Stories From Main Street: Westchester Teen Flips For New Old Phone
HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Like most of her friends in Hastings-on-Hudson, 16-year-old Janey Litvin was married to her smartphone.
But when her iPhone shattered last May, she gave it up for good and has no intentions of going back.
"If you're a teenage girl having an iPhone can be very stressful," Litvin told WCBS 880's Sean Adams. "You'll turn away from your phone and you'll come back five minutes later and you'll have 200 messages, 10 Snapchats, 15 notifications on Facebook and it's a lot. I just thought it was too much."
Litvin decided to get an old school purple flip phone and at first, it took some getting used to.
"I was so used to doing the pre-bed Instagram check and responding to my Snapchats," Litvin said.
Then she started to notice the irony of so-called social media.
"You'll be in a room and people will be Snapchatting each other, they'll be texting each other from within the room," Litvin said. "It's easier than conversation in some ways and people tend to rely on that almost like a crutch."
Now, Litvin said she observes more and is present in the moment.
"I just look around me," Litvin said. "You see a lot, you learn a lot."
Her mother said at first she didn't understand why her daughter didn't want an iPhone.
"I didn't appreciate all the other stuff that came with an iPhone for a teenager that drove her nuts," Lisa Litvin said. "I really get it now."
At first, Litvin's friends thought she was out of her mind, but they're starting to come around.
"A senior at my school actually just got a pink Motorola flip phone, I think she was inspired," Litvin said.
The teen might be the last person to find out what's going on, but she says that's OK.
"It's great not to have to respond to everything immediately, and not to have to constantly be present with your phone worrying that you're going to miss something," Litvin said.
In January, Litvin wrote an article about her experience for Seventeen magazine.
