Even a mugger didn’t want my old Nokia. So why are so many people turning to ‘dumbphones’? | Max Fletcher

They are low-tech and hard to text on, but the simplicity is comforting. I was a devotee for years and can see the appeal

I was never ideologically opposed to smartphones. Or, at least, I wasn't at first. It all began one spring afternoon in 2006, when a group of friends and I were mugged. The assailant demanded our phones and wallets but when I handed him my Nokia 1110, whose keypad was strapped to it with an elastic band, the mugger's response was categorical: Nah, mate."

It was humiliating. While my friends could bask in universal sympathy - they had, after all, lost their beloved and expensive BlackBerrys - I had to tell the rest of our school and the police that my phone was so crap it had been rejected. Even as a trophy.

Max Fletcher is writer based in London.