my bike repair kit. My screen time has dropped by about an hour per day, but it feels like a lot more. I still have a hard time leaving my phone in another room at the end of the work day, but I manage it.
Unlike other subreddits, r/Dumbphones seems to have few long-time residents or recurring characters. This is where people show up, figure out what works for them, and then disappear. Like a good dumbphone, r/Dumbphones is the best technology: we use it when we need it.
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