According to RescueTime, individuals now spend an average of four hours on their mobiles, checking them at least 150 times daily. In another place, a global outplacement agency reported that employers lost up to $14bn in productivity over a 17-week period due to digital distractions from fantasy football leagues.
Such events and the growing popularity of social media platforms greatly vying for our attention have inspired discussions of app blockers in different sectors.
How long is your screen time? Do you, at times, find yourself bending your head and lost in unending scrolling? Parents, employers and employees are now turning to app blockers as one of the many solutions for reducing screen time.
In this article, we will look at some of the benefits that app blockers present and other fascinating details.
Table of Contents
Improving productivity
We are in a time where there have never been as many distractions as there are today. From random SMS texts and social media notifications to random calls, the interruptions are just endless.
With an app blocker, however, you can take charge and choose how long you want to block an app. And good enough, some of these apps will still block the time you set it for even if you delete them or reboot your device.
Susie Alegre, a British human rights activist and lawyer, stated that using app blockers helped her better concentrate and not waste a significant amount of time. She stated that these apps were appropriate as someone could still be contactable on the phone without necessarily being distracted.
Such preferences might be the reason more people are adopting this trend. Do you remember the monk mode hashtag of 2023? It involved giving yourself over to one task without tech or other interruptions.
On TikTok alone, the term went very viral, attracting over 77 million views on videos marked with that hashtag in October 2023.
Getting distracted can take a toll on your productivity. A report by Tech Though revealed that it can take up to 23 minutes to return to workflow after clicking on a social media notification. Put together, such distractions cost the American economy $650 billion in annual losses in productivity.
The growing desire for online privacy
Online privacy has become a crucial subject in today’s world. In America alone, about 92% of individuals are worried about their privacy on the internet, according to a study by Termly. It even becomes a major concern when collecting data to personalize your marketing strategies. In fact, 81% think it is more risky to give data to companies than it is beneficial.
Thanks to technology, you can now use apps to block targeted ads from platforms that you don’t want. Besides blocking ads, you can lock your phone remotely – which comes in handy if someone steals your device.
App blockers also help ensure that apps from unwanted sources are not downloaded to your device. This is very helpful, especially when it comes to child protection.
With about 80% of children having experienced online bullying, you definitely want your child to grow up in a safe and secure environment. So, to cater to such needs, several parents have been turning to app blockers to secure their children’s online interaction.
Cyber security is another issue you can’t ignore. Hackers have become more lucrative and have reinvented how they trap users. They can send you a malicious link, which, upon clicking, automatically downloads malicious apps into your system.
The apps are installed automatically, steal your information, and corrupt your device. Using blockers can help limit such cases by offering warnings and protecting you from unwanted apps.
AI in mobile blocking technology
Well, the buzz around blocking apps and the possibility of limiting distractions has attracted the attention of many industry players. Even apps that are not necessarily blockers are now taking advantage of technology to ensure users can lock their devices from unwanted apps, calls, etc. Just recently, this year (2024), Truecaller confirmed the launch of Max, a feature that uses AI to separate unwanted calls.
This is good news for Android users with premium Truecaller subscriptions, especially now that the Federal Trade Commission reported about 150 billion robocalls in 2022 alone.
The good thing with artificial intelligence is that it can help crunch large amounts of data into meaningful information almost instantly, making it a convenient tool for roboblocking. The AI feature checks potential spam numbers from its database and automatically blocks them if they are suspicious.
Final thoughts
While tech advancements, especially mobile technology and social media, improve how we connect, they also have several challenges. One of them is digital interruptions.
This happens when you are doing something and you suddenly feel like looking at your favorite social media platform, responding to an impromptu message, etc.
As these challenges cut across almost all demographics, app blockers provide a convenient way to limit your screen time and enhance productivity.
The applications, among many other things, allow users to block certain apps and websites for a certain period, ensuring they can concentrate for extended durations. And as technologies like AI continue transforming our lives, developers will likely turn to it to provide users with even better experiences.
