Earning points for turning off phones during class
The longer their electronic devices are turned off, the more points students rack up
Pocket Points, an app developed by a couple of students at California State University, rewards college kids for not using their phones while they’re in class.
If you can’t imagine students not sneaking in a Facebook update or amusing themselves by swiping left or right on Tinder during a boring lecture, think again.
When a late winter storm last spring shut down the Penn State campus in Pennsylvania, students using Pocket Points took to Twitter to say they weren’t totally stoked about the snow day.
“So sad campus is closed,” one PSU coed tweeted, “I can’t earn @PocketPointsInc from my apartment. #pocketpoints #SnowDay”
“The only downside to today’s #snowday is that I’m missing out on some serious #pocketpoints,” tweeted another.
What the PSU students were missing out on when classes were cancelled was a chance to use the Pocket Points app to earn points toward discounts at local shops and restaurants. And the only way to earn them is by using the app in class.
Geofencing lets the app know when students are on campus. All students have to do to earn points toward special deals and freebies is turn on the Pocket Points app, then turn off their phones while sitting in a classroom, lecture hall or the library. The longer students leave their phones locked, the more points they earn toward rewards. The brainchild of Rob Richardson and Mitch Gardner, Pocket Points is proving so popular that it is now available on more than 100 American campuses after its 2014 launch at Cal State.
“We get tweets daily from students saying how they love Pocket Points and can’t live without it,” says Richardson. “We love that students are so passionate about our product and have been so responsive.”
Pocket Points arrived in Canada this fall, with the September launch at the University of British Columbia. The app is available to students at UBC, along with community colleges in the surrounding area including Langara College and Vancouver Community College, says Brent Glowatch in product development.
Pocket Points plans to expand to more Canadian campuses over the winter break. “We have seen users asking us to bring Pocket Points to the University of Alberta,” says Glowatch. “In the past four months students have stayed off their phones for a combined total of over 300 years,” says Glowatch of the app’s popularity.
When asked what’s next for Pocket Points, Richardson says:
“We have very big plans on utilizing what we are great at. You’ll just have to wait and see.”