Want to get rid of your ‘scrolling’ habits? Take the Substitute Phone

Smartphones have become a basic necessity these days. You need to have one in your pockets all the time so as to stay connected with the world. And very often you will find yourself scrolling aimlessly, looking for something unuseful, just to kill time. Some consider it as a bad habit and look for various ways to get rid of this ‘smartphone-scrolling first-world problem’. It seems that there’s good news for these guys — the Substitute Phone.

The name may let you imagine a radical Android smartphone with some unique feature. But it does what it says — it is meant to substitute your smartphone. Made out of black polyoxymethylene (POM) plastic – also known as acetal, this phone, or rather these phones (a single order consists a set of five pieces) have stone beads embedded in them. The beads are embedded in a fashion to replicate the gestures that are common in modern day smartphones. The phones also have a smartphone-replicating weight so as to give a natural feeling.

Designer Klemens Schillinger says that these phones are meant to be therapeutic devices for helping people get rid of their ‘notification-checking’ addiction. Just like smokers looking to give up their habits by using anti-smoking products, the Substitute Phone is meant to help extremely-addicted people looking to relieve themselves of their habit. The beads replicate common gestures such as zooming, swiping up/down, scrolling left/right and more.

Therefore, if you are looking to get rid of your urge to check messages while sitting at the dinner table with your date, then this might be the perfect tool for you. The only issue with this right now is that it isn’t up for sale yet.

With inputs from Dezeen

Also published on Deccan Chronicle