The ‘dumb’ retro phones that people are ditching iPhones and Androids for

PEOPLE are rebelling against the sleek smartphone, in favour of their clunky predecessors.

These ‘dumb’ phones are, in fact, becoming trendy. The brick-like Nokia is once again in vogue.

Nokia announced earlier this week that it was starting to regain portions of the mobile phone market last year.

The former fan-favourite phone brand has bowed to the popularity of Apple’s iPhones and Google Android devices in recent years.

But a trend is gaining momentum among the smartphone generation – the people who have mostly only known touch-screen devices with access to a whole library of apps.

Now, a growing community of people are swapping out their devices for simpler brick and flip phones.

The popularity of 90s and noughties fashion has teens and young adults across the globe alive to how people’s relationship with technology has changed since ‘the good old days’ – before the dawn of the smartphone.

The days when you didn’t get FOMO (fear of missing out) through social media apps, or become locked in a so-called ‘doom scroll’.

The impacts smartphones and social media have had on mental health has helped drive the movement.

Some are calling it a ‘dopamine diet’.

This where they try and limit their smartphone consumption after becoming addicted to features that grant users quick bursts of dopamine – the brain’s happy chemicals – such as social media or games.

And others are introducing ‘dumb’ phones into their lives to be more present in the ‘real world’.

One TikTok user @skzzolno said she and her friends have all adopted flip phones to use when they are going out to bars and clubs.

They are then armed with only each other’s numbers and emergency contacts, no social media and retro cameras.

This helps to avoid drunken calls to old flames, embarrassing social media posts and unflattering pictures and videos in high-definition.

Although plenty of old phones can be found for sale on Ebay, here are the some retro phones on the market today:

• Nokia 2660 Flip Mobile Phone / £64.99
• Nokia 105 Mobile Phone / £24.99
• Cat B26 Mobile Phone / £49.99

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