A Cup of Tea w/ Tommy Sobel (Brick)
By Sanjay Parekh & Vishal Agarwala
For those of us that grew up in the “pre-cell” era, we all have an idea of what that used to feel like. Fast forward to today, and it feels impossible to imagine life without our phones.
Meet Tommy Sobel, a former entertainment executive that’s creating a culture to help us reconnect with ourselves, and the people in our world. He’s founded Brick (www.gobricknow.com) which is a community that makes it easier to put down your phone and enjoy life. Beyond this, Tommy has big plans in the works to create much more with Brick.
Why did you start Brick?
About three years ago, before it became mainstream news that our phones were made to be addictive, two things happened. First, I was working at DreamWorks Studios (which then became Amblin Partners) as their New Media Executive, a new position and the sole exec in their new Digital department, which was basically an exploratory position where I was tasked to figure out what our studio might do beyond film and TV. So I was building relationships with creators in VR, podcasts, interactive content, social media, etc. And it was through building all these relationships with a bunch of YouTubers and social media influencers that I realized they all were struggling with anxieties related to their digital rat race — the need to constantly create content and engage with their phones to stay on top of the algorithms. “Notification grooming,” as I call it. These young kids were all asking big questions of themselves about their phone use, they were smart, but they were stressed out and lonely and also couldn’t compare it to the “good old days,” when life didn’t make us feel obligated to be “always-on” like I was lucky enough to experience from growing up in the 90’s. At the time, I knew I was addicted to my phone, but I thought it was my own personal problem, and I had a lot of shame associated with it. I thought I was the only one who had compulsions towards overconsumption and didn’t feel in control of my device. So I realized that there was this secret epidemic, that it wasn’t just me that was lost in my phone, but it was much more widespread, especially amongst those who built careers off of it. And no one was sufficiently tackling it. At the same time, I was experiencing all this VR and being totally blown away, and realized that Facebook didn’t buy Oculus for $4 billion for fun, but to have a stronger stranglehold on the attention economy. So if an entire generation of us (or more) are addicted to our phones with it just being this four inch screen in our hands, it’s gonna be game over once mass adoption hits and its in all of our eyes, filtering everything we see. So for these two reasons I started searching for a healthy balance for myself with my screens, and that brought me to the concepts that are central to Brick.
How has the transition been moving from the film industry to conscious minded startup?
It’s been great, my school background is in neuroscience, I was pre-med and then out of college I was doing neuroscience research in the evenings at UCLA while working for Kathy Kennedy and Frank Marshall (Spielberg’s film producers) during the day, before moving over to DreamWorks. So for me, what we’re doing with Brick feels like I finally get to merge all of my skillsets and interests, by taking what I learned from the incredibly fast-paced, 24/7 world of studio filmmaking and working for a true master like Spielberg, and incorporating my background in behavioral neuroscience to pursue motivated habit change.
What are your thoughts on Apple’s new Screen Time feature?
I think it’s a great first step, but definitely not enough. Knowing your usage is important to get the baseline, and seeing how much time you spend on your phone can be an important wakeup call to shock you out of denial. You can start to ask yourself, “Do I really want to be spending five hours a day on this thing?” Fun fact, if you spend two hours a day on your phone, over the course of a year, thats an entire month of your year. So if you’re using it more than that….you do the math. It really puts things into perspective. The big problem with ScreenTime as the sole solution is about behavioral inertia, or momentum. Once you’ve already started a habit, like grabbing your phone, or biting your fingernails, it’s incredibly hard to stop, because the “habit mind” is in control, instead of the conscious mind. It’s much easier to stop a habit before the first action is taken, before that momentum builds and the habit mind takes over. What ScreenTime does is notifies you after you’re already on your device (I.e. “You’ve reached our limit for today. Click ignore to continue”). So your habit mind is in control and you’re already in the middle of the maladaptive activity that you’re trying to stop. That’s why it’s so easy to click “Ignore” and keep scrolling. The real solution will have to come from something outside of the phone itself.
What do you find most gratifying about creating this community?
As a founder who’s dedicated my life to tackling phone addiction and trying to grow this new industry we’re calling “digital wellness,” I’ve been deep in the weeds every day for the last couple years, talking about it non-stop, reading research, books, podcasts, everything. So I often forget that this is a pretty new topic that most people aren’t yet educated on, that the general public still hasn’t been made aware that there are solutions here. So when I see someone’s eyes light up with hope when I present our mission, or with resolve as I present the Brick Challenge to a first timer at one of our events, or when someone texts me to let me know how much their new ritual of the daily Brick hour has made them feel more empowered about their phone use, it really lights me up. It reminds me that there’s a HUGE need for digital wellness solutions out there, and even the simplest, smallest changes are meaningful. People are really craving this. That’s endlessly rewarding, and it’s really what’s keeping me going.
Have you thought about switching to a dumb phone like the Punkt MP01?
Not really. I need to be my own guinea pig with what were offering the community at Brick, and in my experience, most people don’t want to buy a new phone. If someone else told me, “Hey, do you wish you spent less time on your phone? Here’s the solution, get a new phone!” I would be like, GTFO, I’m not paying for that. I don’t think the solution is to try to live in the past by saying no to the phone camera and social media and Uber and Headspace and Spotify and all these apps that do add value. I just want to be in harmony with them. Getting a flip phone and saying “no” to these apps and tools completely might be a solution for some, but not most. I want to be able to live in the tech-fueled 21st century and have all of its amazing tools, but be in control of them, instead of them controlling me.
What’s the plan for Brick in 2019?
Last year we threw one phone-free weekend on a private estate in Joshua Tree for 50 members of the Brick community and it was by far the most validating group experience for the Brick movement to-date. It was an entire weekend of people who rarely spend a day off their phones — or even an hour — let alone an entire weekend. We were secluded together and transformed into a temporary phone-free community, completely immersed in Joshua Tree’s epic natural habitat, with outdoor activities like yoga and campfire games. People came away from that trip connecting with others authentically on an even playing field, unaware of how many followers everyone else had, with some saying they felt like they were more themselves than they had ever been in recent memory. The vibes were incredible. So in 2019 we’re doubling down and doing quarterly retreats, with the first on a private estate in Ojai over March 22–24. Join us! Details forthcoming to our members (It takes 3 secs to join the crew for free here: www.gobricknow.com). Also, we at Brick have been heads down on a physical box that you put your phone in for your Brick Time, which we’re super excited to share more about very soon. Thanks so much for having me!
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