With over half the world living isolated in quarantine,

our screens are our only lifeline to the outside world, to the news and to our relationships. But even before these physical distancing measures, stress and feelings of isolation were already at epidemic levels¹, exacerbated by the overuse of our screens and social media².

We know that when we're always on our devices, our stress levels rise and stay high³, when they're supposed to ebb and flow at regular cycles. And heavy internet users are five times more likely to suffer from loneliness and depression⁴.

So today, we're all in danger of having our bad screen habits explode, with this world-wide quarantine provoking a second, hidden pandemic. The pandemic of phone and social media addiction.

But that's just half of it. The other big problem is, stress weakens the immune system⁵, leaving us more vulnerable to illnesses, including viral infections.

Feeling fear, alarm and uncertainty compromises the immune system, making your body more susceptible to the novel coronavirus, heaven forbid you do get exposed to it.

So now, more than ever before, controlling our screen time is inextricably linked to our physical wellbeing, mental health and public health.

So the more calm and relaxed we can be, the stronger our immune defenses become⁶ and the better we can take control of our situation and rise to the challenge.

At Brick, our mission has always been to learn to use our devices without them stressing us out and bringing us down into a fight/flight response, making us unwell.

So to fight this digital pandemic, we are launching Brick's "Phone Smart 101" workshops, a free series of digital wellness workshops where you'll learn to bolster your immune system by reducing any stress caused by our screens and social media. And we're putting this out there for free because it has to go out there.

Yours,
Tommy Sobel
Founder & CEO