
Search Engine
How to stop being so phone addicted (without self-discipline or meditation)
16 May 2025
This week we ask a slightly absurd question – is there technology to stop you from using addictive technology – and get some surprising answers from The Verge's David Pierce. New developments in the anti-technology field, and a partial history of how our phones got so oppressive. Comment on this episode! Support the show, and get ad-free episodes! Listeners' favorite Search Engine episodes To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Full Episode
Hey, everybody. This is some pretty big news, which is why we're announcing it before the show. Friday, May 30th, Search Engine is hosting our very first Falafel Friday at 12 p.m. Eastern Time, United States. What that means is that we are inviting you to join us on Zoom for lunch. That morning, I'm going to send out a Zoom link.
And at noon, the search engine team is going to be there hanging out with a surprise guest who I will have questions for, who you can send questions to in the chat, and bring food. It can be falafel. It can be something else that is similarly alliterative. I'm not the boss of you. But please join us for lunch, 12 p.m. Eastern on Friday, May 30th. We are going to send out a Zoom link that morning.
This event is strictly for our incognito mode members. If you've not already joined, please consider signing up at searchengine.show. Falafel Friday, May 30th. Look for a link that morning in your inbox. Lately, I've been thinking about my phone. My phone and how much I look at it. I would love to be talking about a more interesting problem.
I can't stop looking at my phone is unfortunately a terminal cliche, but our problems sometimes choose us. I worry sometimes that in some afterlife, I'll be forced to watch myself from my phone's perspective. Some years-long montage of all the moments where my mouth was half open, where my finger gluttonously swiped, where carpal tunnel blossomed, while behind my head, life whooshed by.
If the internet sometimes feels like a confusingly addictive drug, confusing because it offers more lows than highs, maybe it's useful to compare all this to drinking. For people who drink, they hope that they're social drinkers. They try not to become alcoholics. But there's something in between. Gray area drinking. In the gray area, alcohol might not be ruining your life. Nobody's worried.
But your intuition tells you your consumption is off. That these are not the choices you'd make if you were still entirely choosing. That's how I've been feeling about the way I use my phone lately. Gray area. And I've noticed people around me who are just not in the gray. One friend of mine, I realized, had entirely stopped using his phone on the weekends.
Another had begun using a mysterious gadget called The Brick to take some functionality away from his phone. I found it thrilling to think that some people were finding their own solutions, and it made me want to look for my own. And I wondered, rather than meditation or some magical upgrade to my self-control, was there technology that could maybe help solve my technology problem?
So I called a tech journalist whose work I've followed for years. Can you just introduce yourself and say what you do?
Sure. My name is David Pierce. I'm the editor-at-large at The Verge, which is a meaningless title that means I report and write about technology all the time.
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