A few years ago, we featured the Kickstarter campaign for The Light Phone, a gadget that was designed to help people separate themselves from their smartphones. Well, they’ve recently launched The Light Phone 2 and it’s blowing up Indiegogo. And no surprise, as we fast forward to 2018 when we all suffer from information overload and text neck. (Yes, it’s a thing).
Related: Smartphone addiction – 5 things I learned when I put my phone away
The Light Phone 2 has a few more features than the original, letting you do just the essential things with your phone: set an alarm, call your friends, and send messages. That’s it. Could you survive without Spotify, your weather app, Instagram, or… a camera? Well, enough people to raise almost a million dollars so far think so. It’s certainly a cold turkey way to curb a smartphone addiction.
There are plenty of us who actually use our smartphones for work purposes, though we can probably all agree those lines have gotten very blurred. Still, they’ve helped us actually do more with our families because we’re not tethered to a computer or office.
Related: Tips and tricks for making your phone less distracting without turning it off
That being said, I’d pick one of these up on a heartbeat to give to my kids while they’re driving (not yet, but it’s not far away in my house), or for me when I’m going out with friends or date night. I love the idea of fewer distractions, and giving ourselves a much-needed respite. This little gadget might just be the way to achieve that and still stay connected.
