This tiny magnet might just curb your phone addiction

Heavy phone user Annabel Nugent puts the Brick to the test

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The first step is admitting you have a problem. The second step is something I have been trying to figure out since completing the first years ago.

Hi, I'm Annabel and I am a smartphone addict. I'm not alone in my woes - rather I'm one of an estimated 25 per cent of people worldwide who fall into this vaguely embarrassing category. The average Brit spends approximately three hours and 21 minutes on their phone a day, but my Apple screen time clocks in at a frankly mortifying five hours. (Sometimes, more often than I’d care to admit, it’s over six…)

It wasn’t always this way. Only a few years ago, my phone was a tool for connection, a means of communicating with friends and family, catching up on the news, and finding inspiration in unexpected places. And sure, some of that is still true - but of the 203 (!) times that I picked up my phone on average each day last week, I doubt even 20 of them were productive. Or even enjoyable. My biggest vice is Instagram, where I waste oodles of time coveting and comparing, coveting and comparing. My steadfast refusal to get TikTok, it turns out, is also pointless given the number of hours I spend on Reels. I come out of each scrolling session much the same way I do after a boozy, indulgent holiday: soporific, guilty, and disgusted.