Category: technology

Brrrring!

I don’t have games on my phone. I used to do duolingo (before the app got taken over by AI – Atrocious Imaginings) and word games before I knew the level of treachery at the New York Times, but that’s it. Total transparency – I do have insta on my phone. I know it’s also awful in many ways, but I’m far from perfect. And so when I’m on my phone, most of the time is spent messaging folks (we love a voice message around here), watching a youtube (yes, yes, there are problems there too) on how to manage some crochet thing, or reading a book. Plus I call my mom once a week or so. That’s it. My phone spends most of its time in a phone stand.

Caitlin, on the other hand, is VERY attached to her phone. She doesn’t do games either, but she nearly always has it in her hand. She reads a lot on her phone, and she has many more people to text than I do, plus scrolling, and YouTube. Then about a month ago she started using WaterMinder. She really appreciated the gamified way the app got her drinking more water. Every time the reminder splashes, we all sing out WowTER in big voices.

I admit that I give her a hard time about how much she’s on her phone. And she gives me a hard time when I don’t pick up or notice that someone has texted us. (bonus track at the end for more on that) That said, we were pretty comfortable in our two camps, phone-on-stand vs phone-in-hand.

Then a friend of ours was wondering about a gratitude app that we could use and share our gratitudes without too much pressure. Caitlin is kind (and as I said, very attached to her phone) and she went on a search. What did she find? She found Finch.

If you are not aware of this app, the website says:

“Meet your new self-care best friend! Finch is a self-care pet app that helps you feel prepared and positive, one day at a time.

At Finch, our goal is simple: to make daily self-care something you actually want to do — not something that feels like a chore.

We know that building healthy habits can be hard. Life gets busy, priorities shift, and it’s easy to put yourself last. That’s why Finch was created: to be a gentle, encouraging companion that helps you take small steps every day toward a more supported, balanced version of yourself.”

What they don’t tell you here is that there are cheerful chimes and rainbow stones you collect when you complete a goal. And with those rainbow stones you can buy outfits and furniture to decorate your birb house. That’s not a typo, that’s what Finch calls it. You can get micro-pets and bonus points for completing goals in different areas like Connection, Calm, Gratitude (yes, that’s how she found it), Movement and Self-Kindness.

So then wherever I was in the house I would hear this brrring! sound as well as various cheeps and dings. Caitlin thought it might function as the gratitude minder she was looking for and so I downloaded it too.

And guess what? They have some decent psych-science behind what they are doing. And it does work for the Gratitude Goal in that it reminds us to share a gratitude (in the app you cannot message each other – beyond sending Good Vibes that the app writes for you). It turns out the brrrring! sound is really fun (and motivating)! Our friend did a lovely job of decorating and dressing up her birb – and they even had a white-cane for Caitlin and sports headphones for me.

And nowadays if you were able to listen in at our house you’d hear laughter, Maite talking, singing and…brrring! Finching. I still don’t keep my phone quite as handy as Caitlin does, but I do pick it up just to log my goals several times a day. If you decide to join, and you know either of us, let us know so our birbs can be friends!

Image is a screenshot from Finch with Caitlin and my birbs and micropets. The background is a forest scene, green grass, trees, that kind of thing. Caitlin’s birb is on the left with her baby bat. She is holding blue pom poms, is wearing a rainbow shirt and is smiling and dancing. Her thought bubble has what looks like a scared robot. Next is my birb’s pet seal who is quite a bit larger than the bat because I didn’t know I could keep it from growing up so it reached toddler, I think. Then my birb is sitting on the ground next to the seal. My birb is wearing a multicolored striped shirt, red glasses, sporty headphones and has sideswept brown hair. Its thought bubble has a sailboat.

Bonus track: The other day Caitlin left me very early to do things with her mom, and I was supposed to take Maite to the vet. I was so tired, I fell back to sleep after she left, not my usual behavior. When I woke up, I leapt out of bed to give Maite her pre-procedure meds. Then I dressed and took her right outside for her walk so we wouldn’t be late. Back inside, I took a quick shower and got dressed. As I was pocketing my keys and wallet, I unlocked my phone for the address of the vet. Imagine my surprise when I saw multiple missed calls and texts from Caitlin. The vet had called, apparently, while I was blissfully sleeping and then tried her phone. They had to cancel Maite’s procedure and wanted to reschedule. Caitlin then proceeded to call me, text me and call our neighbor to get him to come and knock on our door (he didn’t. or if he did, he did it while we were out walking). I promise you, I would have looked at my phone before I left, but Caitlin really needed that immediate response!

Connections

I just want to start by saying that I am addicted to my phone as anyone else (TJ probably takes the most heat for this, so my apologies, honey) given the right circumstances. I know that it isn’t our fault, that phones and apps are designed to make us want them, to feel like we need them. They use dopamine against us, as well as the brain’s tendency to focus on the negative (some info on this from Tristan Harris).

I didn’t know much about this until my mom called me one day pretty upset over some puppies that had been found in bag in a field.

Me: Wait, which puppies? Who found them?

Mommy: I don’t know, I don’t think they were speaking in English.

Me: (suspicion creeping in – she once spent at least 10 tearful minutes telling me about a horse being treated miserably before I recognized the 1946 movie Black Beauty) Where did you see this?

Mommy: Tube! (which is how she refers to YouTube)

I looked up the video, discovered it was at least two years old, found the original poster and the follow up video that most of the puppies survived and made it into happy homes. After…

Me: How did you start watching that video, anyway?

Mommy: Well, I was looking at cute puppies, you know, like Blessing (her Pomeranian at the time). They are so funny and small! And then another video and another and then this one. Oh, so sad.

YouTube claimed at some point to make changes to the algorithm but who knows?

All of that to say, I know this isn’t about poor choices or some inborn “addictive tendency,” or even “this generation.” The whole thing is very much designed to keep us online.

Once I realized it, I have done what I can to resist it. I rarely open Tube except for specific videos. I don’t turn on notifications on my phone. I keep the ringer (all sounds, really) turned off on my phone. I have used various apps (I know, ironic, right?) over the years to keep track of my time online or to shut down automatically at 9 pm. I have the timer set on my phone these days to turn off social media after 20 minutes. It almost always surprises me when it pops up.

Meanwhile, I was recently out of town and stayed with a local family. Luckily, my housemate was terrific – we connected right from the first day. We spoke every day, sometimes for literal hours at a time. Then I got sick. My host family and housemate were rightly concerned about getting sick themselves and so I was more or less quarantined in my room.

I listened to audiobooks, but often I do that while doing other things, like chores or driving. I found myself unlocking my phone over and over again to do random searches (some prompted by the book but others just random things that popped into my head). I had to stop and reverse many times because I wasn’t really listening. I found myself reading an email from REI – like ALL the little blurbs. Did I mention I had very little internet? Yeah, that was what was saving me from social media. Without the near endless scroll of social media what I had was: incessant checking of email, reading emails I would usually just delete, crossword puzzles, other word puzzles and incessant checking of email.*

What was missing from my days that led to this drastic change in behavior? People. Like my awesome housemate (plus all my people at home). Humans are hard-wired for connection – we crave it more than food – and not having any was leading me to look for it in my phone. Sadly, mostly what I got from my phone were advertisements – both the obvious and the more subtle. It’s true I also had Signal messages and WhatsApps that helped so much, but I really did refresh my email feed every time I picked up my phone.

You might be asking, what’s your point, doc? My point is, if you notice people around you (because I’m sure you would never) who seem a little too interested in their phones, consider what points of human connection they have access too. For some folks, online connection is the bulk of their contact with other humans. If you aren’t sure, think about how you could help increase those points. TJ and I hosted our first block party about a month ago and we are planning a second one next month, in part to build just that, a bit of human connection. Showing up to events at your local library is another option – those events are harder to continue to host if no one shows up!  Just by attending, you are helping maintain access points for others. Hosting a game night, or inviting people to a live music event – there are so many options. As humans, we need other humans. Let’s do what we can to create and maintain these human connections. What do you do to connect?

*I know I said this twice. It really was incessant

Image shows a red background with multiple rows of cell phones with white screens.