These celebrities live a life without a smartphone

Could you still imagine life without your smartphone? For most people the answer is probably no. But some celebrities deliberately avoid it.

When is the next tram coming, is the café around the corner still open or what will the weather be like tomorrow? Nowadays we use our smartphones for all of these questions and many more.

The little all-purpose helper is now hidden in many pockets and has become an integral part of our lives. In 2024, more than 4.8 billion people worldwide will use a smartphone, and by 2029 the figure will rise to around 6.4 billion.

But what causes celebrities in particular to forego such a device and lead a life without a smartphone?

These celebrities live without a smartphone

Ed Sheeran, for example, is an avowed non-smartphone user. The singer hasn't had a smartphone since 2015. In the podcast The Collectors Edition in 2022 he said that it made him “sad to use a smartphone”.

The overwhelming flood of incoming messages is to blame. After he handed over his smartphone, it was as if a veil had been lifted from me.

Now he only opens his laptop “every few days,” answers his emails and then closes the laptop again. He doesn't feel cut off from his environment, it's just “reduced contact”.

Singer Selena Gomez is also one of the celebrities who gave up on a smartphone very early on. Back in 2016, she prescribed a 90-day smartphone break. It felt “refreshing, rejuvenating, calming” to her.

The singer Justin Bieber felt pressured by being constantly available via his smartphone. In 2021 he told in an interview with Billboardthat by doing without he learned to set limits for himself. Now he no longer feels like he “owes anyone anything.”

What alternatives do celebrities use?

But even in a life without a smartphone, communication has to take place every now and then. Ed Sheeran doesn't just use his email inbox for this. He often uses Facetime on his iPad for phone calls. Elton John, who doesn't have a phone himself, like Sheeran, often calls here NZ Herald explained.

During the corona pandemic, Ed Sheeran used a flip cell phone. Because he had to be reachable by telephone for the British health service NHS.

Comedian Aziz Ansari also resorts to this, as he explains in his stand-up program “Nightclub Comedian” on Netflix. For him, the flip cell phone is the only way to “not be constantly attached to the cell phone.”

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