I've been looking for something to help me curtail my junk media habit, but nothing has worked. Instead of sitting by a guttering candle translating Ancient Greek, I burn the midnight oil scrolling past chihuahuas and pasta dishes on Instagram or endlessly refreshing Twitter and Bluesky in search of good news.

Enough. Basta.

So I bought the Brick. You’ve definitely seen this thing fly by on one of your feeds. It’s basically touted as a device that bricks your phone, preventing you from accessing apps you might be addicted to. It’s really just simple NFC beacon that connects to your phone and knocks out a preset group of apps until you tap it again.

There are other apps, including One Sec, which do exactly this. Brick is decidedly militant about its lockdowns, however, preventing you from even having one more minute with your precious Twitter. In fact, it locks things down so tightly that they give you five “emergency unbricks” that you can activate if you really need your Reddit fix.

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The app functions similarly to Screen Time, allowing you to lock down groups of apps or individual apps from a list. I shut down my usual culprits and found myself just… not unbricking. The physical effort of getting up to tap the tile is enough to keep me from doing it in bed, and the whole process—loading the app, pressing the button, tapping the tile—makes it surprisingly difficult to access apps I don’t actually need, reminding me that I don’t want them. In fact, I suspect Brick will eventually convince me to delete the apps wholesale. A guy can dream.

But here’s the issue: at $59, is it worth it? Screen Time is free, though less strict, while One Sec is also free but requires a subscription for advanced features. Brick should just sell the app and charge a yearly fee, which they’ll likely do once they realize the “no subscriptions” model isn’t sustainable.

Interestingly, someone has already created an open-source version of this device using off-the-shelf NFC pucks and a homegrown app. Called Broke, it seems like a fun weekend project, while buying and maintaining multiple Bricks—like digital mezuzahs scattered around the home—feels expensive and unnecessary.

The product works. It kept me off junk apps for most of the weekend, which I appreciate. Apps like Screen Time and One Sec act as speed bumps for social media, while Brick is more of a wall. Would I buy more and place them by the door or fridge? No. I’ll stick with the one I have and see how my behavior changes, especially since I can still access Instagram and other distractions from my laptop. That said, avoiding fifty mortadella sandwich recipes an hour might be good for me—my bologna bill is out of control.

You can check out Brick here.