I’m distractible. Easily. My iPhone is the worst (but far from the only*) temptation to wander away from what I should be thinking about.
In today’s New York Times, reporter Conor Dougherty explains how he lobotomized his phone—removing all social media, games, even the browser—in order to stay focused. I periodically do something similar, removing social media and disabling email to limit the firehose of distraction. It’s an investment in my ability to daydream, what psychologists call “the default mode,” since daydreams are where most insights come from. (I’ve written before about how weird it is that we now have to choose to be bored.)
It’s a drag to delete all those apps and turn off all those accounts, and then it’s another drag to reinstall and reactivate.
What I want is the ability to create different use modes for my iPhone, and then be able to switch among them, although not easily.
The first time I pick up my phone on any day, or when I pick it up again after, say, 15 minutes or more of idleness, what I want to see under the time and superimposed on the wallpaper picture are four buttons, each of which leads to a specific mode… like choosing a pill in The Matrix or a pathway in the old Chutes & Ladders board game.
Here are the four modes I want:
Focus: this is close to the existing “Do Not Disturb” mode that disables notifications except for calls and texts from people on a pre-determined list or people who call back three times. No social media. No entertainment. No games. Not even the camera.
I’d also like to add an “activate for an hour” (or two, or whatever) function that would not let me switch to a different mode before the hour expires unless I pay a penalty… say $5.00 to a charity or to somebody I dislike.
Plus, I’d like to have predetermined playlists or music channels that I can listen to without the ability to switch to that new album by The Head and the Heart or whatever.
Fun: this gives me all the apps, all the games, all the social media, all the streaming services, notifications galore… the whole combo platter.
However, I’d also like to add a popup notification when I start Fun Mode that asks, “how long would you like to play?” When my time is up, Fun Mode winks and retires.
Information: when I activate this mode, it opens Instapaper, where I keep an endless queue of to-be-read articles. I’d be able to switch to other news sources, but not email, social media, games, or entertainment.
People can reach me by phone or text or messenger services. As with Focus Mode, I can set an unswitchable duration with or without penalty in this mode.
Social: I’m out in the world, with family or friends, or at a conference where I’m tweeting up a storm. This mode gives me phone, texting, social media, email, and the camera: everything that lets me connect and post.
But it doesn’t include games. It also doesn’t include media, so while I can tweet and look at others’ tweets, I can’t fall down the rabbit hole of articles or listicles.
If I switch out of this mode into Fun Mode, then before the switch Siri (or whomever) would ask me something like, “Brad, are you sure you want to switch into Fun Mode?”
Why haven’t Apple and Android done this already?
Creating modes would not be a complicated bit of coding. Apple, for example, already has its less robust “Do Not Disturb” mode. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in April that he’d like people to use their iPhones in a less addictive way.
So why hasn’t Apple made it easier to use our phones in different ways? Sometimes the obvious answer is the real one: the more we use our phones, the better it is for the phone maker.
* I also have a family and a dangerously cute Welsh Corgi.
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