Init: XX.XX.2025 | Last edit: 12.05.2025
"This is not an iPhone; this is a $3 trillion military-grade lethal weapon aimed straight at your brain stem. Your most primal needs and impulses are being weaponized to get you to give up all your precious minutes and hours, down to the last second. This is done with an invisible asymmetry of power. You are being harvested, and no one is coming to save you."
It's a story of personal struggle that unfolds with discovering YouTube in elementary school. Innocent at first, it evolved into an unhealthy escape from reality. Innocent at first, it evolved into an unhealthy escape from reality. Imagine ending a gruelling day of work. You're literally cooked. Your brain is fried. You yearn some rest. But instead of hitting the pillow, you're scrolling yourself to sleep.
*Alarm* You wake up. One minute you're replying to a morning DM; the next, you're lost in a black hole consuming things you didn't even intend to ever see. Line between utility and consumption? Blurry as hell. The transition is made as "user-friendly" as possible.
It's not just that we're using these platforms; they're using us. Every design element is crafted to exploit our deepest impulses, ensuring we stay hooked. We are commodities, our time sliced and sold to the highest bidder. Every click, every pause, every scroll feeds an insatiable appetite for data.
Already today, more than 210 million people worldwide suffer from Internet and social media addictions. Looking at my younger sibling: It's fucked. This gen doesn't just use phones. In a way they live through them. Hot take, but we're raising a generation enslaved to the machine.
So we have a problem? Let's find a solution. The first learning is that you don't have an addiction to your phone. Think about the term 'phone addiction' – no one claims an addiction to bottles, glasses, or mugs; it's what's inside them that counts. Similarly, it's not the sleek design of our smartphones that hooks us. It's certain apps, their constant stream of content, notifications, and updates. Nobody's hooked on the calculator app.
I'm an expert on this problem, and that is not by choice. I've tried a dozen of tools to improve my situation. Here's where it get's complicated. Ignoring the exact definition of addiction, the most important factor is severity.
There's a simple test: detox. Try to abstain from digital entertainment, especially the likes of social media for say a month. Can't do it? Log yourself out. Still logging back in? Delete the app. You started using your browser instead? Block the website. You're using your desktop? Block it systemwide. You start resetting your own restrictions? That's were the real challenge begins.
There are big hurdles for software to solve this problem, and I am skeptical that anyone besides the device manufacturer currently can. Expecting individuals to effectively regulate their own digital consumption using tools they fully control is paradoxical. It's like asking someone addicted to sweets to keep a candy jar locked but within their reach. The user, familiar with the ins and outs of the application, can often find ways to bypass the very restrictions they set. The effectiveness of blocking applications is also hindered by operating system restrictions. They lack the authority to enforce limitations robustly, making them easy to uninstall or circumvent. This limitation is a structural issue, rooted in the design of our digital devices and platforms.
Hardware offers better alternatives, designing light phones, solving these structural problems with nowhere to escape to. But they are typically unable to suit the demands of work and social life that are increasingly mediated through technology, from banking to navigation.
A fundamental learning arises. The problem with severe users is that they can't solve their habit alone. The idea: accountability. That's what we started building. We coined it LookUp. Cause you know? You should look up at the beautiful sky more often.
Me and Chris made the first version. To be fair, Chris definitely lead the engineering, despite never having touched - quite impressive!