Price interviewed thousands of people and found a pattern. Real fun, she argues, has three ingredients that have to show up together: playfulness (doing something for its own sake, not to perform or produce), connection (with another person, or with the task itself), and flow (being so absorbed that time disappears). When all three are present, you feel genuinely alive. When any one is missing, the experience is hollow — enjoyable, maybe, but not actually fun.
Phones score zero on this test. Scrolling is passive, not playful. It's consuming, not connecting. And it's the opposite of flow — notifications are specifically designed to interrupt absorption, not create it.
Why this matters for screen time conversations
Most arguments against too much phone use focus on what phones take away — attention, sleep, social skills. Price's argument runs in the opposite direction: what are you missing for? The answer is real fun. Not as a reward for putting the phone down. As the thing that was there before phones made it inconvenient, and is still there when you make space for it.
This reframe is useful for parents because it gives kids something to want instead of something to avoid. "Stop using your phone" is a deprivation message. "Let's go do something actually fun" is an invitation. The research Price cites suggests the second conversation goes better.
The "fake fun" problem
Price calls it "fake fun" — experiences that look like fun but don't hit the playfulness-connection-flow combination. Watching a movie alone. Liking posts. Binge-watching. These aren't bad. They're just not the real thing. They don't leave you feeling the way the best Saturday afternoons used to feel.
The problem is that fake fun is much easier to find than real fun. Real fun requires other people, or effort, or showing up and being present. It doesn't start automatically when you unlock your phone. Fake fun is one tap away.
This is exactly what DarkBadge's Bottomlessness score captures from the app side — the infinite feed that removes every natural stopping point. Price captures the other side of the same problem: why we reach for the infinite feed in the first place. Real fun takes a little work to get started. Fake fun never does.
The companion guide
Price also wrote How to Break Up With Your Phone (2018), a structured 30-day plan for changing your relationship with your phone. Where The Power of Fun explains what you're actually after, How to Break Up With Your Phone is the step-by-step plan for making room to find it.
The two books work well together: read The Power of Fun to understand what you're aiming for, then use How to Break Up With Your Phone if the habit itself is getting in the way.
For DarkBadge readers
DarkBadge scores apps on five patterns that make them hard to put down. The Power of Fun is the answer to the obvious next question: hard to put down in favor of what? The apps that score highest are built for engagement. Real fun is built around playfulness, connection, and flow. These are not the same thing. Understanding the gap between them is what makes the score worth caring about.