Can a local app help curb your app addiction?

When he was building an app to help nudge people away from their apps, Eric Wolfram realized that less is more.

“This is not a to-do list, not a productivity app. It’s not gamified or lists. It’s about who you are, who you want to be, and reminding you to be that person with little tasks, little reminders,” he said. “Everything is simplified.”

Wolfram’s app is called MeBeMe, as in “helping me be myself.” At semi-random intervals, it suggests small, quick things you can do based on a personality profile that you, as the user, create. The suggestions include useful tasks (“put away at least 7 things in your home”); physical ones (“step outside, look up at the sky, and stretch for 60 seconds”); or those targeting connection and mental health (“tell a friend something you appreciate about them”).

The main point is that MeBeMe breaks up endless scrolling or other mindless activities, prodding the user to consider themselves or the world around them.

“No matter what you’re doing — typing, watching TV, just sitting — it’s breaking the moment and reminding you to be who you are or who you want to be,” said Wolfram.

The technical side is simplicity itself. “It’s not using A.I. or anything like that. It’s really just a library of cards,” said Wolfram.

They appear to the user based on random timing, although Wolfram is working on a second version which will let users target certain programs that are infamous for sucking people in.

“It might pause you from using an app, might give you one task to do before you can open Instagram, for instance,” he said.

Wolfram has an eclectic background, having worked as a ballet dancer, CNN editor and software developer in the Bay Area. He has, incidentally, no relation to famous computer scientist Stephen Wolfram.

He is the husband of Kate Lydon, director of dance of the St. Paul’s School Ballet Company. The couple lives at St. Paul’s School. He says the idea for the app came as a way to remind their teenage son to do things, but he soon realized it could have a broader effect in a society where too many of us are glued to our cell phones.

“The thing that got me to buckle down is that it actually started helping me; I’d get a notification to do something, and I’d do it,” he said.

He pointed to a recent time when a notification said to reach out to a sibling with a shared memory.

“I texted my sister: I remember the day you got Foxy, a stuffed animal. I must have been four, maybe,” he said. “She sent me back a picture of Foxy.”

In fact, he added during a phone interview, “I might be on this bike ride right now because of this app!”