Jakarta (MidLand) – Technology observers explain that the launch of The Boring Phone at Milan Design Week, Italy (18/4) is also part of a trend that responds to the concerns of Gen Z (individuals born between 1997 and 2012) regarding technology which takes away attention and privacy.
In a report from The Guardian on Wednesday, The Boring Phone responded Generation Z’s resurgence of interest in retro cultural artifacts – a trend known as Newtro – such as vinyl records, cassettes, magazine photo clippings, 8-bit video games and vintage cell phones.
Technology analyst at research firm Mintel Joe Birch said there is evidence that Generation Z is changing their behavior towards mobile phone use, due to concerns about the negative impact of being constantly digitally connected.
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“For example, three in five Gen Zs say they don’t want to be too connected to the digital world,” Birch said.
In line with Rana Ali. The 29-year-old former finance employee, who now records as a music producer and rapper as Surya Sen, added: “The idea that if you send WhatsApp to someone and they don’t respond immediately, then something is wrong. I’ve had a smartphone a few times, but I always go back to a phone that lights up.
The nostalgic trend began when the Nokia 3310 was launched in 2017, a brick phone with an extraordinarily long battery life. Then in the United States in 2023, many TikTok users uploaded posts with the hashtag #bringbackflipphones.
HMD, which is behind Nokia’s revival, saw sales of its feature phones double by April 2023, while Punkt, which prefers to call them feature phones or minimalist phones, also saw a significant increase in sales.
But Apple and Samsung are not in danger yet, according to Mintel. Nine out of ten cell phones in circulation in the world are still smartphones.
According to GWI, another research firm, Gen Z is the only generation whose social media usage time has decreased since 2021, although older people are also digitally detoxing – including HMD marketing director Lars Silberbauer.
“For the first four hours you feel a little anxious. But then all of a sudden you start to concentrate and you go back to the same behavior as before,” Lars said.
The 20-something generation also appears to be more concerned about privacy, according to the Portulans Institute, as the internet is more like a surveillance tool for brands, governments and scammers than a place to pursue interests and find interesting people.
Older technology can create more freedom: Sampling hip-hop and dance music becomes nearly impossible for new artists, because Spotify or YouTube’s algorithms will recognize obscure samples and prevent the songs from being uploaded. However, underground artists can press 500 records (vinyl) mini albums (extended play/EP) and sell them to Disc Jockeys (DJs) and fans without difficulty.
The problem with offline is that the world is increasingly difficult for those who don’t have a smartphone.
There are 2.4 million families in England who cannot afford a mobile phone and two million young people lack access to learning devices, said Hannah Whelan, coordinator of the Data Poverty Lab at the charity Good Things Foundation .
“Most essential services are now available online: education, healthcare, universal credit,” Whelan said. People who can’t scan a QR code to fill out a form or order food are at least at a disadvantage, and some systems require it.
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Translator: Abdu Faisal
Editor: Zita Meirina
Copyright © MidLand 2024
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