Teenagers ditch smartphones for flip phones; what a new brain study revealed

[00:00:00]Well, get this. It could be the start of a new trend. Some teenagers are ditching their smartphones and they're buying flip phones instead.

[00:00:08]>> Kathy Lee spoke with one teen about his choice.

[00:00:12]>> Scroll, tap, repeat. For many people, doomscrolling on their smartphone has become second nature. That's how it was for Jared Gross.

[00:00:21]>> Now, I felt like I wasted a lot of time, and it was also hard to stop.

[00:00:25]>> Last November, the 17-year-old decided to make some changes. So, he ditched his smartphone for a flip phone where he could not access social media apps and started noticing improvements in his overall well-being.

[00:00:38]>> It's pretty good. I'm I like it way better. I think life is better on a flip phone.

[00:00:43]>> He wanted to know if those changes could be measured. So, he asked some of his closest friends to take part in a case study. They switched to flip phones for a couple months while a psychologist conducted before-and-after brain scans.

[00:00:57]Dr. Blake Osmond led the experiment, which included a questionnaire.

[00:01:01]>> And the measures for depression and stress levels, as well as anxiety, they dropped like immediately.

[00:01:08]>> And for the brain scans, >> what we saw is um a decrease of those alpha brain waves in the frontal lobe, which can be correlated with brain fog.

[00:01:19]>> Most of Gross's friends eventually returned to their smartphones, but he is still committed to his flip phone. The teen joins a growing trend of people seeking them out.

[00:01:29]>> It's just Nokia.

[00:01:30]>> Jerry Ada runs an e-commerce business selling refurbished cell phones and says more and more people want the old-school version.

[00:01:37]>> Five years prior, it used to be just seniors that are buying flip phones, but right now we are seeing that even the younger generation >> Ada adds that parents are also looking for flip phones for their kids.

[00:01:50]>> And asked, "Why are you buying a flip phone for your kid?" Cuz I don't want them to use social media.

[00:01:55]>> Gross says he is more present now that he doesn't have easy access to social media on his cell phone and he hopes his experience encourages others.

[00:02:05]>> I can message people, call people.

[00:02:07]>> to rethink their own screen time.

[00:02:11]>> Kathy Lee reporting for us there. While flip phones are becoming as you heard a little bit more popular, of course they still have a long way to go to try to catch up with smart phones. So, and I don't think they will.

[00:02:22]>> think there's much competition, but I do like the idea because we're on our phones so much. So, if you just had a flip phone, I feel like you would really enjoy the present moment.

[00:02:31]>> I can't go back to T9 though. If you don't know what that is, that's where you have to you have to go A B C and then that's the two and then you have to keep on hitting it where there's the letters on the numbers. You know, it's awful.

[00:02:42]>> I probably wouldn't text. I would just call people more.

[00:02:44]>> I was going to say I could just call at that point.

[00:02:46]>> That's the only thing I would do.

[00:02:48]>> Yeah. You one thing I miss about the flip phones is you could literally flip it to >> answer a phone call.

[00:02:53]>> And instantly look cool.

[00:02:53]>> I know. So, that's the I thought I was cool at the time. Maybe not.

[00:02:57]>> You know, you could just get rid of social media on your smartphone.

[00:03:00]>> Oh, that's true.

[00:03:00]>> That's hard though.

[00:03:01]>> Delete the app.

[00:03:02]>> I'm just saying.

[00:03:03]>> Safe storage.