America has spent the past two decades paying technology companies to make life faster, easier, and permanently connected. Now it seems we’ve gone too far. According to a Pew Research Center survey published this month, 53 percent of American adults think they spend too much time on their smartphones.
Among under-30s, it's 70 percent. Capitalism has spotted the problem, but if you want the solution, you’ll need to hand over your credit card details. You can now spend hundreds on a phone whose main selling point is that it can’t do all the things your current phone can.
You can buy a gadget that stops you from using other gadgets. You can even pay somebody to confiscate said phone while you talk to strangers. In 2006, Steve Jobs was hard at work putting the finishing touches on the first iPhone.
Back then, having your phone in your pocket when you went out for the evening didn’t disrupt your "digital wellness strategy." It was just called going out. Social media platforms once performed as advertised; they were spaces where users shared media to be social. Now, they are bottomless dopamine pits engineered to pull you in, while serving up ads from companies claiming to offer you a ladder out.
Take the Light Phone III, a cellphone that costs $899, before tax and shipping. For that considerable chunk of money, you get a phone with modern hardware, including 5G and a camera, but no social media, email, web browser, or news apps. The company says it is designed to help users "go against the grain of a culture that seems ready-made to distract you" and become "the most thoughtful & intentional version of yourself." Hear that?
If the Light Phone can really help you to self-actualize, then that old Nokia 3310 or Motorola Razr you have stuffed away in a dusty corner of your attic is practically a spiritual adviser. Not ready to take the plunge and go full 2006? Brick sells a $59 device that lets you block selected apps by tapping your smartphone against it.
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