Vitaminwater has created the ultimate challenge for millennials: Quit using smartphones for a year and win $100,000.
To vie for the prize, you must submit a post on Twitter or Instagram, with the hashtags #nophoneforayear and #contest, and outline why you need a break from your smartphone. The deadline to enter is Jan. 8.
Vitaminwater will choose one contestant on Jan. 22 and downgrade them to a bulky 1996-era cell phone. The contestant can use laptops, desktop computers, and smart home devices, but smartphones and tablets are strictly forbidden. Endure for six months and win $10,000. Stick it out for a year and win $100,000. Vitaminwater says it will use a lie detector at the end to keep things honest.
According to its contest page, Vitaminwater is trying to encourage its customers to “break the cycle with scroll-free life solutions™.”
“We don’t think there’s anything more boring than mindlessly scrolling through your phone, and this is an opportunity to take that stance against routine and give someone $100,000 to do something uniquely awesome with their time,” Natalia Suarez, Vitaminwater’s associate brand manager, told CNBC.
Smartphone addiction has become such a problem in this country that psychologists actually invented a new word, “nomophobia,” which is defined as “the fear of being without your phone.” According to one poll, 70 percent of women and 61 percent of men suffer from “phone separation anxiety,” and 75 percent of smartphone users keep their phone less than five feet from them at any given time.
While millennials and Generation Zers could certainly benefit the most from a $100,000 windfall, they are the most consumed by this real addiction.
About 98 percent of Gen Zers own a smartphone, and they send an average of 109.5 text messages per day and check their phones 60 times a day. Moreover, a recent experiment at the University of Buffalo found that college students would rather spend time on their smartphones than eat their favorite snack after being deprived of both for an extended period of time.
Millennials aren’t much better. About 92 percent of them own a smartphone, and 43 percent check their phones at least 72 times a day.
Just about everyone uses their smartphone for work these days, which makes the challenge even more impossible.
Despite the odds, I think millennials are uniquely positioned to win. If you can survive living at home with mom and pop after college and several years of miserable wages in former President Barack Obama’s economy, one year without a smartphone is like a walk in the park.
Brendan Pringle (@BrendanPringle) is writer from California. He is a National Journalism Center graduate and formerly served as a development officer for Young America’s Foundation at the Reagan Ranch.
