Thinking of a tech diet? This 'Substitute Phone' could be of help!

Come New year and we will all have our resolution list ready. I can't say about others but mine usually has this resolution 'to reduce my tech intake.' Technology may be my bread and butter but sometimes we allow it too much space in our lives jeopardizing other crucial things. So, every year, I plan a tech diet for my self which more often than not never works out. But, looks like, it may this time.

Designer Klemens Schillinger has created a set of therapeutic phone-like object- Substitute Phone that can help smartphone "addicts" cope with being away from their devices. According to Schillinger, smartphones have become an addiction to an extent that people derive pleasure out of mere holding and touching the device even when they don’t want to actually use the phone.

It is to 'check' this behavior that Schillinger designed five facsimile phones, made of black polyoxymethylene plastic with stone beads embedded in the surface, which allows a user to experience things like scrolling, pinching, or swiping without having a smartphone in his/her hand. The goal is that it could be used as a coping mechanism for someone trying to check their phone less.

Speaking to Dezeen, Schillinger added that he was inspired not only by the disturbing frequency with which he and others tend to consult their smart devices (and for no particular reason, usually), but also the writer Umberto Eco, who when attempting to stop smoking his pipe, substituted a simple stick. “It was the same thing,” he said, “but without the nicotine, just the physical stimulation. I remembered this and thought to make phones that would provide the physical stimulation but not the connectivity.

The Substitute Phone is the second project by Schillinger after the Offline Lamp that only turns on when the user surrenders his/her smartphone. Both the products have been designed to reduce user's tech intake. They were showcased at this year's Vienna Design Week that took place between September 29 to October 8.