I applaud the effort, but your smartphone’s Screen Time or Digital Wellbeing feature telling you how much time you stare at your screen isn’t going to help. You’ll feel guilty about being on Instagram 2 hours a day, but awareness doesn’t break addiction. Designer Matteo Bandi has a much better solution… confiscation.
Sidekicks, developed by Bandi during his MA at the Royal College of London, is a series of electronic devices and appliances that literally use your phone as their on/off switch. Designed as a desk lamp for working, a speaker for leisure time, an alarm clock for the end of the day and a projector for watching a movie, Sidekicks literally need you to dock your phone in them to work. Place your phone in the designated area and your gadget powers to life, allowing you to use it. The phone’s screen turns into the product’s interface, allowing you to control it, while limiting your use. By confiscating your phone in order to work, Sidekicks offer a much more ‘cold turkey’ solution to our smartphone addiction problems, punishing us at first, but eventually allowing us to consciously live in the moment… plus using the phone’s screen as a control panel for the product itself? Absolute genius!
Designer: Matteo Bandi
