Smartphones have a way of dominating our lives. With the average American spending 4.7 hours a day on a smartphone, or nearly half of us claiming we ‘couldn’t live without‘ our devices, the writing is on the wall: we need a time out.
DistractaGone, from Smart Box, claims to be the solution. The real solution is probably self control and quelling FOMO (fear of missing out), but since we lack the former and the latter keeps us up at night, this box might be our best bet.
To use it, just open the lid and place up to four smartphones inside. Close it and set the number of hours or minutes you’d like to go on a digital time out. The box won’t open again until time expires.
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Created by a team of designers from Amsterdam, DistractaGone could help users find peace, work, or enjoy the company of friends and family. All of those things sound pretty lame; give me my damn smartphone back.
Currently a prototype, the team is running a Kickstarter campaign to raise €40,000 ($44,677). As of this writing, they’ve raised just over €3,000 ($3,487) with three weeks to go.
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