A new anti-tech lamp requires users to sacrifice their phone and their connectivity
It’s no revelation that technology has a tendency to distract and deviate our minds. In fact, as of late, a host of apps, for example Shhhh, have been released in order to combat this.

However, using technology to curb technology use does seem somewhat contradictory.  Taking a more traditional approach to the desire to disconnect is Yuee studio’s latest creation, Balance.

Balance is a lamp. Or more specifically, a lamp with an in-built phone slot.  While the lamp is facing down, it's off.  In order for the lamp to raise, and turn on, users have to insert a phone into the slot on the pole end.

This function, unsurprisingly, has a concept behind it; for users to work effectively, i.e. in light, they have to sacrifice their phone and their connectivity. Ultimately, Balance’s designers, Weng Xinyu and Tao Haiyue, are asking whether we’re mentally ready for technology, and if our unengaged concentration is a symptom of today’s information overload.

In the end, it’s up to you whether you want to interrupt your work process to reconnect online. If you do decide to pick up that phone, you’ll be forced to work in darkness until you're ready to hand it over again.

This isn’t the first time Yuue have played with furniture’s function.  The ‘Good Medicine Tastes Bitter’ collection was a range of purposefully impractical homeware that included a clock that sawed through its own body when left alone.