Mindfulness with the smartphone: startup wants to radically change the use of mobile phones

Mindfulness with the smartphone
Startup wants to radically change the use of mobile phones

What is your daily screen time? And who will immediately give the reason that you also use the smartphone for work? Nevertheless, we are mostly online more than we’d like. Out of boredom on TikTok? Quickly check Instagram again while waiting for the bus? We all know that. And that’s exactly the point: it’s actually less about the quantity than the quality.

All the better that there are people who recognized this and developed an app following this approach. An app, you ask yourselves? Yes, exactly. Because it helps to learn to use the smartphone carefully by not simply switching it off, but rather thinking carefully about how to act in which situations.

“Business Punk” spoke to Selcuk Aciner and Christina Roitzheim. You founded Not less but better using methods from behavioral psychology. In the meantime, in addition to social media and work situations, they have also developed a course on the subject of online dating. Among other things, you learn more about your own motivations for using dating apps, learn to dispel inner doubts and how to swipe mindfully.

What bothered you most about your own smartphone use before you founded?

Christina: For me the most formative experience was when I was in Shanghai. I had a super ambivalent relationship with it. On the one hand, it was my salvation, because that was how I could translate menus, communicate with people, pay or rent a bike. On the other hand, it meant that I looked a lot at the screen and less at what was going on around me.

Selcuk: I’ve traditionally always used my smartphone to distract myself in uncomfortable situations. With every little challenge in my day-to-day work as a founder, I took refuge in my cell phone. For example, when I had to write a difficult email. In order not to have to endure this stress, I pulled out the cell phone and distracted myself. I saw a very clear pattern there.

Did you know from the start that you wanted to use the smartphone as a means of using it less?

Christina: We realized relatively quickly that we couldn’t find a solution without knowing the problem. So we took another step back. But we took another half a year to do this and analyzed the usage behavior of many people by keeping a diary.

Selcuk: Smartphones have become our constant companions, and at the same time we have never learned how to use them properly.

What happened then?

Christina: Very classic with prototypes and further tests with test subjects. Actually, we would have liked people to take 30 minutes to go through the exercises. But we then had to find out that a maximum of ten minutes is realistic.

Selcuk: So it was always very different in theory than in practice. At the same time, our basic assumption remained that one should rather change habits from within and we were able to continue to optimize our product.

Christina: We were also always aware that you don’t learn to swim in a bookstore or with YouTube videos, but in the water. It is the same with the smartphone, we cannot demonize it, because there is no getting around it.

Selcuk: That was really our basic question right from the start: How can we use the advantages of the smartphone for ourselves?

Business Punk_2.JPG

What can users expect inside the app?

Christina: There is a short onboarding and then it actually starts. Above all, it’s about your own experiences and your personal relationship with the smartphone. So you work directly in the app and thus have a reflection process and aha moments. Then there are always exercises for everyday life so that you can always remember what you have learned even in stressful situations.

So how long do you have to use the app to notice a change?

Selcuk: The app follows a kind of coaching approach and is a kind of on-going learning. Ideally, you use it more often at first, then learn and internalize the new habits and at some point only use the app two or three times a week. Not less but better should accompany the users on a regular basis.

How has your own smartphone usage changed in the meantime?

Selcuk: Above all, I learned to identify unpleasant situations and to resist the impulse to pick up my smartphone. In the meantime I can say that it supports me in everyday life and that the quality of use has improved significantly.

Christina: It’s the same for me. I also use the positive possibilities of the smartphone a lot more. So I no longer hang out on Instagram for hours, but take part in a live yoga class there. So it no longer feels forbidden to use my cell phone.

Elena Berchermeier spoke to Selcuk Aciner and Christina Roitzheim

The interview appeared first at “Business Punk”.

.
source site