Offline, unreachable, happy: The smartphone rebels

By Misch Pautsch Switch to German for original article

Smartphones are so closely interwoven with our everyday lives that it seems difficult, almost unthinkable, to voluntarily do without them. The replacement of the Luxtrust token by an app shows that having one is increasingly becoming the norm. But some are still trying to do without. Is that still possible? And what can we learn from them?

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."

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