Why we are building ThirdLife, and how the four rings actually work.
To transform digital behaviour into actionable insights that help people live healthier, safer and more fulfilling lives.
Almost six billion people carry a phone. More than two in three people on Earth use social platforms whose feeds are tuned to hold attention and serve more of whatever you last sought. And in barely three years, over a billion people have started using AI tools. All of it is engineered for engagement, and almost none of it comes with any way to understand what it is doing to the things that matter: your relationships, your attention, your sleep and your overall wellbeing.
Around a third of waking life is now spent in front of a screen. ThirdLife exists to explain that behaviour, and to make it something you can act on, for yourself and for your children.
people carry a mobile phone, most of them smartphones.
DataReportal, Digital 2026
people on Earth use social media each month, on feeds built to hold attention.
DataReportal, April 2026
people use standalone AI tools every month, roughly three years after they arrived.
DataReportal, Digital 2026
of waking life is now spent in front of a screen.
DataReportal / Statista
Each ring, Connect, Balance, Focus and Rest, scores out of 100 what your phone behaviour looked like for the things that matter. Every ring starts the day whole, and is worn down by the patterns that work against it, or lifted by healthy phone activity.
Whether your time with people through the phone was conversation or consumption. Messages, calls and genuine back-and-forth lift it. Passively scrolling other people's lives pulls it down.
The mix of active and passive in your day. Creating, writing, learning and doing lift it. Long unbroken stretches of consumption drag it lower.
Whether your attention held or fragmented. Staying with one thing at a time lifts it. Rapid app-switching and constant checking chip away at it.
How quiet the phone stayed around sleep, measured against your actual sleep window. A wind-down hour and charging outside the bedroom lift it. Use while you were meant to be asleep costs it most.
Your overall measure of digital health and wellbeing, made up of the four rings together. One number for the day, explained in plain language so you always know what shaped it and what would lift it tomorrow.
The scoring is designed rather than guessed, drawn from the wellbeing literature, and we are working with researchers to test how well it holds. The app explains every score in plain language, so a number is never a mystery.
Our first cohort is already using ThirdLife. Join the queue on the overview page and we'll invite you in.
Join the queue