Munich campaign urges young people to put smartphones aside

A campaign in Munich is urging people to spend less time on their smartphones during the Oktoberfest season, BR reported. The Radikale Anti Smartphone Front, or RASF, is using the slogan “Wiesn statt WhatsApp” to encourage people to make more time for friends, books and sport.

The campaign was launched in Munich by 35-year-old Berlin performance artist Benno Flügel, who chose the Oktoberfest period in the hope of reaching a large number of young people. Postcard-sized flyers bearing slogans such as “Love instead of likes,” “A Maß instead of Meta” and “Mia san Offline” have been attached to lamp posts in Munich’s old town and around the festival grounds.

Despite the group’s radical-sounding name, Flügel says it is peaceful. “We want to change the world with words,” he said. He argues that smartphones take valuable time away from activities that offer a form of wealth that cannot be measured in money.

During the flyer campaign, Flügel spoke to a group of 16-year-olds, most of whom acknowledged that they spend too much time looking at their smartphone screens. Kris said he sometimes relaxes on his phone even when he knows he should be doing something else or would rather read a book. Lilli said the phone had become part of everyday life and was often the first thing she reached for in the morning, although she did not really want that.

Brain researcher Manfred Spitzer, who was a professor of psychiatry at Ulm University until 2025, has long warned about the risks of excessive digital stimulation. He said the continuous scrolling offered by social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok could become almost irresistible. According to Spitzer, brain scans show that excessive social media use activates almost the same areas of the brain as cocaine addiction.

Screen-time apps can limit overall smartphone use or restrict individual applications. A notification appears when the set limit is reached. But that does not always work. Fourteen-year-old Felix said he sometimes sets a timer because he spends too much time on his phone, but simply swipes away the notification when it appears.

Author Daniela Halsboer, who has written about digital detox several times, recommends taking a radical break from screens for several weeks or even months. She said switching off the “digital noise” could help people become more aware of themselves and reduce the pressure to keep up.

Flügel himself does not advocate abandoning smartphones altogether. He replaced his old basic phone with a smartphone two years ago because tasks such as buying train tickets and making bank payments had become difficult to complete otherwise. “We do not want to throw away or condemn smartphones,” he said. “We want them to become a tool with which we save time rather than waste it.”