A survey last year revealed that university students spent on average more than six hours a day on their phones – an hour more than secondary school pupils – with their use dominated by social media, messaging and streaming. It also found that 92 per cent believed their academic outcomes would improve with less screen time.
The founders of Novi told The Telegraph how they created the app after suffering mobile phone addiction.
Mr Stewart, 22, said he had become fixated on social media last summer, spending up to four hours a day scrolling on Instagram. “It got so bad I started having panic attacks because of the kind of stuff I was seeing, which ruined my summer,” he told The Telegraph. “I got fed a lot of graphic content.
“I remember being at my aunt’s house for dinner and I went to the toilet and was scrolling as I normally do, and every single video that I scrolled through was the Charlie Kirk shooting. I then had to go out to finish the dinner with my aunt after seeing that.”
Mr Jacobs, also 22, who has ADHD, said: “My attention span is shorter. When studying at the library I was constantly looking around and picking up my phone every few seconds. After picking up my phone, it takes me half an hour, or 45 minutes, to get back into that studying focus.”