Thumbstone

Do the math

Two hours a day doesn't feel like much. It's a few videos, a few posts, a few minutes here and there.

Over a lifetime, it's almost seven of your fifty-three waking years. Seven years you won't remember, spent on a feed that has already forgotten you.

A whole generation is scrolling its life away, and nobody seems to mind. Thumbstone is a way to see it for what it is.

Only the time that matters

Your phone's screen time counts everything. Maps, messages, photos, the notes from your lecture, the call with your mom. The number gets big, and most of it isn't the problem.

Thumbstone only counts the apps you choose: the ones built to keep you scrolling. That's dead time. Not the time you used your phone, but the time you'd actually want back.

How it works

Every app you choose is locked. Social media, short videos, the news, whatever eats your day. You pick them, and they stay locked.

To open one, you have to type it out. A short text where you admit what you are about to do. The first one of the day is ten words. Every unlock after that is longer, up to two hundred. Then you get the next fifteen minutes, whether you use them or not.

Every minute is counted. Thumbstone calls it dead time, and shows you what it adds up to: today, this year, and over your life.

Stay under your limit to stay alive. Every day under your daily limit keeps your streak alive. Go over, and it dies. It gets a grave in your graveyard. You can bring it back, but only if you earn it the next day.