The past few years I’ve struggled quite a lot with phone addiction. Well, specifically, apps addiction — i.e. social media. The constant need to check who’s shared what, who’s reacted to what I’ve posted — oh my god.
Deleting the apps — doesn’t work
It works — only for a few hours, or at best a few days. Then these apps reappear again. (I wonder how)
Deleting the accounts — not always viable
Only works for accounts you don’t really use and don’t have a lot of history on. Any account I didn’t have much history on, was really easy to delete. But then there are accounts which have too much history, and even though I don’t want to use it anymore, I still want to have it around.
Giving up access control — the method that works
The only method that worked for me:
Changed the passwords on my accounts to something random, and didn’t write those passwords down anywhere.
Made sure I had the recovery method for these passwords changed to a medium not in my control. So I changed the email and phone number on those accounts to my partner’s.
Gave my partner explicit instructions that if I try to recover my password for these accounts and ask her for the one time access code, she shouldn’t hand it over to me unless I have a compelling reason.
Voila! I’ve been detoxing and sober for a year now.
Disconnect App — yea I ended up making an app for that
The above method is pretty hardcore but it works beautifully. However the friction in this setup isn’t lost on me. Not everyone might want to go through the hoops of password and one time access code recovery method changes.
So I’ve created an app that allows you to pair up with a friend or partner, and lets you put a hard block on any app. It restricts your access and puts the unlock key in your paired up buddy’s control. In order to unlock the app and get back in, you have to send them an access request from within the app, and once they reply with a yes or no, you either get back in, or stay put. Your buddy can also put a restriction on how long they are letting you back in — after which the app will re-lock by itself once the allowance time expires.
Currently only available for iOS (no plans for Android yet).
Would love your feedback. Let me know how well (or not) it works for you.