Gone are the days when people needed their morning newspaper when the dawn broke. Nowadays, people need their morning dose of Instagram right after waking, even with squinted eyes. In this era of social media where likes and shares have become the currency of validation, you must be hardly seeing anyone around without a smartphone. However, there are some celebrities, who are not the biggest fan of smartphones. Forget smartphones, some of them are averse to using cell phones of any kind altogether. Despite being in show business, from cinema to sports, and often appearing on our phone screens, they have chosen a rather tech-free life. Professional disturbances, personal distraction – the reasons are many, but here’s a list of some of them who have escaped our favourite little black mirrors. In a world where an actor’s stardom decides the box office of a movie, few directors pull crowds to the theaters. And Nolan’s name arguably would top that list. However, I was shocked to learn that the influential director doesn’t use a smartphone. Not only that, he doesn’t have an email ID and refrains from using the internet. He has also banned the use of phones on his sets, for the cast and crew. The Shape of You singer revealed that he decided not to keep a phone in 2015 because he was losing real-life interaction. his team gives him a phone when needed. He explained that the constant back-and-forth of messaging and the pressure of responding on time led him to adopt a phone-free lifestyle. The singing sensation once revealed that he doesn’t have a mobile phone, instead, he uses an iPad for communication. Bieber said he does this to limit the means of communication, “I definitely learned how to have boundaries, and I just don’t feel like I owe anybody anything,” The veteran actor of Dune and Pulp Fiction said that he continues to embrace a tech-free lifestyle. He doesn’t use a cell phone and watches movies and shows on physical DVDs. He says he has never used emails or Twitter. The Kahaani and Jagga Jasoos actor said in an interview that he once bought a smartphone and had WhatsApp and Instagram accounts made. However, he rarely used to check them because he felt they were distracting him from life and work. Now if he goes to a remote area, he carries a simple phone. The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and a minor owner of Apple shares was a long-term user of a $20 (1,438 approximately) Samsung SCH-U320 flip phone. He finally decided to ditch his old and upgraded to an iPhone 11 in 2020 at the age of 89. Well, we had to mention MS on this list because of all the anecdotes we hear from his team-mates. They say it’s practically impossible to contact him via a phone when MS is away. The former Indian captain had said in an event in 2023, “I do have a phone but I use it only to set an alarm at night. It does the job of waking me up in the morning.” He was recently seen using a smartphone in a practice session, but many fans pointed out that he was just swiping notifications. Rare video of MS Dhoni using Mobile that too in the net session 😁❤️#MSDhoni #IPl2025 pic.twitter.com/0IgzQi2QZz Music legend Sir Elton John has been vocal about his disdain for cell phones over the years. He does not even own a mobile phone and says that his husband David Furnish runs his Instagram. He credits his social media presence to his team. “I don’t have a phone. The office staff runs Twitter for me. I don’t do it myself,” Elton once said. The star of Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars revealed way back that she was not a big technology fan. In fact, she revealed that she didn’t even have a cellphone. Shailene said that if she were to have a phone, it would have been a flip one. According to her, there’s a lack of privacy, camaraderie, and community than there’s ever been, which is one of the reasons for her decision. Well, to most of us dropping off our smartphones sounds like a nightmare. However, if we took some time off doom-scrolling, the world may appear a little less doomed.

Do you remember those episodes of KBC in the 2000s where SRK and Amitabh used to call people for the phone-a-friend lifeline? Some acted surprised, and some almost fainted, but many of them used to give them an earful thinking that those were scam or fraud calls. Well, they were not completely wrong in their place. Why would most of us, the common people get a call from our favourite celebrities? I wish poor Anne had done the same when she was contacted by scammers pretending to be Brad Pitt and his mother. The shocking case has emerged involving 53-year-old French woman Anne, who was duped into believing she was dating Brad Pitt and was subjected to a high amount of extortion. Appearing on the show “Sept a huit” on a local news channel TF1,  she revealed that the scammers deceived her into handing them over a sum of nearly 850,000 euros, which is around ₹7.5 Cr. First, she got a message while she was on a ski trip from an account posing as the actor’s mother Jane Etta Pitt. The text read – “It’s a woman like you that my son needs”. Though Anne was skeptical at first, she began chatting before being contacted by a person posing as Brad himself, telling her, “My mother told me a lot about you”. Thus started a series of poems and declarations of love from that fake account to Anne. While the scammers always avoided her calls, a few AI-generated videos led Anne to be convinced that she was indeed talking to the Hollywood star. “There are so few men who write such things. I liked the man I was talking to and he knew how to talk to women,” she said. Anne soon started believing that she had a real connection with Pitt. The financial scam however began relatively small, when the scammers told her that they had sent her expensive gifts from luxury brands like Chanel and Hermès. They insisted she pay 9,000 euros in customs fees to receive them, which Anne paid and of course, received no gifts. The matter worsened when the imposters got to know about her divorce and the huge settlement she had received from it. They convinced Anne to send more money claiming he had kidney cancer, for the treatment of which he required money. Well, one obviously will doubt that such a huge star would be in dire need of money. However, the scammers fabricated a story that all of Brad’s accounts were frozen due to divorce proceedings with actress Angelina Jolie. Blinded by love and the doctored photos, she sent most of her compensation amount of 775,000 euros. When did Anne know that she was being scammed? Well, she had constant doubts when she was reading reports of Pitt dating the Swiss businesswoman Inés de Ramón. However, the scammers sent her a fake television report denying those claims. Anne finally accepted the truth last summer when she read further articles about Pitt and De Ramón. She also filed a criminal lawsuit claiming to be the victim of a scam, prompting a police inquiry. However, this doesn’t end here, TF1 said she had since made three suicide attempts and has been admitted to hospital for severe depression. After her interview went live, she became the victim of severe cyberbullying.  Well, we as humans mostly give an unknown caller the benefit of the doubt – is that person really in trouble? We get swayed away quite easily when someone talks to us sweetly, and gently. Listen to us, don’t. Do the due diligence. Trust us, it’s for the best.