PERTH, AUSTRALIA / RankWire.AI / – Recent findings from Edith Cowan University indicate that the popularity of retro phone accessories is linked to a conscious effort to distance oneself from smartphones. Researcher Dr Jess Hardley explored how individuals manage devices that have become integral to daily routines, including wall-mounted smartphone docks and handsets with traditional coiled cords. The study also considers strategies aimed at decreasing accessibility, such as keeping phones in separate rooms or employing app restrictions. Drawing on over ten years of research with Australian smartphone users, Hardley’s work reveals evolving behaviors around device management.
The study emphasizes physical separation from phones rather than merely limiting screen time, with participants sharing practices like leaving devices in different rooms or locking them away during certain periods. For example, one participant kept a phone in a work drawer after mobile gaming started affecting concentration. Hardley also documented methods such as app restrictions, greyscale screen modes, and other adjustments designed to make phones less immediately accessible. The core focus is on intentional modifications in how people physically handle and store their devices.
Another aspect of this trend involves retro phone accessories, which serve to alter the traditional relationship with smartphones. Some products enable users to place their devices in fixed locations instead of carrying them around, while others connect modern smartphones to handsets inspired by landline phones. Hardley’s research includes these accessories alongside behaviors like attending phone-free events and using locking pouches at concerts. The study does not assess whether individual products improve concentration or wellbeing but instead documents the changing ways users physically interact with their devices.
Physical distancing becomes a component of smartphone use
The research situates these behaviors within a broader context of mobile phones becoming deeply embedded in daily routines, as smartphones now serve as multifunctional tools for communication, entertainment, work, photography, payments, and internet access. Hardley’s study examines the implications of intentionally making these devices less accessible, describing physical distance as one of the methods individuals use to modify their smartphone habits. It also explores how such restrictions are implemented in various environments like homes, workplaces, and social events, often involving shared settings.
Published in M/C Journal, the paper titled Revisiting the ‘Snug Tether’: Smartphones in an Era of Scroll-Free Social Events, Landline Accessories, and Device Bans, investigates phenomena such as scroll-free gatherings, retro landline accessories, phone jails, and smartphone restrictions. Hardley revisits earlier academic notions of mobile phones as devices kept close to their users, emphasizing practices that intentionally interrupt that proximity. The work also considers who participates in different forms of distancing from smartphones.
Restrictions on phones extend beyond individual behavior
This research coincides with the implementation of restrictions in Australian educational institutions, where ministers agreed to ban or limit mobile phones in all public schools starting Term 1 of 2024. A 2025 survey involving nearly 1,000 New South Wales principals reported noticeable changes following the enforcement of these restrictions, with the federal education ministry indicating that 87% of respondents observed less distraction among students in classrooms and 81% noted improved learning outcomes. These measures represent institutional efforts to control phone access during designated periods.
Hardley’s focus remains on how individuals manage their connection with smartphones amid their pervasive presence in daily life. The research highlights practices such as physical separation, reducing device accessibility, and creating phone-free environments. Retro accessories are viewed as part of this broader spectrum of behaviors rather than a separate technological category. Edith Cowan University released a summary of these findings on Aug. 18, 2026, adding documented examples to ongoing studies of evolving smartphone use in Australia.