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TeaThat first step is admitting that you have a problem. The second step is something I’ve been trying to figure out since completing the first one years ago.
Hello, I’m Annabelle and I’m smart fone Addict. I am not alone in my troubles -Rather I am One in an estimated 25 percent of people worldwide Who fall in this very shameful category. The average Briton spends about three hours and 21 minutes on their phone a day, but my Apple screen time is apparently five hours. (Sometimes, more often than I’d like to admit, it’s more than six…)
It was not always like this. Only a few years ago, my phone was a tool of connection, a means to communicate with friends and family, catch up on news, and find inspiration in unexpected places. And sure, some of this is still true – but 203 (!) On average that many times I picked up my phone each day Last week, I doubt even 20 of them were productive. Or even enjoyable. my biggest evil instagram, Where I waste a lot of my time greeding and comparing, greeding and comparing. It turns out that given the number of hours I spend on Reels, my persistent refusal to get TikTok is also meaningless. I come out of each scrolling session the same way I do after a drunken, indulgent vacation: soporific, guilty, and disgusted.
Enter Brick: the latest trend in the slow-tech space that promises to help phone addicts like me (and you?) kick the habit. The device itself is an innocuous looking, small gray magnetic square. (I keep mine in the fridge door). It works with a compatible app on your phone where you can choose the apps you want to block. You then tap your phone on it to “brick” the block, preventing you from accessing those apps unless you choose to “unbrick” it, which you can only do by physically tapping your phone on the device. (There are five “emergency unbricks” that let you remove blocks remotely). The premise is quite simple – and surprisingly effective.
Over the past six months as I’ve used it, I’ve realized that this is the key to a successful brick session. distance: You have to put some serious space between yourself and the brick. There are a couple of reasons for this; Human laziness is a powerful thing – I pick up my phone most times of the day because it’s within arm’s reach. The second is that the further you have to go to open your phone, the longer you have to question your actions and return. There is something deeply shameful about all this. It’s the shame that forces you to consider the real reason behind breaking the brick: Am I going on my phone because I really want to? Or because I’m looking for the fleeting serotonin rush that’s feeding me Addiction Will essentially give me? Nine times out of 10, it’s the latter.
For high achievers, the app’s tracking capabilities are a bonus. You can see how many hours a day and how many days in a row you have been bricked. Watching a seven-day series of 10-plus hours gives me a bloated sense of accomplishment — a little dopamine hit probably not dissimilar to what I get from my phone in the first place.
And there are different modes to choose from: No Social, for example, or Work — which blocks everything except emails and messages — and you can customize your settings depending on the severity and nature of your addiction. For example, my go-to mode on weekends requires a complete ban on all social media, shopping apps, messaging apps, phone calls, emails, and beyond. During the week, I will remove the restrictions on emails, calls and anything work related.
At £54, the Brick wasn’t my first choice to fuel my addiction. Like everyone else, I was also using Apple’s in-built Screen Time monitor, which was completely useless; It was very easy to breach in-app time limits, with a loss of control that is only a click away. My second attempt was something my sister recommended: putting your phone in grayscale mode, which you can do in the display settings. It worked, almost too well – I had no desire to be on my phone at all, looking at those pixels arranged in this dull, black and white arrangement just didn’t scratch the itch. Disabling colors has made scrolling on Instagram less interesting. Even my emails were affected. I would highly recommend it for anyone wanting to go cold turkey.
But what I love about the Brick is that it lets me enjoy my phone on my own terms – to be really present while scrolling and not just do it intuitively. Increasingly, my phone has become a comfort blanket I reach for whenever I find myself stuck at work, or bored at home. I don’t even realize I’m doing it half the time. Brick allows me to be more intentional with my screen time. Now when I want to go on my phone, it’s a conscious decision I have to make.
I can’t lie and say that I have completely given up my addiction. There are some weeks (ahem, the entire month of September) where I won’t use the Brick at all, and will be at my worst impulsivity for days on end. And really, that’s the hardest thing about Brick – actually choosing to use it, and summoning enough willpower to tap into it in the first place. But once you do that, it becomes easier. I’ll turn off my phone and forget about it; Slowly but surely my phone is moving back towards “want” as opposed to “need”.
The numbers don’t lie (my screen time is down to 11 minutes), but even more satisfying than the statistics is how I feel after using the Brick – or rather, how I don’t feel. I no longer feel sad or guilty or disgusting; I feel in control. And productive. Those five hours I spent on my phone every day were keeping me from going out and actually getting work done and enjoying life – Who knew? I’m not saying I stop and smell the roses, but at least I’m paying attention to them.