ava's blog

dumbphones as a new status symbol

After the April Fools joke yesterday, now a sincere post:

Beginning of this week, I wondered if dumbphones are, or will be, a new status symbol.

Status symbols are, at their core, an indication of one's social or economic standing. Seeing them in action, they are usually forming aspirational trends with aspects that are unattainable for the masses, whether it is expensive brands, body types, social media content and more. They're there to ascribe certain positive values to people based on the symbol.

I am biased in that exactly this type of online stuff obviously catches my eye, but I do believe the mood has been shifting the past few years. Seeing smartphones and social media as problematic or downright evil has moved from being a fringe position to a mainstream issue that has a thousand books and a million blog posts and magazine articles. A lot of people now talk about how they significantly lessened their activity on platforms or deleted their accounts. If not due to ethical reasons, it’s for mental health reasons or being tired of ads and boring influencers.

Before this, we had an era idolizing influencers and other online celebs that made it a habit to post a lot, recorded everything, overshared and documented their life, and so people wanted to do that too. The aesthetic and perfect pictures showcasing the perfect lifestyle or going viral based on a meme/skit and getting paid for it was normalized, but still had this aura of unattainability and exclusivity to it. Not everyone has the body for it and an eye for good shots and content, and it used to be harder to get followers and get noticed by brands and get their sponsorships.

Now though, it feels like they’re making influencers in a factory and people are tired of sharing things just to get annoying comments and likewise know too much personal stuff about complete strangers. Their feeds are now trash. As usual, the pendulum swings.

I see more regard for privacy - not necessarily the tech kind, more like simply choosing to keep things to yourself online. More about disconnecting, the idea that offline is the new luxury, being harder to reach. ‘Chronically online’ is an insult. People raved about that joke app that makes you touch grass and many use some apps like onesec. More people talk about getting a dumbphone, particularly feature flipphones1 (not the smartphone foldables). The general comeback of Y2K aesthetics2, separate MP3 players and digital cameras3 lend itself to that, too. I even tried out the Barbie flipphone, but returned it because it felt like a Happy Meal toy and not like a proper phone.

So in a world where constant connection, recording and oversharing while scrolling for hours a day has been very normal and even been presented as aspirational for years, it’s different to not to be doing that; but it’s even more radical to take the opportunity to do so away from yourself voluntarily. To me, many status symbols have something radical about them (positive or negative).

It has the potential to be the new cool: Mysterious. Untouchable. De-influenced. It carries an image of nostalgia, cooler designs and customization, better mental health, offline connections and being outside, having eclectic hobbies without milking them for content. Then the cunty visuals of a flipphone: Their iconic look and associated femininity, clapping it shut, the charms. On the other hand, the small size, simplicity and stability of a non-flip featurephone. They were not meant to market stuff to you constantly and replace everything.

If the models lack a (good) camera, it might express: I live in the moment. I don’t care to record everything. I don’t need the attention from a particularly good picture. I’m okay with bringing a separate camera when I need it.

The small screen and usual lack of Spotify or the type of music capabilities we’re used to is so different to constantly drowning in entertainment, ads and distracting yourself in every free moment. To me it suggests: You have my attention, and this is a mere tool, not a toy or pacifier. It sticks out among people who frantically pull out the phone every other minute and say they struggle with their attention span.

The disconnection to certain apps, feeds and notifications makes me think you’re okay with missing out, you’re okay with not constantly checking upvotes, followers and comments, and fine with not knowing the latest awful news and drama.

Where it gets exclusive and therefore interesting as a status symbol is that so many people are addicted to apps, checking and validation, so making the switch is actually difficult - even if they really want to. And not only that, many of us now actually rely on a smartphone for 2FA codes, QR code scanning, transportation and companion apps for work and personal matters. Not needing that suggests independence, no workplace requiring it and a lack of accounts that need to be protected.

This functions as a sort of class signifier. Not needing to blow up and get money through social media because you have enough; no need for a (or not having the type of) workplace to require a smartphone; the close relation to wellness/soft life/selfcare content via the aspect of disconnection and improved mental health, which is often inherently luxurious as most people do not have the time or money for these routines and products. Fittingly, it's also about taking your time back and not scrolling feeds for hours; which makes sense, as time especially is a big component of privilege. Money buys leisure and has always been a big part of the class divide (also see the concept of "the leisure class"4).

That’s probably something a significant number of people subconsciously yearn for. It helps that people can see that their favorite rich celebs either completely delete their accounts or periodically disappear, modeling a new type of behavior from the people they admire that helps it take off as a trend.

That’s when people who made the switch to a dumbphone anyway become the new trend, and the dumbphone becomes a status symbol.

Is that projecting a whole lot of things onto people that downgrade to a dumbphone? Sure, but that’s what status symbols are in part about: You are supposed to assume a whole lot of positive things about the associated person no matter if it’s actually true or not. Even if it’s just supposed to scream “I’m rich!” when they’re not. You’re supposed to think they can afford something you can’t, and it doesn’t have to be material; in the case of a dumbphone as a status symbol, you’ll think they can afford to be disconnected in ways you cannot be, so you covet that kind of life if you’ve been fed up about your smartphone.

In conclusion, I can totally see that happening, and we might be in the beginning stages of it now. I wouldn't be surprised if Megan Thee Stallion rapped about throwing away her smartphone next. Sounds dumb? I remember when a TikToker online correctly predicted that due to the intense prices, fresh produce would become the new status symbol, and it did5.

Reply via email
Published 02 Apr, 2025

  1. Eddy Burback, Alex Ernst, Chloe Lau and many many more, especially since the start of the year. I actually started writing this before Eddy Burback uploaded his, and seeing it made me realize how timely the topic is; if someone as big as him is doing that, there has to be something ringing true in my post.

  2. Y2K Fashion and see: Ice Spice’s newest album, Brooke Candy’s Flipphone, Barbie movie etc.

  3. If you didn't know: Digital cameras are back, and so are MP3 players and refurbished iPods. If you want separate music and camera, then a lot of the big draws of a phone that combines it all falls away.

  4. The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen, 1899

  5. 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 and tbh too many more

#2025 #bestof #tech