- 13 Dec, 2025 *
Please, indulge in this extremely short thought experiment:
Suppose an evil witch cast a spell on your smartphone and completely disabled any way for it to connect to the internet. How would the phone still make you lose time during the day with your current roaster of applications?
Unless you’re an avid mobile gamer of offline games, the answer would probably be: it wouldn’t. That’s because, in fact, there are very few applications a phone can have that would have you glued to the screen for hours on end that do not depend on showering you with online-based content.
I know what you’re thinking: *isn’t banning the internet a b…
- 13 Dec, 2025 *
Please, indulge in this extremely short thought experiment:
Suppose an evil witch cast a spell on your smartphone and completely disabled any way for it to connect to the internet. How would the phone still make you lose time during the day with your current roaster of applications?
Unless you’re an avid mobile gamer of offline games, the answer would probably be: it wouldn’t. That’s because, in fact, there are very few applications a phone can have that would have you glued to the screen for hours on end that do not depend on showering you with online-based content.
I know what you’re thinking: isn’t banning the internet a bit too much? I mean, online maps use the internet and I don’t see people getting addicted to that... You’re right Billy, there is a whole category of "utility" applications that make use of the internet, such as your email client, your calendar, your banking app, etc. What if indeed you only had those? Would you also spend hours and hours on your device? Of course not!
When you really stop to think about it, the real stuff that makes you waste time on your devices aren’t all those truly useful applications like maps, notes, gallery, messages. It’s the Facebooks and Instagrams and TikToks and Youtubes of the world. It’s these apps that provide you and endless stream of content collected from the entire world. A black hole of infinite entertainment that competes (and wins) with the reality around you. You are laying on your bed in silence looking at your grey ceiling? Just move your arm a little and pick up the endless amusement device! You are sitting on a bus for your commute? Just put your hand in your pocket and be exposed to the wonders of the entire world!
Everyday reality cannot compete with online content, because most of the time life is not that exciting. But this is also a vicious cycle, since the more you are stimulated by your phone, the more reality will look boring and you will feel forced to relapse. But the problems you face, the stress that you feel, the emptiness and purposelessness that haunt you belong to your real life. How can you hope to solve them if you retire to the online world?