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Stories From Main Street: Teenage Girl Ditches Smartphone For Flip Phone To Find Peace

HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork)-- Like most of her friends in Hastings-on-Hudson, 16-year-old Janie Litvin was married to her smartphone.

She grew weary of the constant "ding" notification as the backdrop to her life, WCBS 880's Sean Adams reports. When her smartphone shattered, she decided to give it up.

"I decided to get a flip phone instead," she said.

It's a dinosaur of the cellular age and she loves it.

"If you're a teenage girl, having an iPhone can be very stressful. You'll turn away from your phone and you'll come back five minutes later and you'll have 200 messages and 10 Snapchats, and like 15 notifications on Facebook. And just-- it's a lot. I just thought it was too much," she said.  

At first, it was a bit of an adjustment.

"I was so used to doing my pre-bed Instagram check and responding to Snapchats," she said

But she started to see 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," she said.

The teen said she now observes more and is present in the moment.

"I'm not so much more tempted to look at my phone, I just look around me and you see a lot, you learn a lot," she said.

Her mom Lisa Litvin, has come to understand why her daughter made the switch.

"I didn't get it at first 'cause I wasn't sure why she didn't want a phone, or an iPhone, and I didn't appreciate all the other stuff that came with an iPhone for a teenager that drove her nuts," she said. "I really get it now."

Janie Litvin's friends were upset at first, but they're adapting. She may be the last one to know what's going on, but she said that's okay.

"It's great not to have to respond to everything immediately, and to not have to be constantly present with your phone worrying that you're going to miss something," she said.

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