Evan Price
Founder, Real
Rylan Shoji
Co-founder, Real
A four-week group program
Real is a small group program for people who want a more intentional relationship with technology. Honest conversation, practical experiments, and people to do it with.
Why Real
Most people already know when their phone is taking more than they want to give. The difficulty is not a lack of information. It is that the habits are social, convenient, and built into the shape of ordinary life.
Real makes room to be honest about that. It is not a retreat, a purity test, or a demand to disappear from modern life. It is a place to notice what is happening, try a few changes, and learn from other people doing the same.
The program
Each session is one hour. We arrive, talk honestly, try something practical, and leave with a small experiment for the week ahead. No one has to do this perfectly.
Start with the honest version: what feels difficult, what you have already tried, and what you would like more room for in your life.
Try this week
Choose one moment each day to notice your phone use without changing it. Write down what you see and name your personal why.
Look at the tools that might fit your real life: changing your environment, planning time away, using a simpler device, or asking someone to help you keep a boundary.
Try this week
Choose one small change to test. Make it specific enough that you will know what happened.
Come back to what happened. The point is not a success story. Setbacks are useful information about the habits, settings, and feelings that make change hard.
Try this week
Protect one phone-free block that matters to you - a meal, a morning, a walk, or an evening - and notice what it makes possible.
Decide what you want to keep and what support will make it easier. A reasonable relationship with technology is built through modest, repeatable choices - not a dramatic reset.
Take it with you
Make a simple plan for the next month and name one person who can help you return to it when life gets busy.
Each session
Every week follows the same one-hour rhythm. Phones away, no lecture, no performance.
Phones away, a brief check-in, one grounding question.
One story, one visual, or one piece of evidence.
Structured discussion in pairs and as a group.
Choose and plan one practical experiment.
Name the experiment, anticipate friction, and confirm a check-in.
Evidence
Only 14% of a Canadian youth cohort met screen-time guidelines at both measured points, in 2019 and 2023. A further 37% exceeded the guidelines at both points.
58.6% of students in the Spring 2022 Canadian post-secondary reference group screened positive for loneliness.
American College Health Association, 2022 · reference group, not nationally representative
A randomized trial found that blocking mobile internet on smartphones for two weeks improved sustained attention, mental health, and well-being, while increasing offline activity and sleep.
Evaluation
Participants may opt into a lightweight evaluation of the program. The aim is to learn what helps, publish what we find, and improve every cohort.
Taking part never requires being studied. Consent is always separate from participation.
Get in touch
The first Real cohort is being planned now. If you want to take part, host a group, or help shape what this becomes, I would love to hear from you.
Early participants will help make the program more useful, more honest, and more grounded in real life.
Thank you. I look forward to speaking!
Growing Real
Real starts small on purpose. Each stage earns the next.
01
Run the first small cohorts in person, refine every session, and keep what works.
02
Share what each cohort teaches us so the next one starts smarter.
03
Prepare new facilitators to bring Real to their own communities.
04
Grow into the campuses, workplaces, and community groups that want a room like this.
Evan Price
Founder, Real
Rylan Shoji
Co-founder, Real