A poster titled “Keys to Understand Generation Z” lists seven characteristics that differentiate this generation from those that came before. Most of the poster’s observations are generalizations of limited value. However, one comment is particularly cutting—and also false.
The poster claims that the members of Generation Z (or Gen Z) are “digital natives.” It explains, “The Internet has been part of their lives since the very first day, and they don’t know how to live without being connected.”
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How the poster’s unnamed author made that determination is easy to see. Seemingly, most “Gen Z-ers” were born with a smartphone in their hands. For them, black-and-white televisions, dial telephones, encyclopedias and library card catalogs are as far removed as steam locomotives, kerosene lamps and gramophones are from baby boomers.
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A recent article in The Washington Times might surprise the poster-makers. The headline says it all: “Gen Z on a ‘Dopamine Diet’—They’re Bringing Back the Flip Phone.”
Flip and slide phones were all the rage in the 2000s before BlackBerrys and iPhones burst onto the scene. Now, increasing numbers of young people are embracing these older models in an effort to better control their lives.
Technology Drives Dopamine
Gen Z consists of those born between 1996 and 2012. The generation has been bombarded with dopamine—sometimes defined as “the feel-good neurotransmitter,” a chemical in the brain that transmits emotions, sensations, moods etc.
Social media and other quick exiting bits of information produce dopamine fixes. Some theorize that dopamine acts in the same way as mood-altering substances like anti-depressants and alcohol. The users enjoy the effect so much that they increase their use, especially as the impact of each use diminishes. Eventually, this use becomes an addiction that the user can no longer control without a massive effort of will.
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The Washington Times article quotes New York Institute of Technology Professor Melissa DiMartino. “Smartphones have the same chemical reaction in the brain as drugs and alcohol. Looking at your phone to feel better becomes an addictive cycle that ultimately leads people to feel depressed and lonely.”
PNAS Nexus, a National Academy of Sciences publication, reinforces the professor’s conclusions. It reports the findings of an experiment in which “a mobile phone application to block[ed] all mobile internet access from participants’ smartphones for 2 weeks…. These results provide causal evidence that blocking mobile internet can improve important psychological outcomes, and suggest that maintaining the status quo of constant connection to the internet may be detrimental to time use, cognitive functioning, and well-being.”
Privacy or Nostalgia?
Thus, many Gen Z-ers have concluded that giving their lives over to their phones is not a good deal. Some are embracing “dopamine diets.” They want their mobile phones to serve as tools, not masters. Others claim a desire to establish some personal privacy. The Times article quotes one young man, “I’ve always hated being available to everyone.”
ZDNET, a web-based product of digital media and Internet company Ziff Davis, offers a more straightforward explanation: nostalgia. It repeats the opinion of Liam Howley, Chief Marketing Officer of Decluttr, an online company specializing in helping people sell “the tech you don’t need anymore for extra cash.”
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“Nostalgia is powerful,” he added, saying that many current consumers want a different and simpler look than what’s popular right now. The demand for these models fuels “more innovation and improvement in the world of flips and foldables.”
The Marketplace Speaks Loudly
Regardless of whether Professor DiMartino or Mr. Howley has the better explanation, flip phone sales are clearly increasing.
Since 2021, their sales have increased by 148 percent, primarily to customers between eighteen and twenty-four years old.
Such a trend reflects “the science” that argues that returning to a less intrusive technology improves the user’s psychological health. Indeed, many members of the Baby Boom, Gen-X and Gen-Y generations have grown frighteningly dependent on smartphones. They might do well to borrow insight from their younger counterparts.
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