Do you grab your smartphone and mindlessly start scrolling more often than you'd like? A device called the Substitute Phone may be able to help you out with that problem.
Created by Austrian designer Klemens Schillinger, the Substitute Phone is meant to help smartphone addicts break the habit. The plastic device is shaped like a typical smartphone, but features stone beads on the front that let you mimic the action of scrolling, swiping, or zooming. And that's all you can do with it.
"There are no digital functions," Schillinger explained on his website. "Thee [sic] object, which some of us describe as a prosthesis, is reduced to nothing but the motions. This calming limitation offers help for smartphone addicts to cope with withdrawal symptoms."
Schillinger created five versions of the phone, each of which let you mimic a different gesture. The designer told Deezen he was inspired to create the Substitute Phone after watching a documentary on Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco who swapped his smoking pipe for a wooden stick to quit lighting up.
"It was the same thing, but without the nicotine, just the physical stimulation," he told the magazine. "I remembered this and thought to make phones that would provide the physical stimulation but not the connectivity."
Meanwhile, Schillinger isn't the only person who's had this idea. A device called the NoPhone, which was featured on the reality show Shark Tank last year, is a self-professed "technology-free alternative to constant hand-to-phone contact" that makes a funny gag gift and gives mobile device addicts a way to kick the habit. Retailing at $12, it's a solid hunk of plastic the same general shape and size as a smartphone, but without any of the features. For an extra six bucks, you can upgrade to a model with a small mirror on the front for selfies, but that's about it.