Offline, unreachable, happy: The smartphone rebels

Wallet, keys … smartphone! Do you still leave the house without the ritual check? In less than 20 years, these little rectangles have gone from a futuristic high-tech gadget to a daily companion that most of us – let's be honest – find it hard to imagine life without, if at all. According to the Bee Secure Radar 2024, 87 per cent of 17 to 30-year-olds look at their mobile phones at least once an hour. To the Centre for Excessive Behaviour (ZEV) confirms that more than a third even exhibit problematic – i.e. addiction-adjacent – behaviour patterns. But it's about more than entertainment and social relationships: Restaurants have QR codes instead of menus, admission and flight tickets are digital, banking and Luxtrust have become apps. More and more services require a smartphone – after all, almost everyone has one anyway. Life is definitely easier that way, and doing without one is now a statement.

Pol Straus places a small, yellow Nokia on the table. "I've had this for ten years now. I have no idea which model it is." The colour has almost completely disappeared from the control pad and the rounded edges. "It's actually not that difficult. Why do I need a mobile phone? I make calls and send text messages. The battery lasts the whole week. There are other dedicated devices for everything else." He describes a short trial period with a smartphone that his aunt gave him as "annoying because the battery was flat all the time."