On April Fools’ Day, I called my mom. I told her that for a month, I was “going flip phone” — meaning, abandoning my iPhone for one with no access to social media apps. And no, it wasn’t a joke.

My discontent with my screen time reached new peaks in late March after a stint in physical therapy and a string of near-constant rainy days.

But first, some context: I stare at screens all day for a living, and I’m no stranger to life affixed to a computer, palm-sized or not. I grew up in the 2000s, playing Neopets and the Sims 2. I later inherited my mom’s busted iPhone 3GS in 2011 as an eighth-grader, and said goodbye to my LG Lotus flip phone. I’ve been on Instagram since within a year of its launch.

For more than a decade, I lived by the idea of “good screen” and “bad screen.” That is, bad screen is work/school-related, and good screen is just for the vibes, like spending an hour or so in a Wikipedia rabbit hole. Good screen felt like a reclamation of my own time.

Until it didn’t.

Turns out, good screen is actually a farce. We didn’t know it at the time in the 2010s, but increased use of smartphones and social media was probably bad for my then-developing brain. According to an October 2024 CDC report, the percentage of teenagers who had symptoms of anxiety or depression was higher among those with four hours or more of daily screen time.

For me, the decision came about because I realized that my phone was getting in the way of doing literally anything else. Like going to a coffee shop with a friend. Or playing evening soccer and getting a drink after. Or hosting dinner parties. If there’s one thing I’ve learned while working here alongside Even Better’s Allie Volpe, the key to a good life is to get some sun early in the day, do regular movement, and socialize often.

So “dumbphone” it was.

© Vox