A new application, One Sec, offers to breathe ten seconds before opening certain applications, in order to determine if you really want to open them.
Breathing can help you reduce your time spent on screens. According to an article by Business Insider, the One Sec application, created two years ago, offers a simple trick to reduce dependence on certain applications: just take a deep breath before opening them. This would allow you to be more intentional in the way you use your phone, explains the American news site.
For example, when a user wants to open the Twitter application, One Sec displays a full-screen animation associated with vibrations, then a 10-second breathing exercise. After this step, two options are offered: “I don’t want to open Twitter” or “Continue on Twitter”. This forces users to think about why they open the app and saves them from doing it mechanically.
In addition to this 10-second pause, One Sec shows the user how many times they have attempted to open the app in question in the last 24 hours. Another tool requires you to indicate the reason why you want to open it, namely “Working” or “Can’t sleep” for example. One Sec finally offers to send a notification when the user has spent several minutes on an application.
Follow a circle or turn on its front camera
The breathing exercise is not the only one offered by the application. To prevent users from getting used to this intervention and ending up automatically bypassing it, One Sec changes the animation that appears before opening an application: sometimes it’s a breathing exercise, sometimes it may ask to follow a circle on a blank screen or turn on the front camera, so that the user sees himself.
According to a study by Frederik Riedel, the German developer of the app, conducted with the Max Planck Institute and the University of Heidelberg in 2022, One Sec reduced the screen time of those who used it by 57%. use. A million people have downloaded the application according to Riedel. Sensor Tower, an independent tracker, puts the figure at 600,000 downloads, reports Business Insider.
Instagram, TikTok, Facebook or Twitter can waste a lot of time. The algorithms of these applications are developed to retain the user as long as possible on the networks. Screen addiction isn’t without consequences: People who spend seven hours or more on their phones have a high risk of depression, according to studies cited by Business Insider.