How to Escape Apps That Are Designed to Addict You

With Proven Behavioral Science

Last month I was at Cedar Point, the famous rollercoaster park in Ohio, when my phone flew out of my pocket on the Maverick. Gone. Vanished into the abyss of twisted metal and screaming riders.

My friends were shocked and sympathetic, immediately offering to help me contact the park, file a claim, track down my device. But I felt something unexpected: nonchalance boarding on relief. “I can feel my mental health improving already!” I told them. I was only half kidding.

OK, but it was amazing roller-coaster.

Yes, I did get a new phone when I got home. But the first thing I did after setting it up was turn off ALL my notifications. Because in those few phone-free hours at Cedar Point, I realized something important: I hadn’t lost a communication device. I’d escaped a sophisticated attention-capture system designed to keep me checking, scrolling, and tapping compulsively.

If you’ve ever felt like your apps control you more than you control them, you’re not imagining it. The most successful apps in the world use psychological principles specifically designed to create habitual, even compulsive use. But…