Author: Kristjan Stopar (Co-founder & CEO)
You know that scene in a movie, where somebody comes into the room full of people seated in a circle formation and says: “Hi, I am Kristjan and I am an alcoholic”? Well it was not like that for me and it was not alcohol, but I would certainly need to do something about my unhealthy phone habits. This is also a reason why me and my cofounder Urban started to work on the idea for a tool that would help us lower phone addiction. This is how Humanodoro Pad came to be, but let me explain what drove us to this point.
We all know that being addicted to something isn’t ok, but it is so good or so fun, and the time just flies by. Especially when you have some problems or have to face something stressful in your life. Now some people resort to alcohol, some to other kinds of drugs, I resorted to the one drug, we fail to classify as one. I overused my smart phone.
The problem with this drug is that you can not really avoid it. Smart phones have become such an integral part of our lives, we can stay in touch with our loved ones, get our information, news, do a lot of work, etc. And don’t get me wrong, I love technology! I am not against it, but if not used in a healthy way with some limitations, it can affect your health.
So for me it went like this. I like to learn and absorb a lot of new and exciting information. And to do so, I like to read books, listen to podcasts and watch interesting videos on Youtube. And don’t get me wrong, I like to watch silly stuff on the internet as all of us do. Nobody is resistant to videos of cats, am I right? But in consuming educational content, I gave myself an excuse. I convinced myself that it is ok if I go to sleep really late or even fall asleep while watching Youtube or listening to a podcast, if it is educational.
This later developed so far that I had to constantly watch something on my phone while brushing teeth, cooking, etc. And the sad part was that I wasn’t even paying attention. Regularly my thoughts wandered away, or I just did not have the capacity to do several things at the same time. So it is not just that I spent too much time on the phone, this “learning” time wasn’t effective and it really messed with my circadian rhythm.
And of course if somebody pointed out what I was doing, my brain made up a response in a fashion of: “I am watching educational videos, it is not the same”. And the screen time was terrible. The average for a human is somewhere between 4 and 4.5 hours, don’t get me wrong, even that is not great, but my went over 7 or 8 hours sometimes.
So the first thing I noticed is that I destroyed my circadian rhythm. My bedtime moved from 22:00 to past midnight and I was really tired the next day. The thing was, I could not go to sleep earlier even if I wanted to. I was not tired and I just had to listen to some podcasts or watch some videos. And the one thing we really should not play with is our sleep. The lack of time or quality of sleep, can lead to severe health issues. It is not just the lack of energy, focus and will during the day, lack of sleep has been linked to several horrible diseases, such as dementia.
The next thing will sound funny, but my pinky finger started to hurt. I have a phone with a big screen and it is quite heavy. Having the phone in my hand, supported by my pinky finger for a longer period of time, caused pain and discomfort in the pinky’s joints. Even now, when I am trying to cut the screen time, the pinky hurts if I use the phone for a longer period of time. But of course this one is more for fun, then it is serious, well, at least not as serious as the next one.
The thing that probably got me the most shocked and sad after I realized I have this problem is the lack of attention. I started having problems with reading books. It was hard for me to focus because when you consume information by listening or watching, you don’t have to be so active and you spend less energy. Reading is harder, that is also why kids have problems with attention spam if watching too many reels or Tik-Toks. In contrast with them, the book is so slow and boring, why not rather go back online. And this one struck me the most, this was the moment of realization for me, because I really like reading books. I felt like somebody took something from me, but in the end, I did it to myself.
My Co-founder had similar problems with the phone addiction. In his case, the problem was not before going to sleep, but after waking up. Instead of getting up from bed and starting a productive day, he spent half an hour in bed watching videos on Youtube or scrolling through social media.
So we had a problem and it required a solution, this is how Humanodor Pad came to be. We tested some lock boxes to physically lock our phones away, but the problem was that there was always a thought: “What if there is an emergency and I need my phone immediately?”. And also you don’t get any data or information about your progress in defeating the phone addiction. Then we tried a lot of apps that try to lower your screen time. The problem with those apps is that they are virtual, you can just forget about them, mute them and swipe away on social media. Also some of them are really aggressive and don’t let you use your phone, which is not really how to build a habit, at least not one that would last.
So we combined the two aspects and created Humanodoro Pad: a smart pad for defeating phone addiction and lowering screen time. Because it is a combination of an app and the pad, it serves as a physical reminder (it is somewhere in your space), so you can’t just easily forget about it, and also it gives you an insight into your phone habits and lets you connect with your friends via app. This way you can encourage and help each other build healthy phone habits.
In the last couple of months, since I started using the Humanodoro Pad, I can say that I lowered the screen time by an hour or two. And what is most important for me, I managed to create “productive hours” of time, which I spend on reading books. I set the amount of time I wish to read a book on the Humanodoro app timer, press start, put the phone on the Humanodoro Pad and forget about it. This way I can physically distance myself from the phone and forget about it. And ofcourse, I would be lying if I said that I never go to sleep with my phone or listen to some podcasts into the night, afterall, I am just a human, but this does not happen so frequently anymore.
Why Screen Time Matters? For children, early years are crucial. During this time, their brains are developing rapidly, absorbing everything from their environment to shape
