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There is no better illustration of smartphone addiction than this app

Welp, so, this is what we've come to: We now need to use apps ... to control our app use.

Pocket Points, a recent-ish invention by students at California's Chico State, shot up Apple's trending chart on Tuesday as millions of college students anointed it the hot new thing. The app's premise is pretty simple: Just show up to class, lock your phone, and earn points redeemable at local businesses. Because if a lifetime of crushing student loan debt wasn't reason enough to pay attention in class, Pocket Points provides another incentive: free snacks!

"You guys rock!!" tweeted one student at Penn State, where the app launched two weeks ago. (Current in-state tuition: $34,000/year.) "Couldn't imagine going to class without this app."

Pocket Points, which started at Chico State in September, has since expanded, per the company's Twitter account, to the Universities of Michigan, Arizona and Colorado-Boulder, San Diego, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. While it's unclear exactly how many students use the app, it already had 3,000 users at Chico State within weeks of launch. In fact, Twitter is now crowded with the cries of deprived students, begging the app to come to their campus next: What about Austin! What about high school! What incentives do we have to pay attention in class?!

In all seriousness, though, this type of "productivity" app -- Silicon Valley speak for apps that address app addiction -- is really a booming field. Moment will track how much time you spend on your phone every day, even enforcing screen-free periods like a "family dinner time." Pause invites users to "compete" over who can keep airplane mode on the longest. Checky logs how many times you unlock your phone, and then (oddly?) encourages you to tweet it.

An app specifically for college classrooms -- where, by all accounts, smartphones have become a scourge -- is only the next logical step.

"I find it ridiculous that it takes an app to get students paying attention in class," wrote one college editorialist soon after the app launched. "(But) 'Pocket Points' is actually a really good idea and has the potential to be successful."

You heard it here first, you guys. Big in 2015: technology that makes you use technology less.

• Dewey writes The Post's The Intersect web channel covering digital and Internet culture.

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