Published: April 13, 2026
“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.” – The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
As a clinical mental health counselor here at USM, I talk every day with ringbearers who are struggling to keep up with their workload as students.
I mean, sure, when they first picked up Sauron’s One Ring, the feeling was incredible. They knew instantly that they were holding unimaginable power in their hand. But as the years passed, somehow the unimaginable power seemed not to have materialized. Of course, they can still use the ring to turn invisible. Except that every time they do, a horde of Nazgul sweeps down on them out of nowhere. And of course, the dang Nazgul can see them when they turn invisible. Not very useful invisibility!
As a result, many of these ringbearers feel somehow cheated – where is the unimaginable power they thought for sure they were going to receive!? But while some part of these ringbearers might feel cheated, the much bigger part of them remains obsessed. Sure, it started off cute, like any love story. But lately, the whole thing has started to feel toxic.
The One Ring is constantly whispering to them. They go to check it “real quick” and end up lovingly gazing at it for hours on end. They pull it out in the middle of their conversations with friends and family. They fall asleep caressing it. They try to get rid of it, but somehow it always ends up right back in their pocket.
For many ringbearers, the One Ring has started getting in the way of their school work – not to mention their lives! Whenever they get stuck on a hard chem problem or don’t know what to write next, they’ll find themselves distracted by the One Ring. When they feel awkward or disconnected from other people—even their friends, partners, family—well, there’s the One Ring luring them away from life. Even when they don’t lose hours to a “quick check,” something about its presence is always tugging on them. Sometimes they don’t even know that it’s happening.
Of course, the thing I’m talking about in this article isn’t the One Ring. It’s our phones. But the One Ring is really a perfect metaphor for them.
Our phones seem to hold out the possibility of incredible power. Imagine what you could do with instant access to every human on the planet, along with most of what they’ve ever written. This seems like the kind of power that should turn your life inside out and upside down in the best way possible. With this type of network at your fingertips, surely you will finally realize your potential! Surely amazing things are just around the corner! Surely you’re finally going to be everything you’ve always wanted to be!
But somehow those promises have curdled.
That’s not to say they aren’t useful. The One Ring lets its ringbearers turn invisible – a pretty neat trick if you can dodge the Nazgul. I haven’t been lost on a car trip since 2012. I haven’t needed to call a taxi company since 2018. I have 24/7 free access to a custom-curated video designed specifically to surprise and delight me. I can use voice chat with an AI to instantly dialog with the entirety of humanity’s collective body of written text. And I am – let’s face it – kind of an old guy who is just barely keeping up with the times.
But does my life get better the more time I spend with my phone? Has the bounty I was sure I was going to receive been realized? Can’t say it has. Or rather, I find that the less time I spend with my phone, the better my life seems to be. And that the bounties I’ve brought into my life have increasingly come despite my phone, rather than because of it.
If you’ve been struggling lately – whether it is with your own mental health or just with your ability to get work done – my advice to you is to break up with the One Ring. It’s probably doing less to help than you think it is. And you might be surprised by what happens when you throw it into Mount Doom.
And if you want some other hobbits to walk there with, then reach out to me at [email protected]. A group of us meets regularly to build accountability, community, and support in spending less time with our phones. The group meets weekly on Tuesdays at 12:30 in Portland and is free for anyone who wants to join – no knowledge of Lord of the Rings required!
