Phone Rules

A rulebook for tackling phone overuse and reclaiming our lives

Phones are bad for us. They are making us nearsighted, causing painful back and neck problems, and robbing us of the sleep and physical activity necessary for robust physical and mental health. Worse still, they are driving a widespread rise in depression, self-harm and suicide, especially among young people.

Yet, even if we know that there’s an urgent collective need to get off our phones, we are stymied by the scale of the problem and by the many highly addictive ways in which our phones distract us, delight us and pull us back in.

Phone Rules is part of the movement to disrupt phone overuse, showing us how we can wean ourselves off our devices. Investigative journalist Luc Rinaldi gives us a playbook of five insightful rules to resist our phones, along with helpful strategies to put them into action. He is not merely an outside observer trying to understand ‘kids these days’, but a smartphone-using, video game-playing, millennial member of the generation for whom the Phone Rules most urgently apply.

This is our invitation to join the resistance. Together we can discover new mental space and productivity, deepen our engagement with the people and things that matter most and reclaim our lives.