Unplugging Yourself From The Connected World: How Jorn Rigter Made It His Business To Reclaim Your Attention From Your Smartphone

Being distracted by our phones is far from a new issue. But it has been amplified over the last two years. Everyday we lose focus and get easily distracted by social media, messaging apps, shopping sites and other social networks. Recent reports in the US show that users are spending more than five hours per day on their phones. In line with this, it has also been found that people spend around two hours per day on social media networks like Facebook.

Industry experts are quick to point out that the more reliant we have become on smartphones, the stronger the distraction effect gets to be. It has come to a point that distraction, be it at work, school, or at home, results in an unproductive state.

Mobile phone distraction, as some studies have revealed, has a negative and significant association with psychological well-being. This rings particularly true as use of the smartphone limits the user's cognitive abilities-resulting in a lack of focus that eventually leads to negative psychological wellbeing.

This is the dilemma that Jorn Rigter had to face when he was still a university student taking up industrial design engineering. Along with his fellow student Tim Smits, both students found it hard to focus on studying as they were often distracted by notifications from Reddit, Facebook and other social media apps.

"We saw the impact that being distracted had on people. This prompted us to sit down and start thinking about a solution to address this issue. We talked to a lot of people to find out what made them get distracted from work or studying and we found out that we were not the only one's suffering from this problem," Jorn shared.

He further added that one of the first ideas they had was the development of a phone that offered limited functionality. Due to a combination of a lack of time and investment, the pair realized the Unpluq app was a more sustainable option.

Jorn added, "It’s common knowledge these days that social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, to name a few, were created to be addictive because this is their business model. Their priority is users’ exposure to their platforms. We also saw that there were other variants of Unpluq available, yet none seemed to actually be a success in reducing users screen time.”

In 2020, Rigter and Smits put up Unpluq with the mission of bringing back the control of things to the user and not being controlled by technology itself. The result was an app that reduces your screen time and helps lessen instances of being distracted from work or studying.

"Starting out, we did not realize how massive a problem this was," Jorn explained. "There were a few available solutions but these weren't just as effective as they were marketed to be, because after a few clicks, you would be lured back into distraction."

The solution was what they called the Unpluq Tag, and the Unpluq app, which is programmed to block distracting apps on your phone until you use the Tag to stop the blocking. Use of the solution, as Jorn points out, helps save 69 minutes of screen time every day. In addition, the Unpluq Tag also promises other features like increased productivity and better sleep times for the user.

Originally available for Android users, the company is now also in the process of developing an iOS version to be used by iPhone users.

"With Unpluq, we are now giving you back control of your time. No more distracting apps and notifications. Our goal is to keep you more focused with the task at hand by resisting the urge to pick up and take a quick glimpse of your phone--unplugging yourself from the connected world to become more productive in the real world," concluded Rigter.