Think you can’t live without a smartphone? Why a flip phone might be an upgrade

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A lot of us dream of not being tethered to our phones all day, interrupted with an endless stream of pings telling us we have more messages and other notifications to deal with.

But you probably think you can’t live without a smartphone. How would you get driving directions, pull up concert tickets or access restaurant menus from QR codes?

Actually, there’s another way to live — and it’s way better, says August Lamm, an upstate New York-based visual artist and activist, for reducing tech use. In her new book, “ You Don’t Need a Smartphone : A Practical Guide to Downgrading Your Phone and Upgrading Your Life,” Lamm says the benefits of not having the device vastly outweigh the inconveniences.

Lamm felt addicted and realized she was spending more time on her screen than she was making art, so she got rid of hers in 2022, just after her 27th birthday.

The book is about her personal experience, arguments for why you should do the same and advice for how to make it work.

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12-year-olds with smartphones are more likely to develop eating disorders by 14

Plenty of science backs her up. The average 13- to 18-year-old spends more than eight hours per day on screens, according to the Office of the US Surgeon General. And people who spend too much time on screens have lower physical and mental health and well-being.

I spoke to Lamm about how switching to a flip phone without web access changed her life — and what it could do for yours.

This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

CNN: You say not having a smartphone and social media has allowed you to connect more deeply with other people. How?

August Lamm: I was afraid when I got rid of my smartphone that I would lose touch with people I already had in my social circle and I would find it more difficult to meet other people, because I couldn’t access event postings online. When I did get rid of my smartphone, I found that I was actually making more friends, and the friendships that I already had became more solid.

One reason is that you give off more open social energy when you’re not diverting any of it into a device. You’re fully present when you are with people. If you’re not with people, then your natural rhythms of needing alone time and needing social time fall back into place.

If you have a smartphone, it gets mixed up because you’re entering a solitary mindset with other people by looking at your device, and you’re entering a social mindset when you’re in solitude by looking at your device. I found that my energy was more focused and more centered, and I think people responded to that.

Another thing that changed was I was more intentional with my friendships, and it forced my friends to be more intentional about contacting me. They couldn’t post a story on social media about their vacation or relationship status and expect me to have that news. They had to tell me over the phone or in person, not through a group channel, because I also can’t do group messages.

Once people got used to that, it felt like a chance to have a moment to share and respond to a specific life event instead of blasting it out to the world in an impersonal, public way.

I also started meeting a lot more people because when I went out and met someone I liked, instead of saying, “Let’s follow each other on social media,” I would say right then and there, “Let’s plan something for next week,” or “I’m hosting this event,” so it wasn’t something we had to put effort into after we’d parted.

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Exhausted? The reason may be how you’re using technology

CNN: You point out that people check phones to escape bad feelings. How does it feel not to be able to do that?

Lamm: In the beginning, it feels like you’re trapped in a cage without any useful coping skills. You have to deal with these emotions for the first time in a decade or two. Then, over time, you find analog ways to meet that need. When you’re stressed out, you call a friend, read a book, go for a walk or listen to music. You find a way to fill the void, but in a healthier way.

The other thing that happens is that when feelings come up, it’s less alarming. I’m so comfortable with myself that I’m like, oh, OK, I’m feeling this way. I’m used to it.

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What I found when I tried to unplug from social media

CNN: People think smartphones save us time, but you say you have more free time than ever before without one. How did that happen, and how does it affect your life?

Lamm: If we’re scrolling for five hours a day, and I stop scrolling and get five hours a day back, there is absolutely no way that it’s going to take me five hours to call the utility company instead of paying the bill online or go to the post office, or to go to the library and print out a bus ticket. Those are all things that people think are extremely inconvenient. Actually, they only take a little more time, and they also have added benefits of socializing and getting outside and exercising when you walk to those places.

You don’t look back at your day and say, “I wasted it online,” but it’s all these micro-checks. It’s these little moments of answering a text, then quickly checking the news headlines. If you’re doing that 50 times a day, that adds up to a few hours of screen time. If you remove that possibility, you get all this time back.

It has completely changed my life, because even in the busiest periods, when I have so much work and there’s a lot of pressure on me, I still have hours of free time every day. I never feel that level of terror and panic that I felt when the devices were with me.

We all have this idea that we’re very busy, and I just want to challenge that.

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CNN: You write that we learn helplessness when we rely on smartphones for things like directions. Do you think your brain is sharper now that you’ve gotten rid of yours?

Lamm: You get your skills back automatically. You don’t have to retrain yourself. Naturally, we absorb information and have great recall. I’m saying this even about people who insist they have poor memory, can’t focus and are bad with directions.

Everyone has that ability to remember things, because it’s a survival skill. We evolved to have that. We didn’t have a place to put all our knowledge before, and we evolved without even pen and paper, so we do have brains that are capable of remembering things and orienting ourselves.

Getting rid of my smartphone and being left to my own devices, no pun intended, I have been amazed at my own mental capacity. Everyone I’ve spoken to who gets rid of their smartphone has this experience.

CNN: You say you’re more present now in your surroundings. What does that feel like, and how does it affect your well-being?

Lamm: The way I can best describe it is by describing how it felt to not be present when I had my phone. I would be talking to someone and thinking about when I could next check my phone. I felt this agitation that I feel now when my neighbor knocks on my door and I go out and talk to him, but I know I have something cooking on the stove. It’s like, “Really great to see you, but I have to go back inside and check on this.” That’s how it felt all the time — like there was something else cooking in the background, and this was not my whole life.

Any fragmentation of your attention takes you out of the present. Presence is being OK with the moment you’re in. It’s not comparing it to other moments, not wanting to fill it with something or change it, not feeling antsy and not feeling like you’re wasting time.

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Want to scroll less in 2026? These 12 essentials helped me halve my screen time in 30 days (Courtesy CNN Underscored)

CNN: What’s your advice to people who think they can’t live without a smartphone?

Lamm: You should try living without a smartphone . Give it a month and see how you feel at the end of it, before deciding what you can or can’t do. Because you haven’t tried yet, and you never know.

If you use an app for blood sugar monitoring but still want to reduce screen time, I suggest buying a dumb phone to use as your primary phone and treating the smartphone purely as a medical device.

Kara Alaimo is a professor of communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University and advises parents, students and teachers on how to manage screen time. Her book “Over the Influence: Why Social Media Is Toxic for Women and Girls — And How We Can Take It Back” was published in 2024.

Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN’s Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being.

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我们很多人都梦想着有一天能摆脱手机的束缚，不再被源源不断的提示音打断，不再被告知还有更多消息和其他通知需要处理。

但你可能觉得没有智能手机就活不下去。如果没有智能手机，你怎么获取驾车路线、购买演唱会门票或通过二维码查看餐厅菜单呢？

事实上，还有另一种生活方式——而且这种方式要好得多，纽约州北部视觉艺术家兼活动家奥古斯特·拉姆（August Lamm）说道，那就是减少科技产品的使用。在她新出版的《你不需要智能手机：一部教你如何降低手机档次、提升生活品质的实用指南》一书中，拉姆指出，不用智能手机的好处远远大于它带来的不便。

拉姆感到自己沉迷其中，意识到自己花在屏幕上的时间比创作艺术的时间还多，所以在她 27 岁生日后的 2022 年，她扔掉了自己的手机。

这本书讲述了她的个人经历，论证了你也应该这样做的理由，并提供了如何成功实施的建议。

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12岁拥有智能手机的孩子，到14岁时患饮食失调症的可能性更高。

大量科学研究支持她的观点。据美国卫生局局长办公室统计，13至18岁的青少年平均每天花在屏幕上的时间超过8小时。而长时间使用电子屏幕会导致身心健康状况下降。

我和拉姆聊了聊换用没有上网功能的翻盖手机如何改变了她的生活，以及这会给你的生活带来什么。

为了清晰起见，这段对话经过了少量编辑和精简。

CNN：你说没有智能手机和社交媒体让你与他人建立了更深层次的联系。为什么？

奥古斯特·拉姆：我当初扔掉智能手机时，很担心会和社交圈里的朋友失去联系，也担心会因为无法上网查看活动信息而更难认识其他人。但扔掉智能手机后，我发现自己反而结交了更多朋友，原有的友谊也更加牢固了。

其中一个原因是，当你没有把精力转移到电子设备上时，你会散发出更多开放的社交能量。与人相处时，你会全身心地投入。如果你没有和人在一起，那么你需要独处时间和社交时间的自然节奏就会恢复正常。

如果你有一部智能手机，情况就会变得很复杂，因为当你独自一人时，看手机会让你进入一种与他人相处时的独处状态；而当你独处时，看手机又会让你进入一种社交状态。我发现我的精力更加集中，也更加专注，我想人们也感受到了这一点。

另一件改变是我开始更加用心经营友谊，这也迫使我的朋友们更加主动地联系我。他们不能再像以前那样在社交媒体上发布度假或感情状态之类的动态，然后指望我立刻知道。他们必须通过电话或当面告诉我，而不是通过群聊，因为我也不会用群聊。

人们一旦习惯了这种方式，就感觉有机会分享和回应某个特定的生活事件，而不是以不带个人色彩的公开方式将其公之于众。

我也开始认识更多的人，因为当我出去遇到喜欢的人时，我不会说“我们互相在社交媒体上关注吧”，而是会当场说“我们下周一起计划一下吧”，或者“我要举办这个活动”，这样我们就不用在分别后再费心去维系感情了。

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感到疲惫？原因可能在于你使用科技的方式。

CNN：您指出人们查看手机是为了逃避不愉快的情绪。不能这样做是什么感觉？

拉姆：一开始，感觉就像被困在笼子里，没有任何有效的应对技巧。你不得不面对这些十年来或二十年来第一次经历的情绪。然后，随着时间的推移，你会找到一些传统的方式来满足这种需求。当你感到压力时，你会给朋友打电话、读读书、出去散散步或听听音乐。你会找到一种更健康的方式来填补内心的空虚。

还有一点就是，当情绪涌上心头时，我不再那么惊慌。我太接纳自己了，以至于我会想，哦，好吧，我有这种感觉。我已经习惯了。

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当我尝试脱离社交媒体时，我发现了什么

CNN：人们认为智能手机能节省时间，但你说没有智能手机反而比以前拥有更多空闲时间。这是怎么回事？这对你的生活有何影响？

拉姆：如果我们每天花五个小时刷手机，而我停止刷手机，每天又能多出五个小时，我绝对不会花五个小时去打电话给水电公司而不是在线缴费、去邮局或者去图书馆打印公交票。人们觉得这些事情极其不方便，但实际上，它们只是多花一点时间而已，而且步行去这些地方还能带来社交、户外活动和锻炼的额外好处。

你不会回顾一天后说：“我把时间都浪费在网上了”，但实际上，这些零碎的查看行为都会影响你的屏幕时间。比如回复短信，然后快速浏览新闻标题。如果你一天这样做50次，加起来就相当于几个小时的屏幕时间。如果你能避免这些行为，就能节省大量时间。

它彻底改变了我的生活，因为即使在最忙的时候，工作量巨大、压力很大的时候，我每天仍然有几个小时的空闲时间。我再也没有像以前使用电子设备时那样感到恐惧和恐慌了。

我们都觉得自己很忙，而我只想挑战这种想法。

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CNN：你写道，当我们依赖智能手机导航等事情时，我们会学会无助。你觉得现在扔掉智能手机后，你的大脑更敏锐了吗？

拉姆：你的技能会自动恢复，无需重新训练。我们天生就能吸收信息，记忆力也很好。即使是那些自称记忆力差、注意力不集中、方向感差的人，我也一样会这样说。

每个人都具备记忆能力，因为这是一种生存技能。我们进化出了这种能力。以前我们没有地方储存所有知识，甚至在没有纸笔的情况下进化，所以我们的大脑确实具备记忆和辨别方向的能力。

扔掉智能手机，完全依靠自己（此处并无双关之意），我惊讶于自己的思维能力。我跟所有扔掉智能手机的人聊过，他们都有这种感受。

CNN：你说你现在更能感受到周围的环境。这种感觉如何？它对你的身心健康有何影响？

拉姆：我能想到的最贴切的描述，就是带着手机时那种心不在焉的感觉。我跟人说话的时候，脑子里想的却是什么时候才能再看一眼手机。那种焦躁不安的感觉，就像现在邻居敲门，我出去跟他说话，但我知道炉子上还有东西在煮。感觉就像，“很高兴见到你，但我得回去看看。” 一直都是这种感觉——好像还有别的事情在后台进行，而这并非我生活的全部。

任何注意力分散都会让你脱离当下。活在当下意味着接纳你所处的这一刻。它不是将它与其他时刻比较，不是想要用什么来填补它或改变它，不是感到焦躁不安，也不是觉得自己在浪费时间。

Maxwell Shukuya/CNN Underscored

想在2026年减少刷手机的时间吗？这12件必备物品帮助我在30天内将屏幕使用时间减少了一半（图片来自CNN Underscored）

CNN：对于那些认为自己离不开智能手机的人，你有什么建议？

拉姆：你应该试试不用智能手机的生活。先坚持一个月，看看月底感觉如何，再决定哪些事能做，哪些事不能做。因为你还没试过，谁知道结果如何呢。

如果你使用应用程序进行血糖监测，但仍然想减少屏幕使用时间，我建议你购买一部功能手机作为你的主力手机，并将智能手机纯粹视为医疗设备。

卡拉·阿拉伊莫是费尔利·狄金森大学的传播学教授，她为家长、学生和教师提供关于如何管理屏幕时间的建议。她的著作《过度影响：为什么社交媒体对女性和女孩有害——以及我们如何才能夺回控制权》于2024年出版。

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