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Can't give up your smartphone? Block the apps you scroll

Not everyone can switch to a plain phone. Work apps, banking, parking, a family group chat: sometimes the smartphone has to stay. You can still take away the part that eats your attention, and keep the rest.

Block the feeds, not the phone

A filter like NextDNS sits between your phone and the internet. You choose what it blocks, and the sites and apps you've blocked simply stop loading. It works "at the DNS level, not on your device", in its own words, so the same settings can cover your phone, tablet and laptop.

  • Block the apps you scroll. NextDNS says it can "block specific websites, apps and games", Facebook among its examples. Pick the ones that get you.
  • Or allow them only at set times. Its "Recreation Time" setting lets you "only allow access to some websites, apps or games during specific times each day". An hour in the evening, say, instead of all day.
  • Start for free. The free plan covers 300,000 lookups a month. Over that, NextDNS says it carries on "like a classic non-blocking DNS service": the internet keeps working, but nothing is blocked until the next month. Heavy users may need the paid plan to keep the blocks on.

Make it stick

A block you can switch off in ten seconds is a speed bump, not a wall. A few things help:

  • Set it up on every device you'd reach for, or the scrolling just moves to the tablet.
  • Ask someone you trust to choose the account password, so turning the blocks off takes a conversation.
  • Delete the apps as well. A blocked app that's still on the home screen still pulls at your thumb.

Or go all the way

Here's how I did it: six months with a Mudita Kompakt and NextDNS, and what still goes wrong.

If the blocks keep coming down, a phone that can't run the feeds at all is the sturdier answer. Many people keep a smartphone at home on Wi-Fi for the few things that need it, and carry a plain phone when they go out.

We're not paid by NextDNS and don't earn anything if you sign up.

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