It isn’t only ultra-Orthodox Jews who frequently object to smartphones – although stores in haredi neighborhoods report that some have both a “dumbphone” – with minimal features – and a smartphone to avoid community and rabbinic pressures. There are people around the world who purposely choose a cellphone with only minimal services, even though they can afford a smartphone and they are easily available.
The participants all came from countries and social surroundings where smartphones were available and the obvious choice. Their reasons for turning them down varied. Some wanted to get away from the distractions a smartphone unavoidably causes, while others wanted to avoid online surveillance. For parents of under-age children, the main reasons were a desire to keep their offspring away from social media and to avoid the temptation of a smartphone interrupting time with their kids.
Choices were made due to religious reasons
For a few, there were religious principles behind the choice. Annabel Rothschild, a doctoral researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology who was on the team specifically mentions ultra-Orthodox Jews. “For adherents of haredi Jewish practice, the form factor of the phone played an important role because it doesn’t appear too technically precious or novel, and the sometimes-cumbersome functionality was seen as a way to prevent excessive use. Aside from necessary communication technologies such as voice calls, text, and sometimes GPS, dumbphones usually have little else, which is valued by users as a way to focus on what they feel really matters,” she wrote.
People without smartphones have to get inventive. Refusing to use a smartphone caused all sorts of inconveniences in people’s daily lives, starting with the difficulty of finding a durable dumbphone. It also proved difficult to make various purchases, deal with two-factor authentication, and meet employers’ expectations of reaching employees outside working hours or locations.
