Metaphon is a phone (not a phone) that helps you stop using your mobile phone
Early this year, Eric Antonau was in the coffee shop with his family when he felt the familiar twitching urge to reach for his phone. He patted his pocket and felt relieved. The cool, thin slab was still there. He joked to his family, but like Jones for the hit, he joked that he would need a medical-grade solution to detoxify from his phone one day. The opioid addict had methadone. iPhone addicts need metaphone.
“It was a joke, but I laughed twice from two teenagers. This is money,” Antonau says. “I was like, ‘I’m going to commit to the bit.’ ”
Antonow, a former marketing executive for Google and Facebook, has been committed to the bit for 50 years and is creating what he calls it.Heartless toy. His online shop isListening switch” To show when a person is paying attention, and Vinyl for silent meditationthere is a recorded silence for 20 minutes on each side (record player is not required).
So, within days of his latest joke, he recruited ChatGpt and catheted all of his image of gadgets in the shape of a mobile phone. A more realized design has been released from the original original sketches. It is a 6-inch transparent acrylic slab with round corners like an iPhone and green edges that resemble glass. Anthonau ordered samples and started Indiegogo Campaign In the case of Metaphon: “Leave the phone without craving or withdrawing.”
The smartphone dilemma is that we all want to have fewer phones, but few people actually do. Apple and Google provided several life guardians in 2018. Self-regulation tools Like Screen time limitbut most of them came out of the window during a pandemic era when screens became windows into the outside world. Now those hoping to regain their attention are trapped between two fascinating options. Downgrade to minimalist “silly phone” or surrender to intravenous content dopamine drip ingestion. Either way, the phone wins.
In response, the cottage industry emerged to provide peeling tools. There is an app with an iconic name Freedom and concentrationcontent that blocks distract you. Startups like Bricks and Pruce Provides physical NFC “keys” to lock and unlock addictive apps. (Jorn Rigter, co-founder of Unpluq, says people use their devices equally to block social apps like Instagram and work apps like Slack. Yondra lockable pouch to prevent phone use in court and concert halls. And the lineup of “Damhon” is increasing. Some are priced at premium and postmodern prices.
Unlike these solutions, Metaphon does nothing. That’s more of a statement: This is not a phone. But in a culture of overtechnology, the project resonates widely as with the ozempic in the screen obesity epidemic.
In May, when the first batch of Metaphon arrived, Antonau sent them to dozens of friends to get a response. One winner was Katherine Gotze, who quickly posted a video about Metaphon to her 400,000 followers of Tiktok. in videoGoetze lined up at a Boba shop in San Francisco, leaning down like everyone else. But instead of scrolling through her phone, she’s scrolling. The commenter has gone wild on speculation. Was it a Nokia prototype? a Black mirror trailer? Within five days, the video had over 53 million views.
After Goetze’s video, Antonow says that Methaphone “sold out on a massive scale.” (He first ordered a run of 100 units; Limited release, $25. ) He plans to restock, but says the future of metaphon is less about individual purchases than on a large scale experiment. For example, in restaurants that serve menus on the menu, people can eat without distractions. A phone is more than just a portal to another person, it is a portal to another dimension. “So counterbalance should be more important than just ‘Oh, you need to remember not to use your phone at the table’,” he says.