In my conversations with schools about Analog, this is a common question: What about circumvention? How do we prevent students from finding ways around the system?
It's an important question. Schools have been grappling with phone management for years, and they've seen firsthand how creative students can be in circumventing rules. A phone confiscation policy leads to decoy phones. A strict "phones in lockers" rule results in bathroom breaks becoming social media breaks. Each solution seems to spawn new workarounds.
Here’s how I think about it: the key to reducing circumvention is reducing friction. Said another way, the key to compliance is making compliance the path of least resistance.
Here’s an analogy: Think about water flowing down a garden trench. When it encounters obstacles — rocks, sticks, debris — it doesn't simply stop. Instead, it finds the path of least resistance, often spilling over the sides rather than following the intended channel. Human behavior follows similar patterns. When rules create too much friction, people naturally seek workarounds.
I remember, as a freshman in college in 2000, downloading music (er, pirating digital music) from Napster in my dorm room. That year, Napster had 80 million registered users sharing around 20 million songs daily. The music industry's initial response was to build higher walls—aggressive lawsuits, stricter copyright enforcement, digital rights management. But these friction-adding measures only seemed to inspire more creative circumvention.
Then came iTunes. Rather than trying to force compliance, iTunes made compliance compelling by making legal music purchases simple and convenient. Spotify later built on this foundation with an even more frictionless streaming model. The result? In Norway, by way of example, music piracy dropped by 76% between 2008 and 2012 as streaming services gained popularity. Compliance went up because following the rules became easier than breaking them.
We've seen this pattern repeat across different domains. Netflix's convenient streaming service led to significant decreases in BitTorrent traffic. Cities that implemented simple mobile payment systems for public transit saw reduced fare evasion compared to complex ticket systems. When Amazon began collecting sales tax, most consumers chose the convenience of Amazon over tax-avoiding alternatives.
There’s a lesson in this pattern of behavior. Compliance increases when following the rules becomes the path of least resistance.
This insight guides our approach at Analog. Traditional phone management solutions often create significant friction for all stakeholders. Confiscation policies burden teachers with enforcement and create conflict with students. Strict lockdown approaches worry parents who want to reach their children in emergencies. And blanket bans frustrate students who increasingly rely on their phones for legitimate academic, family, work, and other purposes.
There will always be rule breakers. But like water finding its way down a well-designed channel, people will generally follow the path that offers the least resistance while still getting them where they need to go. What guides our product philosophy at Analog is not building higher walls, but designing better channels.