nov / 2025
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As each facet of our working and social life is digitized, display screen dependancy has turn into much less an exception to our way of life and extra a extensively accepted attribute of it. I see this mostly after I ask my pals, household, and coworkers what number of hours a day they spend on their telephones. The solutions range from three to eight hours.
I common round 4 hours of my day on my cellphone, checking emails, responding to texts, scrolling social media, and checking the climate. That is 4 hours I may very well be spending studying a ebook, writing an article, studying methods to predict the climate, calling a cherished one, and doing something apart from checking the time suck and mind rot that’s social media websites and messaging apps.
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Each October, as common daylight dwindles and my power ranges deplete, this sense of discovered helplessness by the hands of know-how involves a head. I’ve no power to rise up from my mattress. It takes me some time to construct the braveness to transit to the fitness center. What do I do as a substitute? I sit on my mattress and I scroll.
I scroll by means of monetary recommendation posts telling me that I needs to be investing far more available in the market than I already am, I scroll by means of engagements and weddings my former classmates are celebrating, I scroll by means of reactionary content material strangers submit on the web for clicks, and I scroll by means of among the most sinister information my eyes can see and my mind can fathom. All this content material is mixed in, and I let it wash over me like I am mendacity on the sands of a pathetic ocean.
As soon as I attain this level, I delete my social media apps. I attempt to put my cellphone in one other room whereas I work, eat, and do chores round the home. I create a stricter schedule and power myself to go away the home extra. Then, per week or two later, as soon as I’ve returned to my pure, secure, ripen, not rotten, mind, I redownload all these apps. Maybe it is just some weeks or months, however the cycle continues.
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I’ve tried the cut-off dates, the app blockers, and utilizing social media on a browser as a substitute of the app itself. So this October, I attempted one thing new. I had seen protection of the corporate Brick and its miracle-working device that successfully locks customers out of their high-demand apps. Individuals had claimed the minimalistic, magnetic dice gave them their time again. I will be the choose of that, I believed to myself.
The oldsters at Brick despatched me a tool, which I instantly started testing upon reception and have been for the previous few weeks. TL:DR? This system has performed numbers on my relationship with my most addictive apps. Here is how.
The way it works
Brick is a grey, magnetic sq. with a suitable app. Upon downloading the app, an individual selects the apps they wish to disable as soon as their cellphone is bricked. Brick makes use of NFC know-how, which can be present in contactless funds, digital wallets like Apple Pay, and safe entry controls, akin to digital keycards used to achieve entry into buildings, to allow and disable app use. Tapping the brick, or “bricking,” blocks the usage of these apps till the cellphone is tapped as soon as once more and “unbricked.”
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You’ll be able to arrange schedules to dam apps throughout particular instances of the day and modes to dam sure sorts of apps. I started testing the product by making a mode that blocks my most-used apps, particularly Messages, Instagram, Fb, Threads, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
Brick provides you 5 free “unbricks” you need to use in an emergency, if you aren’t close to the bodily Brick.
My expertise ‘Bricking’ my iPhone
I have not arrange a schedule but, as a result of I am happy bricking my system upon my very own volition and unbricking after I must test messages or posts from pals. Bricking the system after I acknowledge my very own want for distance from my cellphone felt like a straightforward first step at curbing my cellphone dependancy. A schedule felt too stringent. I can see the scheduling characteristic changing into handier as soon as I’ve spent a number of weeks bricking my cellphone and developed much less of a reliance on usually checking it, of which I am nonetheless engaged on.
My cellphone utilization is the worst (and makes me really feel the worst) whereas I am at residence. Scrolling by means of social media between subway stops or checking messages sometimes on the workplace is not my concern. It is the hours I spend losing as soon as I get residence from a busy day of labor, or the time I spend losing away on the weekends that I may very well be dedicating to hobbies.
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In order that’s the place I primarily use the Brick. My roommates, nonetheless, have used the Brick earlier than studying on the park, and so they reported that it helped them focus longer. One Monday evening, I bricked my cellphone after which journal for 90 minutes, fully and completely undisturbed.
I really like bricking my cellphone earlier than bedtime, which, within the phrases of my roommate, looks like “shutting the house laptop down on the finish of the evening.” On occasion, I will be mendacity in mattress and remembering I wish to test an app or ship a textual content.
Doing so would power me out of my mattress, down an extended hallway, and into the kitchen to unbrick my cellphone. It made me rethink my cellphone utilization choices.
Within the morning, after waking, I am going to go to my kitchen, the place my Brick is caught on the fridge, and unbrick my cellphone. This provides me round an hour earlier than work, throughout which I can atone for messages and the each day happenings.
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Then, as soon as I start work, I brick my cellphone once more. After a minimum of an hour of zero distractions, I am going to reward myself with a fast unbrick. I test my messages or scroll for a couple of minutes and rebrick. It is just like the Pomodoro impact, however for cellphone dependancy.
Working with out the fixed pings or quick access to social media jogs my memory of the productiveness I might have whereas doing my homework on an airplane earlier than Wi-Fi turned obtainable — that undeterred, distraction-free form of productiveness and clearheadedness that comes with disconnection from the skin world.
Why it really works for me
Brick makes entry to my most-used apps a privilege I really feel like I need to earn by means of persistence, moderately than one thing I can take with no consideration every time I might like. It additionally jogs my memory that the variety of instances I test my cellphone to see if somebody has reached out is disproportionate to the variety of notifications I obtain per hour. In brief, there isn’t any want for me to be checking it as usually as I’m.
Not like a display screen time notification or restrict, which is enabled as soon as somebody reaches their each day app restrict, Brick positively reinforces my time spent with out my apps. A widget pops up when you brick your system, displaying a timer displaying how lengthy you have been offline since bricking.
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It straight contrasts the unfavorable reinforcement that’s the “You’ve got reached your each day Instagram restrict” notifications I obtain by means of Display Time. Within the app, you too can see how a lot time you have spent bricking every day. All these options and touches assist me construct the case for myself that I can truly go with out these apps for extended durations.
What I might wish to see improved
You needn’t brick your system to provoke a schedule, say at 9 a.m., as soon as you have began work. However you will have your Brick readily available at 5 p.m., if you wish to unbrick your system. That is irritating in the event you’re not in the identical location as your Brick as soon as the clock strikes 5 p.m., however there is a workaround, which a buddy let me in on.
If you wish to unbrick your cellphone after the allotted brick time is over in your schedule, my buddy beneficial creating one other schedule instantly after your first schedule ends, after which unbricking a random app. This allows the scheduling characteristic and unbricks the specified apps with out requiring the bodily system.
My buddy additionally talked about how Brick did not register his change in time zones when he was touring, one thing he’d like Brick to enhance.
ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation
I extremely advocate Brick in the event you battle with usually checking your cellphone or losing time on social media. Through the first full week I used it, my display screen time decreased by 7%. Its optimistic reinforcements, moderately than admonishments if you’ve gone over your allotted display screen time, incrementally construct the case you can, certainly, go with out these apps.
I might advocate this most to individuals searching for a productiveness enhance — whether or not that is one you are searching for out on or off the job. After bricking my cellphone one evening, I made a decision to go on a not-so-addictive however still-distracting app earlier than mattress. I watched one YouTube video for round two minutes, till I spotted I may very well be studying my ebook as a substitute. I am unsure if I might have made that selection with out Brick.
I do know, $59 is a excessive worth to pay for self-control. Nonetheless, from my expertise with the system, it’s value it for the standard of life improve and the long-desired autonomy from my gadgets that I’ve regained. Plus, in the event you purchase it throughout Brick’s Black Friday sale, you will get a $12 low cost that cuts the value by 20%.
When will this deal expire?
We do not know precisely when this deal will finish, however provided that it is reside across the Black Friday offers occasion, we anticipate that it is going to be obtainable till Cyber Monday (if it would not promote out forward of time).
Offers are topic to promote out or expire anytime, although ZDNET stays dedicated to discovering, sharing, and updating the very best product offers so that you can rating the very best financial savings. Our workforce of specialists usually checks in on the offers we share to make sure they’re nonetheless reside and obtainable. We’re sorry in the event you’ve missed out on this deal, however do not fret — we’re continually discovering new possibilities to save lots of and sharing them with you at ZDNET.com.
