When I opened TikTok to see a pink bedazzled Motorola flip phone, I immediately wanted one for myself — maybe minus the glitter. I envisioned myself reading at a park, browsing vintage stores, enjoying a cup of coffee, completely engulfed in the moment. A flip phone seemed like the key to my dream “unplugged” life.
Social media forces these quick fixes onto us all of the time. Some product, service or habit is promised to completely change the way we live. A fitness challenge, 75 Hard, is supposed to leave you unrecognizable physically and mentally. An iPad will reinvigorate your academic performance. Reading Robert Greene’s “The 48 Laws of Power” will make you a leader and a visionary. These makeshift solutions, while not total wastes of time, miss the point of pursuing self-improvement. It’s not about finding a cure-all — it’s about changing your attitude. Being unplugged has itself fallen victim to this online trend cycle. And while a less digitized lifestyle is a worthy goal, this habit change has to come from a place of self-fulfillment, not external validation.
For those who don’t keep up with the latest social media trends — kudos to you — the flip phone has experienced a considerable resurgence online. In fact, there has been a crusade of anti-social media content that is, ironically, finding audiences on social media platforms. There is a growing desire — especially among youth — to replace time spent scrolling with more fulfilling experiences. Especially in college, a period in our lives in which time moves stressfully fast, this mindfulness is necessary. We should make the most of “the best four years of our lives,” not ignore them as we overload our cerebrums with short-form content.
But mindfulness is achieved gradually. Don’t get me wrong, you and I should probably both spend less time on social media, but there is no miracle purchase that will reach that goal for us. Though I was tempted, I realized that if I bought a flip phone, I would probably just start scrolling on my computer instead. The same goes for all of these quick fixes: They’ll never replace self-discipline.
Lifestyle trends, while well-intentioned, lack earnestness. Just as I envisioned my perfectly unplugged life through the lens of an outsider, most of these supposedly transformative changes are performative. We don’t follow them to improve our own experiences, but instead to change how our lives are perceived.
The need for instant gratification and constant stimulation are at the real root of social media addiction, whether that comes from a smartphone or not. These tendencies can be overcome, but it has to be through intentional steps that curb our cravings.
A good (and maybe obvious) starting point is finding offline hobbies. Hobbies lay the foundation for a more present life, but they require genuine interest. It’s quite the challenge to stop scrolling without an exciting alternative. On several occasions, I’ve forced myself to try “cool” hobbies but I abandoned all of them within a week. Finding a real interest is a surprisingly hard task. Social media makes it hard to do something without any care about how it makes you look from the outside.
Older generations are a great source of inspiration. Most exist outside of the pressures of social media; They feel no need to show off just how unplugged they are. For example, I come from a board game family. For a good amount of time, games felt like an interruption between scroll sessions, but college made me realize just how much I actually like them. My parents, grandma and I don’t play “Trivial Pursuit” because it makes us appear a certain way, but for the experience itself.
We live in an abundance of uncanny, parasocial lifestyle improvement trends, and we often lunge for the perception of self-motivation, discipline and authenticity without actually executing them for our own benefit. To achieve a fulfilling lifestyle, we have to ditch our phones for the right reasons.
CJ Lair ’28 can be reached at craig_lair@brown.edu. Please send responses to this column to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
CJ Lair is a staff columnist at the Brown Daily Herald. He is from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and plans to study Political Science at Brown. This is his first year writing for a publication, and is especially interested in political developments and their impacts on the Brown community.
