Why Some Gen Zers Are Trading Smartphones for 'Dumb Phones'

A small but growing slice of Gen Z is deliberately downgrading — trading smartphones for "dumb phones" that strip out social media apps entirely, in a bid to break habits many say they never consciously chose to form in the first place.

How big is the trend, really?

It's still a niche behavior rather than a mass migration. One startup selling minimalist devices, Dumb.co, reports more than 5,000 active users, with its typical customer a 24-year-old woman — practical tools like maps, ride-hailing and music are kept, while social apps are simply left off the device. Other companies, like Light Phone, sell dedicated no-app hardware, while products such as Brick take a lighter-touch approach: a companion accessory that blocks selected apps on a phone someone already owns.

Why Gen Z specifically

The people driving this trend are the first generation to have grown up with social media as a constant rather than something adopted in adulthood, which several of them cite as exactly the problem — it's harder to recognize a habit as optional when it's been the default your entire life. Research cited alongside the trend puts the average US teen's social media use at close to five hours a day, well above general adult usage figures.

A trend, not a rejection of technology

Importantly, this isn't Gen Z rejecting phones or connectivity — most dumb-phone switchers keep a smartphone at home for tasks that need it, or use companion tools that block rather than remove functionality. It reads less as anti-technology and more as an attempt to separate "phone as tool" from "phone as attention-capture device," a distinction more software and hardware makers are starting to build products around.