UPFRONT/TECH
Want to Kick Phone Addiction?
Believe it or not, there’s an app for that
YOUR PHONE dings with a notification. After checking, do you find yourself then mindlessly scrolling through social media or playing a game?
There’s a reason for such Pavlovian reactions and habitual use. “App makers have gotten clever at not only keeping you interested, but keeping your eyeballs there and wanting to be there,” says Larry Rosen, a psychology professor and coauthor of The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World. Once notifications activate our curiosity, smartphones are designed to ensnare us with messages from friends, news stories and entertainment. “It’s difficult for your brain to shake that,” Rosen says. In his research, he’s found that users unlock their phones up to 108 times per day.
Enter focus apps. These actually discourage you from using your phone. Some have productivity timers designed to keep your eyes off your phone by offering virtual rewards. For example, when you open Forest ($4), you grow a tree in the app while a timer counts down. When you close out to use other apps, the tree withers away. With Focus Dog (free), the longer you stick with your timed focus session, the more points you get, represented by cartoon doughnuts fed to a cute dog.
Other apps use a stick instead of a carrot. DTCH ($10/month) makes your phone vibrate when you unlock it and sometimes won’t stop until you’ve put it down. And Offscreen ($4.50/year) shocks you with numbers, tracking how many hours you spend on your phone and how often you unlock it. Offscreen also lets you schedule chunks of time during which it will block distracting apps.
But Rosen says that the apps have limits. They can grow frustrating over time, making them easy to ignore or delete. He suggests a different tactic: Retrain your brain to focus. Start with 15 minutes away from your phone; put it in another room where you can’t see it or hear notifications. Work up from there until you can be away from your phone for longer stretches. Eventually, you’ll stop checking it so frequently, even when it’s on you. —Lexi Pandell
Two Wi-Fi Passwords Are Better Than One
For security, set up a connection just for guests
YOU HEAR IT when a guest comes over: “What’s the Wi-Fi password?” But handing over full access to your network may pose a security risk, especially if you have a wireless printer, smart thermostat, security cameras or similar devices. The solution? Set up a guest network.
1. On your computer, open a web browser and type in your specific IP address, a multidigit code that you can find on your router.
2. Look for the guest network option and enable it.
3. Create a guest network name and a strong, unique password.
4. Post the guest Wi-Fi info on a wall or print it out. —Marc Saltzman