HMD's Better Phone Project and the age of digital detox

What does digital detox even look like? The Better Phone Project from HMD (Image credit: HMD)

We use our phones way too much. An increasing number of studies are pointing to the flipside of the smartphone; addiction, anxiety, depression and more have all been attributed to the ubiquity of modern communications technology. Yet there’s still no magic behaviour changing bullet, no smartphone equivalent of the 1964 ‘Smoking and Health’ report from the US Surgeon General that blew away decades of tobacco industry hem-hawing.

We’re not suggesting that mobile phones have a similar toxicology, but it’s worth noting that no major manufacturers have commissioned any research into the (potentially) adverse effects of their products. Until now. Human Mobile Devices’ (HMD’s) The Better Phone Project was launched today.

As we’ve previously noted, the Finnish phone maker (and steward of the Nokia brand), has a bit of a bee in its bonnet about the negative effect of smartphones. On the eve of the launch of their latest device, the HMD Skyline, we spoke with CMO Lars Silberbauer and head of product Adam Ferguson, to find out more about the project.

‘None of our competitors are doing this,’ Silberbauer notes, describing how the legacy of Nokia’s rugged but light-featured ‘dumb phones’ are becoming more and more fashionable as people seek out devices without onboard distractions. The CMO explains that the firm's forthcoming Barbie-branded phone will ship with no social media functionality at all. Other socially conscious brands may want to follow suit.

HMD's Lars Silberbauer with Isabel Ferrer, EMEA Marketing Director at Mattel

That’s not all, however. Although scientific studies have hinted but not conclusively proved a correlation between smartphones, social media and mental health issues, few parents or young people would dispute that doom-scrolling can be just that, or that digital detox is a real thing.

The Better Phone Project has already generated some eye-popping research

‘By the age of 12, 97 per cent of UK children have a phone,’ says Ferguson, adding that in the US, ‘95 per cent of 13- to 17-year-olds use social media.’ Ferguson points out that Gen Z and Gen Alpha aren’t waiting around for the Surgeon General. ‘They know this is a problem.’ What’s also a problem is that phones themselves are convenient, shiny, delightful, addictive but also essential for many aspects of modern life.

However, this all comes with an unseen cost. HMD’s own recent research (talking to 10,000 parents in the UK, Europe, US, India and Australia) revealed that over half of parents wished they’d waited long before they gave a device to their children. And finally, most heartbreakingly of all, ‘over half of parents think that phones have changed their child’s personality.’

HMD Skyline's Detox mode — The HMD Skyline's forthcoming Detox mode

So what is the Better Phone Project? The topline is that it’ll ultimately result in a new device that’ll address some of the above issues. It will definitely be a challenge. Deliberately dull and boring devices have been tried before, and whilst they might have cult cachet, they have to contend with FOMO, peer pressure, status envy and all the other social complexities that accompany relentless conspicuous consumption of annually updated smartphones. Worse still, attempts to divert, block or even police phone use can often end up becoming a full time job for the 'authorities'.

Nokia candybar phones from HMD — Is simplicity the answer? The Nokia 235 and Nokia 215 from HMD

Ferguson acknowledges that current solutions boil down to choice versus control, and neither are optimal. However, HMD believes they can achieve something where so many others have failed. ‘Within a year, we’ll launch something that addresses this in some way,’ he says. That ‘something’ will be the ‘first phone co-created for children by parents to protect their mental wellbeing,’ a lofty and ambitious goal that few parents would criticise.

Perhaps HMD is the only company that could take this on. Not only is it one of the world leaders when it comes to making desirable dumbphones, but the Skyline will shortly be given a bespoke Detox function, one of the first devices to have this baked into the OS.

The company will be soliciting help from everyone it can, from experts and campaigners to parent support groups, to everyday phone owners old and new. Right now, the situation feels fairly hopeless – we’ve apparently all surrendered to the technology. As Dr Becky Foljambe, founder of the lobbying firm Health Professionals for Safer Screens, says, ‘Exploring the depth and breadth of emotion alongside the need for solutions (when 38 per cent parents are feeling there are “no solutions” according to the research results), makes this a very meaningful and impactful initiative by HMD.’

The new HMD Skyline reduced to its constituent parts — Exploding the world of smartphone use: HMD Skyline

A better phone? Tune in to find out whether dropping out could even be an option.

More information about the Better Phone Project can be found at HMD.com

Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.