Pocket Points Rewards Students For Staying Off Their Phones

IMG_9125There’s a new addiction sweeping college campuses, and it’s not a drug. A Baylor University study last year noted that “approximately 60 percent of college students admit they may be addicted to their cell phone, and some indicated they get agitated when its not in sight.”

Pocket Points is aiming to rehab students with its app that rewards users for not using their phones during class. The company just raised a $600K seed round, and is now live at over 150 schools.

Here’s how the app works: Academic buildings on campus are geofenced by the company, and once inside a student can open the app and successfully check in. Students then lock their devices and accrue points for every minute that they stay off their phones while remaining in class.

Students can then redeem these points for perks and discounts at local and national stores and restaurants. The company has 1,200 small businesses on the platform, as well as a number of larger organizations like the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are giving free tickets to ASU students who accrue a certain amount of points.

Pocket Points currently has about 100,000 users on the platform, and says that students so far have collectively kept their phones locked for over 100 years.

The app is available for download now on the iOS App Store.

To see Pocket Points in action, check out our TechCrunch TV App Review below.