These college kids are swearing off smartphones. It's sparking a movement.

USA Today

a day ago

These college kids are swearing off smartphones. It's sparking a movement.
There was no way around it: Charlie Fisher was addicted to his smartphone. He scrolled on TikTok and Instagram first thing in the morning, picked it up to answer text messages between classes and relied on it as a crutch in social settings. It was a 'never ending pattern.'
'It just basically created this pattern where I was anxious, and so I'd open my smartphone, and then I would hate myself for opening my smartphone, which made me more anxious,' Fisher says.
If you told him a few years ago that he wouldn't be living with a smartphone, he would've been shocked, but the 20-year-old says his life is better because of it. He's part of a movement of college students who are trading in their smartphones for what's now considered trendy hardware: flip phones.
Growing up in a 'social wasteland'
Fisher grew up playing with basketballs and nerf guns around his cul-de-sac with a group of neighborhood kids. But when they all downloaded Snapchat, it changed the way they interacted — they no longer had to knock on each other's doors to ask to play and hangouts started to involve screens.
By the time he entered high school, everyone in his classroom had a phone.
He's not alone. Nearly half of teens say they're online constantly, according to 2024 data from the Pew Research Center. And 48% of teens aged 13 to 17 say social media has a negative effect on kids their age.
'It got to the point where I didn't even know what being present was,' Fisher says. 'Someone said flip phone. I was like, 'Wait, you can do that?'
He bought a $20 Nokia flip phone from Walmart with a $6 per month plan. For a year, he waffled between his smartphone and the flip phone until he pulled the trigger and fully ditched his smartphone in March.
Seán Killingsworth, 22, had long noticed that his peers' interactions were impacted by the smartphones in their pockets. He recalled a 'social wasteland' of 'zombies' who were unavailable for social connection.
He got a flip phone his sophomore year of high school. Whenever a new friend asked for his Snapchat, the conversation would quickly come to an awkward halt after he explained he had a flip phone. When he tried to call people — texting on his flip phone's keyboard was tedious — it was anxiety inducing or off-putting for his peers, who often stopped reaching out.
'I ran into a lot of barriers just trying to make a friend because of the mode of communication I'd chosen to use,' Killingsworth says.
When he enrolled in school at Rollins College, he wanted things to be different, and started hosting casual get togethers with friends without phones. Eventually, it turned into the first chapter of the Reconnect Movement, which has since spread to the University of Florida and University of Central Florida. Another chapter is on tap to launch at Simpson College in Iowa this fall.
The events involve activities like painting, playing outdoor sports or hosting lighthearted 'goofy debates' where students argue over topics like mountains vs. the beach. Many times, though, the event at hand morphs into an afternoon where everyone just hangs out.
'It's a way to see and be able to experience what is possible with just connecting with a group of people for no reason and just hanging out purely to hang out,' Killingsworth says. 'That doesn't really happen anymore, because everything's so facilitated and planned out by technology.'
More: Why quitting tech and social media is harder than quitting cigarettes
How smartphones impact the young brain
Addiction spans devices and platforms and is most heavily tied to algorithms that feed curated content to users, according to Digital literacy expert Kaitlyn Regehr, who is the author of 'Smartphone Nation.'
A combination of factors — the refresh screen, the device's color saturation, notifications and prompt system — impact how the addiction functions.
Child psychiatrist and Yale School of Medicine Professor Yann Poncin says smartphones impact the brain in three key ways: impacting productivity and prioritization, depleting the brain's cognitive patience and threshold for tolerating frustration, and rewiring the brain's pleasure pathways and dopamine release.
'Your dopamine system, over time, over multiple events, is getting set in a way that to trigger dopamine release and a feel good release, you actually now need this phone, because nothing else in life is regularly going to give you that level of dopamine satisfaction,' Poncin says.
Poncin says teenage years are a core time when young people start developing their identity and determining who they are in relation to their larger peer group. The hormonal and biological changes young people experience make them more attuned to social comparison, something a social media presence can heighten as teens compare their followers and likes to those around them.
'The natural state of adolescence that is prone to feeling left out, prone to maybe feeling blue, sometimes prone to social anxiety; it is not caused by social media, but it is aggravated by social media,' Regehr says.
'I've been seeing things more like when I was a kid'
In the time since Fisher got a flip phone, he says he's returned to old hobbies. He's a musician, and has made more time to play harmonica, mandolin, banjo and guitar. He used to miss details on the screen when he watched movies, but when he watched the 2005 action film 'Sahara' this week on vacation, he could vividly remember the details afterwards.
'I've been seeing things more like when I was a kid,' Fisher says. 'You really see things for how they are in the physical world, and your emotions are really attached to that.'
For incoming Oberlin College junior Logan Lane, an unexpected benefit of ditching her phone was developing her fashion sense. The 20-year-old rose to prominence after a 2022 New York Times profile featured the Luddite Club she founded for high schoolers in Brooklyn.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, her outfits were heavily influenced by her TikTok for you page. But sitting in front of a trendy coffee shop in Brooklyn's Cobble Hill neighborhood, she donned an outfit reflective of her personal style: one of her mother's striped button downs, a bolo tie necklace and clogs with striped navy socks.
Through the Reconnect Movement, Killingsworth has watched his peers come out of their shells. The first meeting started off a little awkward — after all, the students weren't used to going without their phones. But 15 minutes into the event, he says even the most socially anxious participants were having energetic conversations
'You'd be surprised how many other people are feeling the exact same way you are about social media,' Killingsworth says.
The majority of the club's members don't have a flip phone, and Killingsworth acknowledges making the switch isn't for everyone.
Sammy Palazzolo, a content creator who uses a flip phone part time, says she can't imagine not having access to TikTok, where she regularly posts advice and story time videos to 490,000 followers. But on nights out, she carries her flip phone.
She and two friends purchased the phones during their freshman year after they realized all of the negative experiences they had while going out were tied to their cell phones, whether it was sending a text they regretted or neglecting to be present in the moment. Palazzolo recalled waking up with 'major anxiety' one morning after realizing she had accidentally posted a video on her Instagram story.
'These are supposed to be the best moments of our life, but you look around and people are scrolling,' Palazzolo says.
It didn't just make her more aware of her phone usage. Carrying the flip phone was trendy, and made for better photos on nights out.
'It really captured the vibe of the night better with it being blurry and kind of vintage feeling,' Palazzolo says.
More: How does social media affect mental health? It's complicated.
How to digital detox
Fisher warns that going cold turkey can be a jolt to the system. Instead, he recommends those looking to make a change to start by detoxing their social media and slowly weaning off of their smartphones to adjust to not having services like Google Maps.
There are learning curves: texting on a T9 keyboard, navigating dating without access to apps and managing the demands of modern work without constant access to Microsoft Teams or Slack. Lane started drawing maps by hand to keep track of directions to parties. Fisher is a music engineer and missed having his music apps, so he burned his CD collection onto an iPod.
Ultimately, though, the young people who've ditched smartphones say it's harder for those around them to adjust.'It just requires more planning,' Lane says of coordinating her plans sans smartphone.
For those who aren't ready to make the jump, Regehr recommends keeping a 'phone-fed journal' with notes on when you opened your phone, what you did on your phone, how long you were on it and how you felt afterwards.
Turning a phone on grayscale mode, turning off notifications and setting app time limits can provide short term relief. She also suggests trying a digital spring clean or unfollowing spree.
This might mean making a separate work-related social account if you're seeing work content after hours or unfollowing that swimsuit brand that doesn't make you feel good. Regehr refers to this active decision making process as algorithm resistance — curating a digital diet where the user, not the algorithm, is at the helm.
'Decide what you want to see more of and what you want to see less of,' Reghr says. 'Actively search for things you want, that you want to be part of your digital diet, and quickly move past things you don't.'
Rachel Hale's role covering Youth Mental Health at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Pivotal Ventures and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input. Reach her at [e-mail] and @rachelleighhale on X.