Maybe it’s through word of mouth or (ironically) through your regularly scheduled online scrolling, but chances are high that you’ve heard of Brick or seen somebody say they locked out of social media (an alternative version of the salacious “bricked”). The chronically online—no judgment here!—have been crediting the palm-sized magnetic device with helping them stay offline. But is it just a marketing ploy?
At a time of peak exhaustion with our smartphones and being inundated with study after study that shows how excessive screentimes increase our chances of experiencing insomnia, anxiety, and depression, many are looking for ways to log off. Brick, a $60 device, was created by two Gen Z entrepreneurs and touted as the answer to solve our online woes.
“Brick was born from a personal need: Our phones were getting in the way of living. We knew we weren’t alone in this. So we built a simple, physical way to take back control,” says Brick cofounders TJ Driver and Zach Nasgowitz in a joint email to Vogue. “We believe that life is better when technology serves us, not the other way around.”
It works by creating a physical separation between you and the apps on your phone. Once your Brick device (which is… aptly, a little gray square) arrives, download the app and select whatever you’d like to TK from your phone. Then, you can simply activate the block by tapping your phone to the device or set a timer to turn on the barrier. Typically, the only way to unlock the apps is by tapping the phone again to your Brick device.
“We have an attention problem; a lot of these apps are very good at taking our attention, giving us interval variable reinforcement,” says Thea Gallagher, PsyD, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at NYU Langone Health. “What’s really difficult is that a lot of us have to use our phones for communicating with our children, work, friends, and more. People are trying to say, ‘How can we separate our phone use?’ We have some data to show that this has not been great for our mental health in a completely unregulated way, so what are we doing to regulate it as well?”
Los Angeles resident Amalia Nicholson has found the Brick helpful, citing the scheduling feature (where you can set in the app when to be locked out of your apps) is effective when it’s time for her to sleep. Having bought Brick at the recommendation of friends who love the device, Nicholson set her Brick in the kitchen to prevent her from doing her usual 3 a.m. scroll—even though she has her phone nearby, she would have to get up to unlock it. “I’m truly not going to go and unlock it at three in the morning,” she says.
Content creator Haley Talyor, who bought Brick after her husband tested and raved about the product, found herself doing just that to make sure she’s not on her phone when she doesn’t want to be. “I even have Pinterest blocked,” she says. “I find that even if you have the ones that you are normally scrolling on blocked, you still crave scrolling. So you have to block everything that you can do that [with], like Safari and Chrome, because you can find anything on there to scroll on too.”
While there are many other apps designed to help limit screen time, it’s Brick’s physical barrier that users say sets it apart. Content creator Sam Klein says she tried her iPhone’s “time limit” function, but found herself dismissing it as soon as it would pop up. On top of her immediate need of focusing on an upcoming project, Klein realized she needed something stronger to create a healthier relationship with her phone—which she did once using Brick. “I immediately felt a sense of relief,” she tells Vogue. “I didn’t find myself trying to open the app much. When I did it was more just out of habit, not like there was something or someone I wanted to see, which just showed me how much I needed Brick in the first place.”
Results are also pretty immediate for users. Kassie Mendieta, a California-based baker and content creator, found that her screen time drastically declined after she bought her device. “Before Bricking, it was in the nine to 12 hour range with three or more hours a day on TikTok (which almost feels embarrassing to admit),” Mendieta says. “But two weeks in, [my] overall screen time dropped to an average of four hours with 15 to 30 minutes a day on TikTok.”
Those worried about missing out on trends or—more importantly—world events, shouldn’t worry either if they’re able to find a healthy balance. Nicholson, who is originally from Minneapolis, keeps up with enough to stay informed with current protests, but sticks to her Brick schedule so it doesn’t consume her. “I’ve learned that I actually can take a break from my phone,” she says. “I can’t update people in a way that is actually helpful that requires me to be on my phone as much…I’m a little more cognizant of that.”
“Constantly seeing others and comparing your ideas or engagement to theirs does absolutely nothing for my creativity,” adds Klein. “I think there s also a fear that being offline will demote your page s visibility in some way. I have no idea if this is true, but with the way the algorithm constantly shifts, it s likely not something you have to worry about unless you stop posting online altogether for weeks. I have better ideas and am more confident in sharing online when I spend more time away, without question.”
It’s not lost on anyone that a product designed to keep you off your phone is going viral all over social media. Taylor’s TikTok review of the product has well over 37,000 likes and 600 comments alone. (Taylor has confirmed that she paid for her own Brick with her own money and her original video is not a paid endorsement, but says Brick did pay her after she posted to boost engagement.) Many argue that its virality actually makes more sense than not. “I always just fall back on the idea that if I’m thinking about the effects of social media on myself, chances are other people are wrestling with the same thing,” says Klein. “I kind of don’t care how it appears to others. I feel like it really aligns with the kind of content I m already putting out anyway.”
“That’s also quite literally the target audience, the people on their phones,” adds Medieta. “When I talk to my well-adjusted social media scrolling friends about this, they’re like ‘Yeah I just don’t use my phone.’ But I talk to people on the Internet, and they re all ‘something like this would really benefit me.’”
And while Dr. Gallagher says a device like Brick can be helpful, it’s all about being intentional about separating your phone time from other aspects of your life, being okay with disconnecting and not being available 24/7, and being patient. “It’s going to be a work in progress,” she says. “It s not going to be one magical thing. I think we all have to be humbled by the fact that we don’t have as much control over it as we want, but we have to keep trying and keep working on it. We have to keep fighting the ways that help us, and different things are going to help different people at different times.”
“The move toward being less addicted to our devices is just an overall positive one,” says Taylor. “Even if it takes spending $60 to get there.”
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