A magnetic gray box, no larger than a Post-it note, rests on the refrigerator in Sammy Mousa\u2019s Hyde Park apartment, holding up a maroon University of Chicago Law School flag. The word \u201cBrick\u201d is imprinted on the square\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n
On his way to class in the morning, Mousa, 26, taps his phone on the device, in the same way he would tap to pay at a restaurant. Doing so instantly locks him out of Reddit, Netflix, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe usual suspects,\u201d Mousa said.<\/p>\n
He then heads to class, with no way of getting back into those apps until he comes home and taps his phone on the device again.<\/p>\n
The Brick, invented in early 2023, is the latest attempt at limiting screen time and fighting phone addiction. When making contact with a phone, the device locks users out of certain apps and does not allow them back in until they physically tap the phone on the device again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know the founders, I have never seen their faces,\u201d said Mousa, who has been a loyal user for the past two years. \u201cBut it seemed like they had a good cause for starting this, and they actually found a problem that a lot of people suffer from.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Sammy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/ctc-L-Brick-12_268400101.jpg\")
Sammy Mousa, a first-year University of Chicago Law School student, prepares for his civil procedure class at his apartment on Oct. 28, 2026. Mousa uses the Brick device, which locks a user out of certain apps for a period of time. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
Just 10 miles across the city, Brick\u2019s creators, 26-year-old TJ Driver and 27-year-old Zach Nasgowitz, can be found at the company headquarters in River North. The Milwaukee-raised childhood best friends invented the device in Nasgowitz\u2019s basement, and moved the startup to Chicago in 2024 after it went viral. With a staff of roughly 40 people who are all users, their office is littered with Bricks of varying colors.<\/p>\n
According to Driver, the idea for Brick originally came as a solution to their own productivity problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d always kind of find ourselves back in these habit loops that we didn\u2019t love,\u201d Driver said. \u201cI wasted a lot of nights and weekends just on my phone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Driver found that Apple\u2019s screen time limits were not strong enough to keep him from doomscrolling for hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big idea that was missing from a lot of the solutions at the time,\u201d he said, \u201cwas the idea of physical friction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nasgowitz thought of the problem as a key and a lock. The issue with all of the other screen time barriers is that the key to getting back into your phone was always in your pocket, and with a couple of taps, you\u2019re in.<\/p>\n
The Brick is designed to take the key out of your pocket and put it across the room, on the fridge, or in a drawer, and make you put in a physical effort to get back in. For some people, this is enough to keep them from revisiting the same time-sucking sites and apps.<\/p>\n
Peter Hohman, of Villa Park, often keeps his Brick in the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I really needed to do something on an app or something on my phone, and I needed to un-Brick, I would have to walk out to my car,\u201d said 32-year-old Hohman. \u201cIf it\u2019s important enough I\u2019ll walk outside and do that, but a lot of times it\u2019s not that essential, and it\u2019s more of just a distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hohman has been looking for ways to get offline for a while now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think life is meant to be spent scrolling on a screen for, you know, a third of it,\u201d he said. \u201cThat kind of scares me.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few years ago, Hohman tried switching to a flip phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only lasted a month,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cIt was just so hard to live as a human being in the modern age without a smartphone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maps, online banking and Uber are just a few of the things he found himself missing.<\/p>\n
Brick, according to Driver, aims to repurpose your smartphone so that you get all the benefits of the device while eliminating its drawbacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very positive around tech. Our smartphones are this amazing tool,\u201d Driver said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we have never really thought that the right solution is to get rid of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the beauty of Brick is that it lets you, the user, decide,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
On the Brick app, users can customize which apps they want to block in a given session. You can design different modes, like a sleep mode, a work mode or a default mode. A timer on the screen keeps track of how long you\u2019ve been \u201cBricked.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his default Brick mode, when Mousa tries to click on the Instagram app, a screen pops up, telling him that he is locked out. He has no way to reenter the app unless he taps his phone on the Brick or uses one of his five \u201cemergency un-Bricks.\u201d<\/p>\n
A button that says \u201cback to living\u201d takes Mousa back to his home screen.<\/p>\n
\u201cStarting a reading, starting a project, is the biggest hurdle to overcome,\u201d said Mousa. \u201cIf it\u2019s either pull out my textbook and start reading or grab my phone, just like scrolling for a little bit always felt easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Sammy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/ctc-L-Brick-17_268400109.jpg\")
Sammy Mousa, a first-year University of Chicago Law School student, taps his phone to his Brick device as he demonstrates how to use it in his Hyde Park home on Oct. 28, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
The temptation to scroll kept Mousa in bad habit loops.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt least two years ago before I started,\u201d Mousa said, \u201cI felt like I had a goldfish brain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before starting law school, Mousa worked as a project design engineer, and often found himself wasting time on social media at work.<\/p>\n
\u201cFeeling like I was unproductive all day was bad for my mental health,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He began using the Brick to lock himself out of certain apps before leaving for work in the morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so bored I started doing work,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cAs I used the Brick more, I noticed my focus improving.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like I\u2019m being a better human being,\u201d he added, with a smile.<\/p>\n
The mental health benefits of reduced screen time can vary from person to person, according to Courtney Blackwell, an associate professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really this more nuanced story than just using social media or using my phone a lot is causing mental health problems,\u201d Blackwell said. \u201cIf you\u2019re using your phone to avoid something else, that\u2019s where we\u2019re seeing the increased risks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blackwell thinks that the invention of the Brick coming from two Gen Z founders is the best-case scenario.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important that it\u2019s coming from that generation because they\u2019re going to be the ones who know the user base the most,\u201d Blackwell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think because we grew up with smartphones, it\u2019s a big reason that we were able to build a solution that works,\u201d said Driver. \u201cWe lived with it for so long, and we deeply felt both the negatives and the positives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a rebellion against the war for my attention,\u201d Mousa said, reflecting on why he purchased the Brick. \u201cWhen I first got a phone, there was none of this algorithm stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Sammy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/ctc-L-Brick-09_268400059.jpg\")
Sammy Mousa, a first-year University of Chicago Law School student, is in his Hyde Park home on Oct. 28, 2026. Mousa has used the Brick device, which locks the user out of certain apps for a period of time, for the past two years to help boost his productivity. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
Although Mousa originally downloaded Instagram to keep up with his friends, the introduction of a curated explore page has changed the game. With the app constantly recommending targeted videos, he now spends more time scrolling through content uploaded by people he\u2019s never met than from his actual friends.<\/p>\n
Since creating a device that gives relief from these curated algorithms and other notorious time-wasters, Driver said that many users, including himself, feel grateful to be bored again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI forgot how important that feeling was,\u201d Driver said. \u201cWhat it\u2019s like to just sit with my thoughts, and look around and start a conversation with somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to spend my free time writing more,\u201d Hohman said. \u201cJust being present.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brick has become such a hit that several celebrities have independently spoken about using it. Lorde, Conan O\u2019Brien, Jimmy Kimmel and Steven Colbert are just a few of Brick\u2019s A-list users.<\/p>\n
For Driver, seeing the business move from his friend\u2019s basement to Lorde\u2019s Instagram story has been surreal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that they\u2019re all talking about it is huge,\u201d Driver said. \u201cIt has really just solidified how universal the desire is to spend our time more intentionally.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A magnetic gray box, no larger than a Post-it note, rests on the refrigerator in Sammy Mousa\u2019s Hyde…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[31139,2193,39451,286060,103,61,60,3484,26427,410,411,34678,286059,286061,286057,286058],"class_list":["post-675250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-brick","tag-chicago","tag-conan-obrien","tag-dr-courtney-blackwell","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jimmy-kimmel","tag-lorde","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-northwestern","tag-river-north","tag-steven-colbert","tag-tj-driver","tag-zach-nasgowitz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}