Brick Phone Lock Review: My Brain Feels Much Better

Without social media, I suddenly had hours of free time stretching ahead of me, and I realized quite quickly that I had forgotten what I did for fun when doomscrolling wasn’t an option.

To fill my newfound free time, I resurrected the hobbies I loved in my teenage years before I became perennially online. I unearthed my crafting bin from the depths of my basement and spent my evenings stringing together friendship bracelets, painting watercolor landscapes, and gluing magazine scraps into eclectic collages. I noticed that time passed a lot more slowly when I was working with my hands, my mind focused solely on the task in front of me. I never regretted pouring hours into craft time, even if the art I was making was subpar.

And I’m not the only one returning to my childhood proclivities with the Brick: My colleague Samantha Schoech loved seeing it reform her “scrolling addict” teenage son. “He went back to his childhood love of books to fill his free time and ended up reading more this summer than he has probably since he got his smartphone in 8th grade,” she said.

Although you can use the app to set up custom modes that toggle on and off at specific times of the day, while testing I decided to keep my phone in a Bricked state, Unbricking it only when I was ready to use it.

One perk of going this route: I can already feel my attention span regenerating. I started a rewatch of Gilmore Girls, and now that I’m not splitting my attention between screens, I’m actually watching the show, picking up on small details I’d never noticed before. (Did you know that Alex Borstein plays Emily’s kooky stylist Miss Celine? I’ve watched this show roughly a trillion times, yet I only just realized this.)

This downtime has also opened me up to tackle chores I’ve been avoiding: I’ve decluttered my coat closet, reorganized my pantry, and finally donated the bags of clothes that were collecting dust in the trunk of my car. The cheap dopamine hit of swiping through TikTok doesn’t come close to the thrill of accomplishment I feel with each completed task.

I still reach for my phone subconsciously in moments of fleeting downtime, like when I’m standing in line at the grocery store or waiting for the oven to preheat. I hadn’t realized how often I used my phone to navigate stints of micro-boredom. Now I make a conscious effort to bask in that malaise, letting my thoughts wander instead of redirecting them to social media.

Though I still Unbrick my phone on occasion to scroll through social media, I’ve realized that I actually don’t enjoy spending my time that way. Staring down at my screen hurts my neck, and my pinky inevitably starts to cramp the longer I hold my phone. Instead, I’ve been perusing Instagram and TikTok in a browser on my laptop. Using the desktop version of these apps alleviates my FOMO — I can still check in on my friends and keep up with pop-culture happenings — but they’re not as user-friendly, so I spend a lot less time there.

As of the writing of this piece, I’ve been Bricked out of my social media apps for just over 186 hours — that’s almost eight days without the siren call of Instagram or Tiktok. Keeping my phone Bricked has helped me rethink the way I spend my time, reminding me of the tactile joys of life that a screen can’t replicate.

It reminds me of those high school days I so sorely missed. Spending time on the internet feels intentional again, just like it was in the early 2000s. In a way, Bricking your phone is a little like traveling back to a time when logging out was still an option. And in the year 2025, doesn’t that sound nice?

This article was edited by Megan Beauchamp, Catherine Kast, and Maxine Builder.