SALON

Sunday, Jun 23, 2013 6:00 PM UTC

App of the Week: Pause

The key to a fuller life -- competing with your friends to see who can use their phone the least

By

Topics: app of the week, Pause, productivity apps, Facebook, ,

App of the Week: Pause (Credit: silver tiger via Shutterstock/Salon)

Can I make my iPhone eat its own tail? I’ve been obsessed with this question ever since I learned of the existence of Pause, an app that boldly encourages users to “Pause the digital. Start the real.”

Never mind the philosophical quandary one confronts when grappling with the notion that just because something is “digital” it is not “real.” If we are sent mean texts, do we not bleed? If that Facebook status update tickles us, do we not laugh?

More to the point, Pause is an app designed to make you use your smartphone less. Which leads us straight into the jaws of paradox. By using Pause, we acknowledge that we are spending too much time on our phones. But our mechanism for controlling this character flaw is another app that we must download onto our phone? Pause’s purpose is to get you to spend less time on such things as Pause. This is discombobulating.

Pause is painfully simple. Load the app, pick a set amount of minutes in which you will do something “real” (like go for a bike ride, or write a blog post about an app) and then switch your phone to Airplane Mode. An alarm will ring when your time is up and you can rejoin the wireless world.

Pause is similar to desktop apps like Freedom, which aim to carve out periods of focused time safe from the world of online and other digital distractions. I’ve always looked askance at these “productivity” apps. Any switch that can be flipped to turn things off can just as easily be turned back on. The ability to control one’s distraction depends on willpower, and I’ve always been skeptical that a software program can somehow improve one’s reserves of will. (The same obviously holds true for fitness apps that try to encourage diet control.)

Ah, but Pause adds a twist! Pause has figured out a way to incentivize smartphone non-use, by adding a dose of competition!

Use Pause to free yourself from your phone while competing with others to see who can stay “offline” the longest. Pause will track and monitor the amount of time you spend offline.

How does Pause do this? By inviting you to log in to Pause with your Facebook account, and urging you to invite your Facebook friends to sign up with Pause. After that, presumably, you won’t be able to resist constantly checking the Pause Leaderboard to see whether you are stomping all your friends into the dust with your amazing ability to not use your phone.

This is brilliant. Instead of griping at the (supposedly soon to disappear) injunction to turn off our devices when our airplanes take off or land, we’ll just cackle to ourselves with glee at our chance to accrue even more “off” minutes. We’ll have a readymade excuse for not answering inconvenient texts or emails — we needed to get that extra half an hour of off time to retake the top spot on the leaderboard.

Imagine the network effects that will kick in if the competition not to use one’s phone’s goes viral! The whole emerging mobile economy could be in danger.

How will you check the leaderboard (or Facebook, for that matter) if your phone is turned off because you are competing so hard? Well, that brings us back to the crucial epistemological contradiction embodied in Pause. How do you pause Pause? To use it is to acknowledge that you shouldn’t be using it. The act of inviting your friends to use it is also surely another distraction for them, the kind that you should be eschewing. Any brain cells whatsoever devoted to considering where one ranks on the leaderboard would be more profitably expended on doing something “real,” no?

There’s nothing more real than just hitting the off button. You don’t need an app for that.

For Android and iOS.

Andrew Leonard

Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21. More Andrew Leonard.

You Might Also Like

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

7 motorist-friendly camping sites

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 9

Sponsored Post

  • White River National Forest via Lower Crystal Lake, Colorado
    For those OK with the mainstream, White River Forest welcomes more than 10 million visitors a year, making it the most-visited recreation forest in the nation. But don’t hate it for being beautiful; it’s got substance, too. The forest boasts 8 wilderness areas, 2,500 miles of trail, 1,900 miles of winding service system roads, and 12 ski resorts (should your snow shredders fit the trunk space). If ice isn’t your thing: take the tire-friendly Flat Tops Trail Scenic Byway — 82 miles connecting the towns of Meeker and Yampa, half of which is unpaved for you road rebels.
    fs.usda.gov/whiteriveryou


    Image credit: Getty

  • Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest via Noontootla Creek, Georgia
    Boasting 10 wildernesses, 430 miles of trail and 1,367 miles of trout-filled stream, this Georgia forest is hailed as a camper’s paradise. Try driving the Ridge and Valley Scenic Byway, which saw Civil War battles fought. If the tall peaks make your engine tremble, opt for the relatively flat Oconee National Forest, which offers smaller hills and an easy trail to the ghost town of Scull Shoals. Scaredy-cats can opt for John’s Mountain Overlook, which leads to twin waterfalls for the sensitive sightseer in you.
    fs.usda.gov/conf


    Image credit: flickr/chattoconeenf

  • Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness Area via Green Road, Michigan
    The only national forest in Lower Michigan, the Huron-Mainstee spans nearly 1 million acres of public land. Outside the requisite lush habitat for fish and wildlife on display, the Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness Area is among the biggest hooks for visitors: offering beach camping with shores pounded by big, cerulean surf. Splash in some rum and you just might think you were in the Caribbean.
    fs.usda.gov/hmnf


    Image credit: umich.edu

  • Canaan Mountain via Backcountry Canaan Loop Road, West Virginia
    A favorite hailed by outdoorsman and author Johnny Molloy as some of the best high-country car camping sites anywhere in the country, you don’t have to go far to get away. Travel 20 miles west of Dolly Sods (among the busiest in the East) to find the Canaan Backcountry (for more quiet and peace). Those willing to leave the car for a bit and foot it would be remiss to neglect day-hiking the White Rim Rocks, Table Rock Overlook, or the rim at Blackwater River Gorge.
    fs.usda.gov/mnf


    Image credit: Getty

  • Mt. Rogers NRA via Hurricane Creek Road, North Carolina
    Most know it as the highest country they’ll see from North Carolina to New Hampshire. What they may not know? Car campers can get the same grand experience for less hassle. Drop the 50-pound backpacks and take the highway to the high country by stopping anywhere on the twisting (hence the name) Hurricane Road for access to a 15-mile loop that boasts the best of the grassy balds. It’s the road less travelled, and the high one, at that.
    fs.usda.gov/gwj


    Image credit: wikipedia.org

  • Long Key State Park via the Overseas Highway, Florida
    Hiking can get old; sometimes you’d rather paddle. For a weekend getaway of the coastal variety and quieter version of the Florida Keys that’s no less luxe, stick your head in the sand (and ocean, if snorkeling’s your thing) at any of Long Key’s 60 sites. Canoes and kayaks are aplenty, as are the hot showers and electric power source amenities. Think of it as the getaway from the typical getaway.
    floridastateparks.org/longkey/default.cfm


    Image credit: floridastateparks.org

  • Grand Canyon National Park via Crazy Jug Point, Arizona
    You didn’t think we’d neglect one of the world’s most famous national parks, did you? Nor would we dare lead you astray with one of the busiest parts of the park. With the Colorado River still within view of this cliff-edge site, Crazy Jug is a carside camper’s refuge from the troops of tourists. Find easy access to the Bill Hall Trail less than a mile from camp, and descend to get a peek at the volcanic Mt. Trumbull. (Fear not: It’s about as active as your typical lazy Sunday in front of the tube, if not more peaceful.)
    fs.usda.gov/kaibab


    Image credit: flickr/Irish Typepad

  • As the go-to (weekend) getaway car for fiscally conscious field trips with friends, the 2013 MINI Convertible is your campground racer of choice, allowing you and up to three of your co-pilots to take in all the beauty of nature high and low. And with a fuel efficiency that won’t leave you in the latter, you won’t have to worry about being left stranded (or awkwardly asking to go halfsies on gas expenses).


    Image credit: miniusa.com

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 9

Related Videos

Comments

 2 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username ( settings | log out )

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "The Joker": Laughing at life's deepest sorrows