VitaminWater wants to see if they can find someone willing to give up his or her smartphone for a full year in exchange for $100,000.
Earlier this month, the beverage company announced its “Scroll-Free for a Year” challenge. They’ll select one person and give that individual $100,000 if he or she can go 365 days without using a smartphone; and if the person can last more than half of the year without a device, the person will be eligible for a $10,000 prize.
“This means you cannot physically operate, caress, hug or otherwise be physically affectionate with anyone’s smartphone,” the company’s public statement, in part, read.
The contest’s official rules say the “winner” the company selects to compete in the contest will be able to use a “1996-era cellular telephone” for communication purposes.
And while the chosen person may not use a smartphone or tablet, he or she will be allowed to use both laptops and desktop computers. The person can also use “voice-activated devices that are not smartphones” like Google Home and Amazon Echo.
At the end of the 365-day period, the contestant will be subjected to a polygraph as part of the verification process.
Related: Smartphones and Young People: Three Troubling Impacts
People can enter the contest via Twitter using the hashtags #nophoneforayear and #contest — and by telling VitaminWater what they will do instead of scrolling through their phone for the course of the year.
People can enter the contest up to four times per day and the entry deadline is Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2019 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
Here are some examples of the entries so far.
Would let me focus on my family. Allow me to set an example for my boys that there's more to this world then electronics. It would give me the opportunity to lead by example and find new adventures. We get one life why waist it with our face in a phone! #nophoneforayear #contest pic.twitter.com/iBzUp7ixia
— brad (@xBRUTALPARAGONx) December 13, 2018
Id follow KISS for the entire four or until the $$ ran out #nophoneforayear pic.twitter.com/DlwsXprd0Z
— Dawn Cawthon Atkins (@doddierocks) December 13, 2018
I would read more, pick up some hobbies I could never get around to doing before and just enjoy life more without the headache and stress of my phone all the time. We also have a 4 month old daughter so I want to set a good example for her #nophoneforayear #contest pic.twitter.com/y83cyPNrdw
— Stephanie Falk (@luckygirl1244) December 13, 2018
I could definitely go a year without a phone knowing i just had a baby it’s very hard being a single mom diapers are expensive and I would love for my daughter to have more then I did growing up plus college would be set #nophoneforayear #contest pic.twitter.com/m1ctdvTUmB
— Gorgeous (@Gorgeous_pea) December 13, 2018
#nophoneforayear #contest My husband is 63 and has Alzheimer’s. I would give anything for a cure, but the money sure would help for his care!
— Lori Richardson (@montanaokiegirl) December 13, 2018
Certainly, VitaminWater will choose someone who is on the phone on a regular (constant?) basis — and not someone who can live without a phone with ease.
However, those who are not dependent on their smartphones these days are few and far between.
For instance, a 2014 Bank of America survey found that nearly half of U.S. adults (47 percent) admitted they could not last a full day without their smartphones.
In 2017, the New York Post found that the average American checked his or her phone 80 times per day — or once every 12 minutes. One in 10 people surveyed checked it once every four minutes — or about 240 times per day.
For more on the VitaminWater contest, check out the video below:
Tom Joyce is a freelance writer from the South Shore of Massachusetts. He covers sports, pop culture, and politics and has contributed to The Federalist, Newsday, and other outlets.
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