It is difficult to find people who look up much these days. The reason is a no-brainer: smartphone addiction.
Most people will agree that despite the awareness that smartphones have taken over a big part of our daily routine, getting over this addiction does not seem to be an easy task. However, there might just be the perfect solution for those who cannot avoid the feeling that their hands are empty without a phone.
A fake phone initiative has raised over $13,000 on Kickstarter, much more than its original $5,000 fundraising goal. The "NoPhone" is nothing but a block of phone-shaped plastic, which lets the user avoid the feeling of empty hands.
"Never again experience the unsettling feeling of flesh on flesh when closing your hand," the New York City and Amsterdam-based designers pointed out on the Kickstarter page.
So what are the interesting features of NoPhone? It is waterproof and non-addictive.
NoPhone's innovators - Van Gould, Ingmar Larsen and Ben Langeveld - told The Huffington Post that they were drinking on a rooftop bar in New York City when they got the inspiration. They stated that while looking around, they noticed that everyone in the restaurant was holding their phones in their hands.
"You would have looked weird in this bar if you weren't holding a phone," they said. "That's when we came up with the idea for the NoPhone."
While NoPhone would not provide you the luxuries of checking your Facebook updates or being connected to your friends around the world, it promises one thing - a good connection with the person next to you. Well, but then again there is no guarantee as it does not come with instructions on social behaviour.
This is not the first time that a product has made an effort to encourage people to look up from their phones. The report says that last year a bar in Brazil had come up with the idea of Offline Glass, which is a regular glass that would stand upright only when placed over a phone as it had a part of its base cut off.
"Smartphone addiction might be the one thing that we all have in common," the designers wrote.
One can have a NoPhone on the Kickstarter for a $12 pledge and it promises delivery around December. An extra $6 can earn the customer a reflective mirror for taking real-time selfies.
