The Dumbphone Experiment: Reclaiming Attention from Algorithms

A dumbphone experiment is simple: for a set period, swap your smartphone for a basic phone that only calls and texts, or strip your smartphone back until it behaves like one. The point is not nostalgia. It is to find out how much of your attention the always-on internet in your pocket is taking, and what you do with it when it is gone. The best recent evidence suggests the effect can be real.

What is a dumbphone?

A dumbphone, or feature phone, is a mobile that handles calls and SMS but has little or no internet, apps or social media. Some modern "minimalist phones" add a few tools such as maps, music or a camera while leaving out feeds and browsers. A dumbphone experiment uses one, or a locked-down smartphone, for a fixed period, typically two to four weeks.

Does going without smartphone internet actually help?

The strongest evidence comes from a 2025 randomised controlled trial. Castelo and colleagues (PNAS Nexus, 2025) used an app to block all mobile internet on participants' smartphones for two weeks, while leaving calls, texts and desktop internet available, essentially turning the phone into a dumbphone. The intervention improved mental health, subjective wellbeing and objectively measured sustained attention, and 91% of participants improved on at least one of those outcomes. The researchers found people spent more time socialising in person, exercising and being outdoors.

Earlier, a large experiment by economists at Stanford and NYU found that deactivating Facebook for four weeks reduced online activity, increased offline activities including time with family and friends, modestly increased subjective wellbeing, and led to a lasting reduction in Facebook use afterwards (Allcott et al., American Economic Review, 2020).

These are short-term studies, and effects vary from person to person. But they are causal evidence, not just correlation, and they point the same way.

Why does removing the smartphone help attention?

• Fewer interruptions. Notifications alone can disrupt focus. A 2015 study found that receiving a notification, without answering it, impaired performance on an attention task (Stothart et al., 2015).
• No infinite feeds. Feeds have no natural stopping point. A phone without them forces a stop.
• Different defaults. When the easy option disappears, people fill the time with other things. In the 2025 trial that meant more in-person time, exercise and nature.
• Better evenings. Light-emitting screens before bed delay sleep and the body clock (Chang et al., PNAS, 2015). Taking the smartphone out of the bedroom helps.

Dumbphone vs locked-down smartphone vs app limits: which is best?

If a full dumbphone is impractical, the 2025 trial suggests that removing mobile internet, not the phone itself, is the active ingredient. The greyscale phone guide covers a lighter version.

How do you run a 30-day dumbphone experiment?

1. Audit what you actually need. List the smartphone functions you cannot do without: two-factor authentication, banking, maps, work chat, parking apps. Find a workaround for each before you start.
2. Pick the setup. A basic phone with your SIM, a minimalist phone, or your smartphone with mobile data and social apps removed.
3. Tell the people who matter. Let family and work know you will be slower on messages and how to reach you urgently.
4. Set fixed "computer windows". Batch email, banking and messaging into one or two set times a day on a laptop.
5. Plan the replacement. Decide what fills the old scroll time: a walk, a book, training, a hobby. Empty time tends to get filled with the old habit.
6. Keep brief notes. Each evening, rate focus, mood and sleep from one to five. It turns impressions into something you can compare.
7. Decide what to keep. At day 30, choose which restrictions stay. Most people do not go back to exactly the old setup.

What should you expect in the first weeks?

Expect the reflex to reach for your phone to persist for a while; it is a well-practised habit triggered by cues like boredom, queues and waking up. Habits built over years do not vanish in days. Expect some practical friction in the first week, which is why the audit in step one matters. And expect the payoff to show up in small ways first: reading longer, finishing tasks, falling asleep without a screen.

Who is a dumbphone experiment not suitable for?

If your job depends on being reachable through apps, if you are a carer who needs location sharing, or if you rely on your phone for medical or safety reasons, a full switch may not be practical. A partial version, such as blocking mobile internet during set hours, is a better fit. The goal is a phone that serves you, not a purity test.

What do you do after the experiment?

Turn what worked into rules: no phone in the bedroom, social apps on desktop only, phone in another room during deep work blocks. The freed attention is worth protecting, and it goes furthest when it is pointed at something: training, study, building a skill. If the hardest part was the urge to start tasks you had been avoiding, our guide on how to stop procrastinating is the next step. And if you notice your training improves, our piece on how your phone affects your lifting explains why.