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I am so tired of scrolling my life away on social media, scrolling through one meaningless post after the next. I’ve watched countless videos promoting the aesthetic life I constantly craved, but over time, I realized that I spent more of my time in the virtual world than I did in the real world. I had stopped listening to the sounds of birds chirping in the morning and stopped noticing the trees changing colours every season. I was chasing this fantasy of a perfect life, but I never paid attention to the beauty I was surrounded by. My world was somehow becoming smaller and smaller, closing in, only existing on a small screen. This screen was harming my attention span, my mental health, and my vision, and it was wasting my time. I considered throwing my phone in the lake on several occasions, but I knew that would probably be an overreaction. Instead, I decided I would delete all the apps I spent too much time on. No more social media, no more scrolling, just quiet. That was until my friend told me about aSocial.
The second I heard about this app, I knew I had to download it immediately (and then write about it).
aSocial is an app developed by McMaster students that had a vision to improve our lives. They saw that so many students were finding it difficult to focus because of their phone addictions, and after tremendous efforts, aSocial was born. aSocial allows you to block any apps of your choosing. You may be wondering, “Okay? And? What makes this app so different?” If you’re anything like me, even when I block my apps in my phone settings, it’s too easy to unblock them. I end up having apps blocked for five minutes and then unblock them because the fifteen more minutes or one more hour button is always there. With the aSocial app, if you try to go on one of your blocked apps, a cute little message shows up saying “It’s time to focus on what matters.” While considering unblocking your apps to scroll and procrastinate, you’re given this message that reminds you: you don’t need your phone, there are more important things for you to do. That’s usually enough to make me reconsider the decision, and I move on.
However, I will admit, there are times—like when I’m procrastinating school work—that the little message does not work. I’ll find myself going straight to the app ready to unblock everything, but I’m faced with a decision once again. Once I click “end blocking,” a three second timer shows up saying “Take a deep breath…are you sure you want to stop blocking?” Believe it or not, this works for me. In case this is not enough motivation and you need an incentive to get off your phone, aSocial has two modes that they recently added to the app: easy mode and hard mode.
In easy mode, you can select whichever apps you want to block. This eases you into reducing your screen time without the full commitment. Hard mode is the setting where this process becomes more challenging. In hard mode, all of your apps are blocked, except the apps automatically downloaded on your phone, like iMessage, Facetime, and Safari. However, because it’s more difficult to block so many apps, in hard mode, you receive “Clockies,” which are like coins that you can use for promotions. At the moment, aSocial has partnered with stores like OneZo, Matamak, Monga Fried Chicken, and Cinnaholic, the list goes on. Once you collect enough “Clockies” you have access to promotions at these stores like “one burger for one dollar,” “buy one get one free,” and “free fries.” This way, you block your apps, save time, and get rewards that allow you to save some money as a student.
These incredible McMaster students recognized that students are too dependent on their phones and they somehow managed to create an app that could change people’s lives. aSocial allowed me to be genuinely present in my own life. I’ve been testing the app for the last couple of weeks and I can honestly say that since I’ve used it, I procrastinate my school work much less, spend more time doing the things that I enjoy—like reading and spending time with my friends—and I have learned to appreciate the world around me.
It’s important to note that aSocial is still in its testing phase, but they are looking for people to help test the app and give feedback so that it can be even better than it is now. I highly recommend you try it; especially with exam season coming up, the timing could not be more perfect!