The NoPhone: A Technology-Free Alternative To Phones

Do you ever find yourself withdrawing from reality and retreating into the world of your phone? Do you sometimes neglect to make eye contact with other people because you’re staring at your phone instead? Does your phone literally never leave your hand? If you answered yes to these questions, help is on the way with the NoPhone, a smartphone alternative that aims to make people more connected to the real world.

The NoPhone, which was recently funded on Kickstarter, is a phone-shaped object that “acts as a surrogate to any smart mobile device, enabling you to always have a rectangle of smooth, cold plastic to clutch without forgoing any potential engagement with your direct environment,” according to its Kickstarter page. Basically, it’s like the methadone of smartphones.

Image via Kickstarter/The NoPhone

Image via Kickstarter/The NoPhone

Designed for people who can’t live without endlessly checking, caressing, stroking and staring at their phones, the NoPhone is shatterproof and waterproof (also toilet-proof). It boasts no batteries, no camera, no operating system and no technology whatsoever; its only “upgrade” is the Selfie Upgrade, a mirrored sticker that customers can stick on their NoPhones.

Enjoy sending yourself selfies in real-time. Share selfies with your friends if they’re standing behind you,” says the NoPhone Team.

The NoPhone campaign, which ends today, has surpassed its original $5,000 goal with a total of around $17,000. Backers will receive NoPhones and accompanying instruction manuals on how to operate their new pieces of plastic, which are not real phones. For a pledge of $7,999, backers will receive a 14K gold-plated NoPhone — a surrogate for people who are addicted to gold mobile devices.

Both styles of NoPhone ensure that no one will ever again have to go anywhere without holding a phone-shaped piece of plastic in their hand… and that’s a good feeling.