The ‘Substitute Phone’ Helps Curb Smartphone Addiction

If you find yourself checking your smartphone a couple of times every hour, or maybe more, you’re definitely not alone in this. It is becoming an increasingly common sight where you see people who are out with friends but yet spend all their time on their phones, or families who are out for a meal but yet no one is paying attention to each other.

The smartphone addiction is real, and with our lives becoming increasingly connected, it’s easy to see why. However this doesn’t mean that we should accept it, and that’s what designer Klemens Schillinger is hoping to address by creating a series of objects called the “Substitute Phone” that is designed to help curb our smartphone addiction.

As you can see in the image above, the Substitute Phone is shaped like a regular smartphone (no edge-to-edge displays, we’re afraid). However in the in middle of the body it features a series of stone beads that are positioned differently and which are meant to mimic the different motions used on smartphones, like swiping, pinch to zoom, and so on.

We suppose this is similar to how some people try to fight their cigarette habits by putting something else in their mouth, like a lollipop, a pencil, and so on. The Substitute Phone is actually the second project of Schillinger aimed at trying to get people to put their phones down. Just last month the designer unveiled the Offline Lamp which only powers on when you put your smartphone into a drawer compartment in the base of the lamp.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones, Design
Tags: _cold