‘Pocket Points’: The App That Rewards You With Food When You Stay Off Your Phone

The creators of ‘Pocket Points‘ Mitch Gardner and Rob Richardson think they’ve found a way to encourage and reward university students for staying off their phones during lectures and it revolves entirely around saving money and eating. Currently available at California State University – where the creators originally studied and came up the concept – and Penn State this app lets you earn points whilst you stay off your phone that you can then switch for discounts at local eateries!

When students arrive at their lessons they simply open the app and then lock their phone. The app can tell when the phone is in a campus classroom and begins to tally points. The longer you stay off of your phone, the more points you get.

Richardson, a junior computer science major, told The Orion that the app was inspired by his own lack of attention in classes: “I was sitting in class last year. I was in a kinda boring class, not paying attention really. I was on my phone and was just thinking there are incentives for all these social media apps. There is incentive for games, but what about incentives for just paying attention? As soon as I thought of that I went to Mitch.”

Regarding the points system, senior business marketing major Gardner says: “we wanted to make sure that with the app, you weren’t just getting average coupons. We wanted to get legit incentives for students. At Pita Pit, you get a buy one get one free, or at Crazy Jane’s you get a free pizza. We don’t even call them coupons; we call them gifts.”

Featured photo credit: Pocket Points via pocketpoints.com

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