Flip phones are in the hands of Boston’s young adults
By Sydney Woogerd – Nov 20, 2025
This article was published in The Huntington News: Flip phones are in the hands of Boston’s young adults
In an age when the daily average screen time in the U.S. is nearly seven hours, some of Boston’s young adults have begun to exchange the constant noise of their smartphones for the blissful quiet of a nearly 30-year-old product: flip phones.
In 2022, a New York Times article featured a small group of Brooklyn teens who set aside their smartphones — or in some cases, flip phones — every Sunday to escape the nagging of social media and experience “real life.” Since then, the self-titled “Luddite Club” has expanded to 28 official locations and 44 pending locations across the U.S. and internationally. Last month, the club updated its website to include a program in Boston.
Liana Silva, a third-year cell and molecular biology major at Northeastern, was a driving force behind this expansion. During quarantine, they realized their increasing iPhone usage was directly affecting their attention span, focus and general quality of life. Today, they still struggle with social media addiction and plan on getting a flip phone as soon as their iPhone breaks.
“People don’t see how scary it is. [They] have been desensitized to how dystopian it is to be on your phone at all points of the day,” Silva said. “I want to bring people’s awareness to the severity of the [social media] addiction epidemic that we’re in.”
According to a 2022 survey conducted by Boston’s Digital Wellness Lab, 83% of nearly 1,500 Boston teenagers responded that they were anywhere between “slightly” and “completely” addicted to their smartphones. Additionally, a majority answered that media usage interfered with either their sleep, family time or schoolwork. College students have a similar experience to their teenage counterparts.
“I honestly feel like social media is ruining my brain,” said Jenna Vardaro, a fourth-year nursing major at Northeastern.
Even young adults who have graduated into the workforce also experience difficulties with screen time.
“I notice [that] when I’m not doing super mentally well, I’m on my phone more, almost to distract myself from real life,” said Rita Alan, a 23-year old Georgetown University graduate living in Boston.
Ella Carter Fenster, a fourth-year neuroscience and design combined major at Northeastern, had similar problems with social media before switching to a flip phone in August. In less than three months, Carter Fenster had already begun to see differences in their life.
“I just notice so much more of what’s going on around me,” Carter Finster said. “I feel like I have more time, because the time that I’m in transit, instead of being on my phone or listening to music, I’m just present.”
While owning a flip phone instead of a smartphone can often improve mental health, Maggie Ma, a fourth-year English and speech, language and hearing sciences major at Boston University, said that it’s not always the most realistic option. Last fall, after coming to terms with her social media addiction — which manifested as a constant need to be playing or doing something on her smartphone — Ma decided to purchase a $20 Nokia 2760 for a “digital detox.” Keeping her smartphone tucked away, Ma spent the next eight months almost solely carrying around her flip phone. In March, she even wrote an op-ed for BU Today recommending the switch.
However, while home this summer in Tustin, California, Ma “relapsed” and started using her iPhone again. Coming back to Boston this September, her stance on flip phones has moderated. While she still deeply values the time she spent away from her smartphone, Ma now considers the impracticalities of flip phones. This includes the lack of GPS, Uber, Google Calendar and other utilities, the absence of which is unrealistic to sustain long-term. However, she still stands by her recommendation to others to try doing a similar digital detox.
“We live in a world that makes it really hard,” Ma said. “Our phones, they sort of become extensions of ourselves. And it’s almost like losing a part of yourself when you don’t have [it]. You lose that connection to the online world. And I think that it’s really scary, but I think it’s a really good exercise if you’re struggling.”
Ma anticipates more people rejecting social media and smartphones in the future.
“As we see the internet become a less and less pleasant place, I think we’re definitely gonna see more people wanting to get off,” Ma said. “And that’s the only thing you really can do: Just turn it off.”
Sydney Woogerd 