‘My life is fab. I don’t have people ringing me two times a minute...' You won't

A lot of people just can’t imagine a day going by without checking their social media accounts, video calling their friends or sending texts on messaging apps. But some of the world's most famous people have ditched their handsets and decided to go smartphone free. How do they even survive in modern society?

Vince Vaughn is an old-fashioned man. According to Digital Spy, the film star admitted in 2009 to dislike cell phones. He said: “The phone thing drives me crazy. Everyone is phoning and texting. It’s become a problem for me with payphones becoming extinct. Now I just drive the people around me mad by using theirs. I just started to email which I like but cell phones drive me mad. I'll never own one unless I absolutely have to.”

The Canadian music star is in touch with his beloved ones, but only through his iPad as it seems having a cell phone was too much. He told Billboard in 2021: “I definitely learned how to have boundaries, and I just don’t feel like I owe anybody anything.”

It’s no secret that the ‘Sleepy Hollow’ actor is stranger to technology. In fact, the film star has talked about it in many interviews. In 2016, for instance, Christopher Walken told Newsweek: “I don’t exist online. I don’t have a computer. I don’t have a cell phone. I don’t text.”

‘Did You Hear About the Morgans?’ star Sarah Jessica Parker described herself as an e-mail person, rather than a phone call person. Speaking to E! News, SJP talked about her reasons behind it, saying that although she owns a phone, she does not really use it. She said: “I don’t because I don’t like being behind in both phone calls and emails. So, I chose emails because when you’re on a set you can carefully and sneakily check a BlackBerry, but you can’t return a phone call. Hearing ‘Your voicemail is full’ is horrifying to me.”

‘Shape Of You’ singer Ed Sheeran said in ‘The Collector's Edition’ podcast that owning a phone caused him stress in the past. The ‘Shivers’ hitmaker said: “I got really, really overwhelmed and sad with the phone. I just spent my whole time in a very low place. Now, I have an email... and every few days, I'll sit down and open up my laptop and I'll answer 10 emails at a time... And then I'll go back to living life and I don't feel overwhelmed by it."

It is clear the ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ star is a very simple man. In 2007 during an interview with Daily Star, he shared what some of his belongings and habits are. Tom said: “I have no iPhone, no mobile, no email address, no watch, no jewelry, no wallet. I simply want to be with my children and make movies.”

‘American Idol’ host Simon Cowell revealed in 2020 to Entertainment Tonight that he had not used a phone in three years. He said: “It’s very simple. It means you don’t wake up to, like, 50 text messages you can’t reply to. And that’s what happened one morning — I woke up and I’ve got 52 unread messages. And I thought, even if I reply to every one of those, I’m going to get another replying back, and then I’m going to get more that day. And I realized it was actually stopping me from working or living properly, so I just turned it off and I went a month, three months, then a year, then two years, then three years. And I love it.”

Back in 2014, ‘The Mauritanian’ star Shailene Woodley told The Daily Beast that she had refused to own a phone, but that she would choose a flip one if she needed to get one. It seems she then changed her mind. In 2019 she revealed that she did not only get a flip phone, but also an iPhone. She said on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’: “I have both. I have an iPhone still, because it’ll work in WiFi and it's just easier to text on. But, I have a flip phone and that’s how I communicate. My iPhone has no data.”

If you’ve ever thought that Sir Elton John is a very popular man, you’ve not been wrong. His popularity became such that he decided to get rid of his phone. The British music icon talked about it during a 2013 interview on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’. He said: “My life is fabulous. I don’t have people ringing me two times a minute. I couldn’t bear to have a phone. And I just have an iPad for the kids and Skyping them when I’m not with them.”

In an appearance at a Marie Claire’s Power Trip conference, model Tyra Banks said she had made a very important decision after welcoming son York in 2016. While she did not get rid of her phone, she did delete some apps that caused her stress. She said: “I took email off of my phone, so now I just text and do Facebook.”