A fiction writer from Queens, New York has accepted a challenge to stay off her smartphone for a year. At stake is winning $100,000.
Scroll Free for a Year Challenge
Elana Mugdan, 29, is among the more than 100,000 applicants who responded to Vitaminwater's "Scroll Free for a Year" challenge last year. In December, she was lucky to be chosen from the pool.
The challenge prohibits her from accessing her smartphone or tablet for an entire year to get her reward. It means 12 months of no access to apps like Snapchat, Tiktok, and Instagram.
To ensure that Mugdan will not access her device, Vitaminwater replaced the iPhone 5s she owns with a Kyocera flip phone that can only be used for calling and texting. The beverage company will also give her a lie detector test in February 2020 when the challenge ends.
Besides the flip phone, Mugdan is also limited to using only a laptop or desktop computer, and voice-activated devices that are not smartphones such as the Amazon Echo during the entirety of the challenge period.
It is not an easy feat for Mugdan. She admitted that she experienced being tempted to break her smartphone fasting. The challenge is also impacting her social life because she can no longer check her friends' social media profiles, making her feel disconnected.
"Once, I almost got stranded in the SeaTac airport because the phone number I'd written down was wrong, and I had no way of looking up the right one, no way of calling a cab or Uber, and no one in the state who could help me," Mugdan said.
Going Strong
Mugdan is now nearly eight months into the challenge, and she said that she is going strong.
She also described staying away from her smartphone as one of the best adventures of her life. She said she is impressed with a smartphone-free life that she plans to continue living without a smartphone even after the challenge ends.
