$100,000 To Put Your Phone Away In 2019…Could You Do It?
My recurring nightmare as a child was showing up to school naked. Today's real-life version is when I walk out the door without my phone. I feel naked. Which brings up the question: could you go a year without your smartphone? That's the challenge Vitaminwater is throwing down. There's $100,000 prize at stake.
To enter the contest, you need to submit a post on Instagram or Twitter explaining what you'd do with the money and the time you'd free up by not scrolling and swiping your day away (and yes, you can use your smartphone to enter). The deadline is January 8. The company will pick one contestant to play shortly after.
If you have to use a smartphone for work, there's no need to apply for the smartphone-free-for-a-year-challenge. In exchange for your phone with all the bells and whistles, you'll be issued a 1996-style mobile phone. If you're inclined to cheat by using a friend's phone, there's a catch for that too. You'll have to take a lie detector test at the end of the 365 days.
Vitaminwater is trying to call attention to all the time we waste mindlessly surfing our smartphones. And they have a point. Every time I get my weekly usage report on my iphone I get this sense of shame. Think of the things I could do with that time. Engaging with my family is the first thing to come to mind. However, to accomplish that I'd have to get my teenagers to put down their phones, which is mission impossible.