I was a 'screenager' addicted to my smartphone. So my friends and I ditched them and founded the Luddite Club.
. Everywhere we looked, we'd see the negative effects of social media play out in our friends' lives, as they constantly compared themselves with others and got caught up in the nuances of teenagedom. It was all very disheartening, and it seemed there was no escape. We'd see friends delete their apps, but they'd restore them again within days.
The benefits spill outside the meetings too. We have a rule to never take out your phone, even your flip phone, in the company of others. This creates some peer pressure, but in a healthy way. If a phone comes out, the yelling begins:Also, once flip-phone use reaches critical mass in a friend group, texting becomes a rarity. It's too cumbersome, and it takes too long. So we have our conversations in person, or we make a quick phone call.
One of my other friends has a flip phone, but she also still has her Instagram account. When we're with people who still have smartphones, she borrows them to log onto her Instagram. Not very Luddite of her, but I like to call it harm reduction. This way we still hear about parties, but don't have constant access to the cursed apps.