Last year I shut down all our internet services for everyone in my home (me, my wife and our kids), so that all we have now are a landline and radio, no internet or television or texting or TV or anything. Our lives have become significantly happier since then. We have so much more time to do anything we want, we feel so much less overwhelmed and distracted, and we're starting to live full, active and fulfilling lives.<p>But we would like to text and make phone calls while on the go, without the constant temptation to be connected to emails, Facebook, and browsers all the time. So I have been searching the web for a month looking for a "dumb phone", a phone that doesn't have anything but text and phone, not even a "home screen". Something like you would see in the 90s. But it just doesn't exist.<p>Maybe there's no market for it, but maybe there will be one if you make it and market it well. And that's what you guys are good at.
Are you sure this isn't a lifestyle you're forcing on your kids? I've known a few kids from low-tech families and in my experience, it's rarely something they'd choose for themselves, were they given the choice. Kids use the internet to chat with friends after school and to arrange events. They also tend to bond over videos and TV shows they've all watched, and in general, they don't like to be different from their peers or to miss out on opportunities to socialise or to bond socially over shared experiences.<p>In my experience, kids from low-tech families also tend to binge on their banned technology when they get the opportunity, like watching TV at a friend's house or spending lunchtime in the school's library/computer lab, maybe because of a lack of learned self-control.
There is no market for this, which is why you can't find it. The vast majority of people who want a phone/text device but don't want browsers, emails, MySpace, or app stores simply ignore those features.
<a href="https://www.punkt.ch/en/products/mp02-4g-mobile-phone/" rel="nofollow">https://www.punkt.ch/en/products/mp02-4g-mobile-phone/</a><p>Sounds like it might work for you.
The Alcatel flip phone at Consumer Cellular looks like it's strictly text and phone except for the bit about downloading wallpaper suggests it has some kind of web client inside. <a href="https://www.consumercellular.com/Products/813/Details" rel="nofollow">https://www.consumercellular.com/Products/813/Details</a>
Buy any android phone and uninstall the browser/everything else. Put custom software on it without GAPPS. Moto e⁴ plus has a 2 day battery life, probably longer if you're not using a browser. LG still makes flip feature phones but they have a primitive browser which you don't have to use by not signing up to any data plan.<p>No internet is too extreme though, library genesis and sci-hub I'd be lost without them as I can't afford $100+ texts or journal subscriptions. Youtube videos by mathematicians I also wish I had when I was in highschool.
There used to be dumbphones for elder people with big buttons at retail stores not too long ago (at least at my place). Maybe these aren't advertised on the web.<p>Edit: don't know about US, though
I used to own a Just5 Brick phone for a simpler phone experience. I don’t know if they’re going to continue selling them though, as they’ve been marked “sold out” for some time now.<p><a href="http://www.just5.com/worldwide/en/brick/brick-red" rel="nofollow">http://www.just5.com/worldwide/en/brick/brick-red</a>
This gets asked all the time. Rather than rehashing some good prior conversations, check out past discussions at:<p><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=dumb+phone+site%3Aycombinator.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/search?q=dumb+phone+site%3Aycombinato...</a>
My aunt and uncle got one recently for when they are traveling, i think they picked it up at 7-11. its a prepaid, but if you dont use it much, i figure thats the best way to go anyhow.