Rest in Pieces, Design of a speculative ritual for letting go of old smartphones

Smartphones are intensely personal objects that communicate intimacy, memory, identity and presence. Yet once they break or are replaced, they rarely receive a meaningful ending. Instead, they accumulate silently in drawers—too valuable to discard, too emotionally charged to let go. Although recycling options exist, many resist parting with old devices. This paper proposes a multisensory ritual for saying goodbye to old smartphones, grounded in ritual theory and designed to facilitate reflective transition from a long-term companion. The ritual incorporates the four natural elements—air, earth, water, and fire—to symbolically engage with different facets of the human–smartphone relationship: data, technology, function, and emotional attachment.