Vitaminwater Contest Offers $100,000 To Ditch Your Smartphone For a Year

Smartphones are everywhere today; go into any restaurant, school, business, or home, and you are guaranteed to see someone swiping away an app on their smartphone. With this in mind, Vitaminwater is running a contest that is challenging one chosen contestant to ditch all smartphones for an entire year. The company says that 1 out of 2 people say they couldn't live without their smartphone.

If you are selected for the contest and can make it a full year without using a smartphone, you will win $100,000. If you can only last six months without a smartphone, you get $10,000. There are of course caveats; you don't just get the money and give a promise not to use tablets or smartphones.

Vitaminwater says that there will be separate rules, timing, and a contract that the chosen contestant has to agree to. Restrictions that it has announced already include no use of tablets or smartphones, even if the devices don't belong to you. That means if you are required to carry a smartphone for work, you have already lost. Laptop and desktop computers are ok to use as are voice-activated devices like Amazon Echo or Google Home. Contest rules state that the sponsor will verify that the person didn't use smartphones or tablets, or even touch them, during the year and the contestant will be given a lie detector test.

The only guaranteed grand prize to the contestant is a 1996-era cellular phone that can be used for communication during the contest and the monthly phone plan it requires. Those wishing to enter the competition to be chosen as the contestant can enter via Twitter or Instagram with a post or tweet explaining how they would spend their time for the year away from smartphones or tablets. You can enter the contest here, and find the full rules for the contest can be found here.