Google wants to change our relationship with smartphones

It’s not too long since there was talk of a technological gap: Not everyone had access to new technologies, so some had more opportunities and rights, while others (Third World residents, poor people) were in the dark.

Today, this debate seems outdated. In the Third World, they may very often not have access to water, but smartphones have found their way there. They are now considered a kind of necessity.

The debate has now shifted its center of gravity. Today, the question is how exactly can we stop the damage caused by technology in our daily lives. How not to waste an endless amount of time in scrolling. How to stop being counterproductive in our work entangled in the corridors of social media. How we will not waste hours with our own people to spend them with our cell phones.

The world of the internet is a double-edged knife: On the one hand we need it to do our job-related surveys, send emails instead of letters, use modern digital tools to get our hands on it. But at the same time, it’s full of sirens; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and of course TikTok are just a few.

Google has announced three different projects designed to stop wasted time, distraction and poorly implied dependence on smartphones.

The solution to all this seems to come from the most unexpected part. Google -yes, this colossus of technology and the Internet- has announced three different projects designed to stop wasting time, distraction and the poorly implied dependency on smartphones.

These are three apps, designed by Google’s Digital Wellbeing Experiments, for the company’s smartphone, Pixel3a.

• The first application will put the cellphone in a kind of digital folder, which will allow it to function only as a camera and as -who would expect it- a phone.
• The second one will be called “Screen Stopwatch” and every time we use our smartphone it will tell us how much time we have wasted on it.
• And finally, the app titled “Activity Bubbles” uses big guns: If you overdo it, bubbles will start forming on your screen to help you avoid addiction.

Of course, if these Google apps aren’t keeping you away from it either, it may be time to change your tactics and simply lock it in your drawer for at least a few hours a day.

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