All boxed in, and free at last

The boxes sold by another store, Swift Technology, allow users to respond to emergencies. The clerk in this store says that those who place orders are mainly students, and about 1,000 orders are being placed a month.

However, Lin says, because the lock time is set by users, whether they can achieve their goal depends on the individual. A five-hour lockup is too harsh, she says, but at the other end of the spectrum, one of her friends locks the box for just 30 minutes, something that Lin says suggests the classmate is deluding herself.

A recent buyer, Shen Yichen, says she felt that with the pandemic many people's reliance on mobile phones had greatly increased.

"Earlier I saw the box on Taobao, but at that time there were very few companies making them, and they basically used a square real box with a lock to lock the phone."

They are now much better, she says.

In addition to the isolation box, there are many products or services on the market that are said to help people cut down on mobile phone use. In 2019, BlackBerry phones, once a prestige communications tool, became a topic of conversation because of their lack of interconnectivity.

Suddenly the very thing that had led BlackBerry to the edge of commercial oblivion became a huge plus, and it became the first choice of young people wanting to wean themselves from mobile phones. However, the drawback in China is the ubiquity of mobile payments. A BlackBerry or an old Nokia phone cannot adapt to this basic need, and for the moment the smart isolation box seems to be the ideal choice.

However, Liang Wenyu, another college student, sneers at these "flashy" attempts.

"It is meaningless to replace all of them, and regardless of the effectiveness of the isolation box, you might as well lock yourself up," he says. "As simple as that.

"I can understand why they attach these blood pumping stickers on the box－because they lack discipline. How about simply taking back your time. Self-disciplined people are bound to succeed without such gimmicks."