Glossary
The words for what the phone does to us
Short, sourced definitions — what each term means, where it came from, and what actually helps.
Brain rot
Brain rot is slang for the dull, foggy feeling of having consumed too much low-effort online content, and for that content itself. Oxford named it Word of the Year for 2024, defining it as the 'supposed deterioration' of a person's mental or intellectual state. It is a cultural term, not a medical condition.
Digital minimalism
Digital minimalism is a philosophy of technology use, named by computer scientist Cal Newport in his 2019 book, in which you deliberately choose a few tools that strongly support what you value and happily skip the rest. It isn't anti-technology. It's deciding what earns a place on your phone instead of keeping everything by default.
Doomscrolling
Doomscrolling is spending far more time than you meant scrolling through news or posts that leave you anxious, sad or angry. The word took off in 2020 and entered Merriam-Webster in 2023. It isn't a diagnosis. It names a common loop: the feed never ends, and bad news keeps tugging at your attention.
Dopamine detox
A dopamine detox, or dopamine fast, is a planned break from easy, quick-reward habits like scrolling, gaming or snacking, so ordinary activities feel rewarding again. The name is misleading: avoiding your phone doesn't drain dopamine. What the idea really describes is stimulus control, a standard behavior-therapy technique for cutting the cues that trigger a habit.
Family Controls
Family Controls is Apple's developer framework that lets approved third-party apps use Screen Time's blocking powers. Introduced in iOS 15 (2021) for parental controls and opened to individuals in iOS 16, it lets an app block apps you pick without learning which apps they are. Most iPhone app blockers, Bricked included, are built on it.
Infinite scroll
Infinite scroll is a design pattern where new content loads automatically as you reach the bottom of a page, so the feed never ends. It replaced 'next page' buttons in the mid-2000s and now powers most social apps. Its biggest effect on behavior is removing natural stopping points, the moments when you'd decide whether to keep going.
JOMO
JOMO stands for 'joy of missing out': the contentment of choosing not to be everywhere, online or off, and actually enjoying what you're doing instead. It's the counterpart to FOMO, the fear of missing out. Tech writer Anil Dash popularized it in a July 2012 blog post, after months of being mostly offline following his son's birth.
Nomophobia
Nomophobia, short for 'no mobile phone phobia', is the anxiety some people feel when they can't use their phone: a dead battery, no signal, or leaving it at home. The word comes from a 2008 UK survey. It isn't an official diagnosis in the DSM-5 or ICD-11, though researchers measure it with a 20-item questionnaire.
Phantom vibration syndrome
Phantom vibration syndrome is feeling your phone buzz, or hearing it ring, when it didn't. It's extremely common: in a 2010 BMJ survey, 68% of hospital staff had felt it. Despite the name, it isn't a disease. It's your brain, primed to expect a notification, misreading ordinary sensations like a muscle twitch or fabric moving.
Popcorn brain
Popcorn brain is an informal name for a mind so used to fast, constant digital stimulation that slower offline life feels dull and your thoughts keep popping from one thing to the next. University of Washington researcher David Levy is credited with the phrase around 2011. It's a metaphor for overstimulation, not a diagnosis.
Revenge bedtime procrastination
Revenge bedtime procrastination is staying up later than you meant, usually on your phone, to claw back free time the day didn't give you. The phrase grew out of Chinese social media and went global in 2020. Researchers study the core behavior as bedtime procrastination: going to bed late when nothing is stopping you from going earlier.
Screen Time
Screen time has two meanings: the hours you spend looking at screens, and Apple's built-in iPhone feature, Screen Time, that tracks that use and lets you set limits. Apple launched the feature with iOS 12 in 2018. On iOS 27 its limits are called Screen Time Schedules and Time Allowances. Earlier versions call them Downtime and App Limits.
Stimulus control
Stimulus control is a behavior-change technique: you change the cues around you so an unwanted habit is harder to trigger and a wanted one is easier. In psychology it describes how behavior comes to depend on specific cues. For phones, it means removing triggers, like the app icon or the phone on your pillow, instead of relying on willpower.
Variable rewards
Variable rewards are payoffs that arrive unpredictably: sometimes a check brings something great, usually it brings nothing. Behavioral scientists have known since the 1950s that this pattern produces fast, persistent behavior that's hard to extinguish. It's the principle behind slot machines, and it's built into feeds, likes, pull-to-refresh and notifications.
