This iPhone Duo Feature Could Make Your Doomscrolling Addiction Even Worse

It's not an exaggeration to say that the iPhone Duo is Apple's biggest smartphone innovation since the original iPhone nearly 20 years ago. Duo's passport-like design allows for cool new features that would be difficult or impossible to implement on a traditional smartphone. Among these is Split View, which lets users have different apps open on each half of the screen. That's good for multitasking and makes the phone work more like an iPad.

Split View definitely has plenty of practical applications. If you have two apps you need to frequently swap between or want to use Siri AI while looking at something else, the iPhone Duo makes that seamless. However, that exact feature also has the potential to literally double your doomscrolling addiction.

Since the iPhone Duo lets you use two apps at once and quickly swap between them, there's nothing to stop you from opening up two social media feeds at the same time. You could have one video-based and one text-based platform on each half, watching TikToks or Instagram Reels while you mindlessly scroll through Reddit or X posts for twice the brain rot. Split View even lets you save pairs of apps, so you don't even have to go through the lengthy process of opening each one on its own, no doubt saving you 10 seconds tops.

If that sounds dystopian or (at the very least) a way to see your productivity plummet, you're not the only one. Fortunately, there are ways to improve your relationship with your phone.

If you do plan to upgrade to the iPhone Duo, it's worth reiterating that Split View isn't inherently a bad or time-wasting feature. There are productive uses that don't involve dual-screen doomscrolling, such as taking notes while reading or watching a video. The iPhone Duo also supports the Apple Pencil, though that feature won't be ready at launch, which'll make it even more of an iPad replacement.

Regardless of what phone you have, there's a good chance you're spending too much time doomscrolling. Cutting back is healthy, and you don't have to go as far as ditching social media like some of Gen Z. iPhones and Androids both come with features to implement time limits on things like games and social media, which are useful for holding yourself accountable.

If deleting your social media altogether sounds extreme, there are also apps that can change your screen time for the better. Things like app-usage tracking and blockers that make it a little harder to mindlessly open social media allow you to make more conscious decisions about your phone usage. Excessive smartphone use is literally changing our bodies and brains, so making smarter decisions about how much time we spend in the digital world is a good choice for our physical and mental health.