The Methaphone Is a Phone (That’s Not a Phone) to Help You Stop Using Your Phone

Earlier this year, Eric Antonow was successful a java shop pinch his family erstwhile he felt nan familiar, twitchy impulse to scope for his phone. He patted his pockets for relief—the cool, bladed slab was still there. He joked to his family that, for illustration an addict jonesing for a hit, he would 1 time request a medical-grade solution to detox from his phone. Opioid addicts had methadone. iPhone addicts would request … methaphones.

“It was a joke, but I sewage 2 laughs from my 2 teenagers, which is gold,” Antonow says. “I was like, ‘I’m going to perpetrate to nan bit.’”

Antonow, a erstwhile trading executive astatine Google and Facebook, has been committing to bits for half a decade, making what he calls “mindless toys.” His online shop features projects for illustration a “listening switch” to bespeak erstwhile 1 is paying attention, and a vinyl for silent meditation, pinch 20 minutes of recorded soundlessness connected each broadside (record subordinate not required).

So wrong days of his latest joke, he had enlisted ChatGPT to mock up an image of a gadget successful nan style of a phone, without each of nan contents: a translucent rectangle that 1 could look at, aliases through. From that original generative sketch emerged a much realized design: a 6-inch slab of clear acrylic pinch rounded corners, for illustration nan iPhone, and greenish edges that resembled glass. Antonow placed an bid for samples, and started an Indiegogo campaign for nan Methaphone: to “leave your telephone without nan cravings aliases withdrawal.”

The dilemma of nan smartphone is that we each want to usage our phones less, but fewer of america really do. Apple and Google offered a fewer life preservers successful 2018, successful nan shape of self-regulation tools for illustration screen clip limits, but astir of that went retired nan model during nan pandemic years erstwhile screens became a model into nan extracurricular world. Now, a personification hoping to reclaim their attraction is trapped betwixt 2 unappealing choices: downgrade to a minimalist “dumb phone,” aliases surrender to nan dopamine drip-feed of infinite content. Either way, nan telephone wins.

In response, a cottage manufacture has emerged to connection detachment tools. There are apps pinch symbolic names, for illustration Freedom and Focus, that artifact distracting content. Startups for illustration Brick and Unpluq connection beingness NFC “keys” to fastener and unlock addictive apps. (Unpluq’s cofounder, Jorn Rigter, says group usage nan instrumentality arsenic to artifact societal apps, for illustration Instagram, and activity apps, for illustration Slack, which person go conscionable arsenic sticky.) There’s Yondr, a lockable pouch to forestall telephone usage successful courtrooms and performance halls. And there’s a increasing lineup of “dumb phones,” immoderate astatine premium, postmodern prices.

Unlike those solutions, nan Methaphone doesn’t do overmuch of anything. It’s much of a statement: ceci n'est pas un phone. But successful a civilization of technological excess, nan task has resonated widely, for illustration Ozempic successful an pandemic of surface obesity.

In May, erstwhile nan first batch of Methaphones arrived, Antonow sent them to a twelve friends to get their reactions. One recipient was Catherine Goetze, who quickly posted a video astir nan Methaphone to her 400,000 followers connected TikTok. In nan video, Goetze is opinionated successful statement astatine a San Francisco boba shop, hunched complete conscionable for illustration everyone else—but alternatively of scrolling her phone, she’s scrolling … a slab of clear acrylic. Commenters went chaotic pinch speculation. Was it a Nokia prototype? A Black Mirror trailer? Within 5 days, nan video had much than 53 cardinal views.

After Goetze’s video, Antonow says nan Methaphone “massively sold out.” (He had initially ordered a tally of 100 units, sold arsenic a constricted release, for $25.) While he plans to restock, he says nan early of nan Methaphone is little astir individual purchases than larger-scale experiments—say, a edifice that offers a Methaphone connected nan paper truthful that group tin dine without distractions. Phones are much than conscionable portals to different people, they’re portals to different dimension. “So nan counterbalance besides needs to beryllium much important than just, ‘Oh, I request to retrieve not to usage my telephone astatine nan table,’” he says.