Imagine living in 2025 without notifications, without constant updates. While everyone carries a phone in their pocket with a thousand reasons to get distracted, I use a phone without apps, without social media, without distractions. Many would say I’m limited, but I say I’m free.
Why?
When talking about reasons why someone should switch to a dumbphone, I believe we need to separate two types of benefits: technical and mental. The technical benefits relate to the device’s productivity and efficiency, while the human benefits are connected to us as humans-beings who can easily get distracted and lose hours watching content we don’t even care about.
Mental Benefits
Mental benefits improve the quality of our attention, reduce cognitive overload, and allow us to be more present throughout the day. Here are some of the most important mental benefits of using a dumbphone:
Addiction is real
With the rise of short-form content (TikTok, Instagram Shorts, YouTube Reels), it has become incredibly easy to damage our attention span. Addiction to this type of content is real, it’s not just some outdated “boomer” opinion. It’s here, affecting many of us, and data proves it! A Microsoft study showed that the average attention span dropped from 12 seconds in the 2000s to 8 seconds in 2013. Today, in 2025, the estimated average attention span is 7 seconds, even less than that of a goldfish, which is estimated at 9 seconds.
As the chart shows, attention spans are plummeting. Today’s social media is like a drug, with the only difference being that it’s “"”free”””.
Productivity
One of the most surprising effects of switching to a dumbphone has been its direct impact on my productivity. Without notifications, constant messages, or the temptation to “just check something real quick,” I rediscovered how much real time there is in a day.
Work sessions became deeper and less fragmented, and (linking back to the first point) my ability to concentrate improved dramatically. Plus, my mind feels less tired because it’s not constantly interrupted. With a smartphone, just one notification can cost you 15 minutes lost on Reddit.
Studies like this one have shown that merely having your smartphone in sight reduces your cognitive capacity.
Real (and Healthy) Relationships
Do I really need to explain this? When you don’t have a smartphone within reach, you actually start listening to the person in front of you. You’re truly present. You don’t check messages while talking, don’t scroll while walking or taking a break ,you begin to appreciate the world as it is, noticing small details you previously overlooked.
Technical Benefits
Technical benefits refer to the practical and functional features of the dumbphone. Paradoxically, going back actually offers more advantages than moving forward.
Battery Lasts 3 Days (Not 3 Hours)
Although it may sound trivial, it’s worth emphasizing: the battery life of a dumbphone is LEGENDARY. You literally only need to charge it once every three days at most, and charging takes very little time. Plus, removable batteries are super convenient if you want to be sure you never run out of power.
Privacy
For me, this could fit under mental benefits, but it’s more appropriate here. It’s no secret that most apps these days (all for some people) collect data to exploit or sell it. Personally, I’m very pragmatic about privacy ,there’s no freedom without privacy, and there’s no real freedom with a smartphone.
Nowadays, it’s incredibly hard to have a smartphone that truly keeps your activities private, especially with Google’s digital signature system making rooted devices unusable. In this context, a dumbphone is perfect ,it has no GPS, no Wi-Fi, nothing that tracks you.
Minimal and Functional Design
All dumbphones have small screens and simple buttons. From a software perspective, there’s not much to say. This is actually a delicate topic, as the definition of dumbphone is still debated. Some say a phone with WhatsApp but all other dumbphone features counts, others disagree. Personally, I believe even a simple messaging app like WhatsApp ruins the true experience a dumbphone offers. When using a dumbphone, everything is simpler, more straightforward. If you need to reach someone, you call them directly instead of writing a message and waiting for a reply ,and they do the same with you.
It’s Not All or Nothing
Switching from a smartphone to a dumbphone doesn’t mean abandoning WhatsApp, Reddit, or YouTube altogether. It means using them less frequently. You can still access these platforms on your PC, which naturally reduces how often you check them and limits usage to only what’s necessary, exactly what we’re trying to achieve!
Conclusion
There are many other benefits I didn’t go into, like improved sleep quality (blue light is harmful), durability and sturdiness, ease of repair, and so on. I hope this list of reasons to buy an old used phone and ditch your smartphone inspires you to try it. I want to stress that switching to a dumbphone isn’t for everyone, but it could be for you!