Cheryl Geleepter attracts a lot of attention when she takes out her cell phone. That’s because she has a flip phone.
“Most people are surprised,” she told CNBC Make It.
The 40-year-old New Yorker has only ever used a “dumb phone,” a phone with basic calling and texting capabilities but minimal internet access or other “smart” features. She says this allows you to reach people on the go, without the distractions of notifications or the web.
In 2026, there are technical and social challenges associated with giving up the convenience of smartphones. Geriepter says that sometimes “things are missing.” Still, “the benefits of not having a smartphone outweigh the drawbacks,” she says. “Most of the time, I think it’s a blessing.”
“If you have a smartphone, you won’t be responsible.”
Geleepter got her first cell phone when she was 15, which she says was more of a “burden” than anything else. She preferred calling friends from her home phone and used her computer for instant messaging and email, which she felt was useless.
Her entire family continued to use stupid cell phones for a while after many people started getting smartphones. But Geriepter said her father got a smartphone in 2016 so he could plan his commute based on real-time traffic conditions. And about five years ago, when Verizon stopped offering the 3G service she needed on her older devices, her mother got it to avoid the hassle of texting on an incompetent phone, she says.
Geriepter and his younger brother still use flip phones.
“I decided for myself that if I had a smartphone, I wouldn’t be responsible,” she says. “I feel like I have an addictive personality. … Having the internet in front of me is not a good thing.”
Geliebter got a smartphone years ago, but didn’t want to use it and didn’t add cell phone service. “I was wondering what you would do with this.”
Instead, she used it as a tablet when she didn’t want to carry her laptop with her when she was traveling or needed to access customer perks apps or scan QR codes, both of which are difficult to do on a flip phone, she says.
“Having everything you need in one little handheld device is really convenient, and I can see why people are drawn to it,” she says. But there’s something about having to press an actual button instead of tapping or swiping on a touchscreen. “Tactility makes you feel more grounded, and I think that’s something that’s been lost in the smartphone world.”
How does she make it work?
Geliebter has come up with several solutions to the flip phone problem. A self-described “map buff,” Geriepter often travels with paper maps and a portable GPS device, such as printing out directions from Google Maps before heading out.
Web pages take a long time to load, if at all, and are hard to read on a cell phone’s relatively small screen, she says. Even if people text her a link, she won’t necessarily be able to open it. She may need to forward the text to her email address and access her email from her computer to view the material.
“Using the internet for this is very tedious, but that’s part of the beauty of this,” she says. “Then I don’t want to waste your time.”
There’s no notes app here. Cheryl Geliepter scribbles notes to herself on a Post-it note in the plastic case of her phone.
cheryl gereepter
As a reminder to himself, Gerrypter writes notes like renewing a membership or replacing a credit card for automatic payments on neon-colored post-it notes and tucking them into the plastic case that covers the keypad. Geleepter said these are supposed to serve as visual cues every time you look at your device, but they’re now “part of your phone.”
“I’ve gotten so used to texting on a stupid keypad that I know where all the letters are and how many times to press them,” she said, to the point where she can send text messages through pieces of paper.
Long sentences are difficult, she says. She writes them in an email from her laptop or desktop when she’s at work or at home, sends them to the email address associated with her phone, opens them on her phone, and forwards them to the person she’s messaged.
All in all, Gerrypter estimates she spends an hour a day on her phone. “When I finish writing a text message, I put my phone away because I don’t have anything else to do,” she says.
“The reward is worth it.”
Geliebter sometimes wishes his camera was better quality, he could record video, and he wished he had games. But her cell phone has text messages and voice calls on an unlimited plan, and most of the time, that’s all she needs.
Although her mobile phone choice didn’t have a huge impact on her job as an academic support teacher at an elementary school, she says she almost missed a birthday party organized in an employee WhatsApp group until a colleague told her about it at the last minute.
And she prefers to view email on her desktop anyway. With Geliebter, you don’t have to check your work email during your commute. “I don’t have that kind of enforcement, because there’s no way to reasonably do that on a cell phone,” she says.
“That’s not easy in today’s society,” Geriepter said. “People will have expectations of you, but you won’t necessarily be able to meet their expectations because you don’t have the skills to do it,” she added. But “the rewards are worth it.”
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