WEBVTT - One Easy Way to Take a Break From Your Phone

0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:07.640
<v Speaker 1>One easy way to put down your smartphone. I'm Rich Demiro.

0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:09.440
<v Speaker 1>This is Rich on Tech Daily.

0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:12.040
<v Speaker 2>I know the irony of a podcast telling you to

0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.360
<v Speaker 2>put down your phone, but here's the deal. We all

0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:17.840
<v Speaker 2>understand that we love our phones, but sometimes they can

0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:19.760
<v Speaker 2>be a bit much. And if you already know how

0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:21.440
<v Speaker 2>to manage your phone and put it down and not

0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:23.040
<v Speaker 2>look at it for a long period of time and

0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:25.080
<v Speaker 2>not really care, then congrats.

0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:27.600
<v Speaker 1>But for the rest of us, it is really tough.

0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:31.200
<v Speaker 2>We love our notifications, we love checking social media.

0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:33.480
<v Speaker 1>We just want to overall be on our phone.

0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:36.479
<v Speaker 2>Look no further than any line anywhere, Like when you're

0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:39.000
<v Speaker 2>at Starbucks. Just look at every person just kind of

0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:41.400
<v Speaker 2>looking down at their phone, not really interacting with each other.

0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:44.479
<v Speaker 2>It's a scene that we see over and over. Recently,

0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:46.920
<v Speaker 2>we visited the milk in community schools and we talked

0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:49.720
<v Speaker 2>to a bunch of teenagers on the National Day of Unplugging,

0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:52.160
<v Speaker 2>which was last week, and a bunch of them told

0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:54.480
<v Speaker 2>us that they can't get off their phones. In fact,

0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:58.080
<v Speaker 2>some of them leave their phones on while they sleep. Yes,

0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:01.040
<v Speaker 2>notifications going off all night long, but what are they

0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:04.720
<v Speaker 2>doing on their phones? Snapchat, Instagram, texting, social media, talking

0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:07.560
<v Speaker 2>to their friends, basically a lot of the same stuff

0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:10.240
<v Speaker 2>that adults do on their phones. And we talked to

0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.600
<v Speaker 2>this woman, Kim Annenberg Cavallo. She created a new app

0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.160
<v Speaker 2>called Lil Space, and basically she said that, you know what,

0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:19.360
<v Speaker 2>I realized that I was on my phone just as

0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:21.440
<v Speaker 2>much as everyone else out there, and I wanted to

0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:24.360
<v Speaker 2>figure out what can I do to get people off

0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:26.720
<v Speaker 2>of their phones. And she came up with this app

0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.280
<v Speaker 2>called Lil Space, And what it does is it's kind

0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:32.280
<v Speaker 2>of like a timer and it urges you to disconnect.

0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:34.920
<v Speaker 1>But your disconnection is tied to a cause.

0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:37.639
<v Speaker 2>So maybe the longer that you are off your phone,

0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:41.280
<v Speaker 2>the more that some business they basically partner with businesses

0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:43.600
<v Speaker 2>to donate stuff or maybe give you some sort of

0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:45.600
<v Speaker 2>reward like a dessert at dinner.

0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:46.200
<v Speaker 1>Whatever it is.

0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:48.680
<v Speaker 2>But really she wanted to find ways to motivate people

0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:51.240
<v Speaker 2>to get a little space, as she said it, So

0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:53.880
<v Speaker 2>the app encourages you to put your phone away during dinner, workouts,

0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:56.360
<v Speaker 2>quality time with your kids, all that good stuff. There's

0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:58.680
<v Speaker 2>an interesting thing that happens when we put down our phones.

0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:01.680
<v Speaker 2>According to the counselor at this Whitney Fish, she said

0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:04.720
<v Speaker 2>there's a constant fear, a constant anxiety of what if

0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:07.000
<v Speaker 2>something happens and I need my phone?

0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:09.240
<v Speaker 1>And for adults, that could be maybe you want to

0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:10.600
<v Speaker 1>take a picture when I'm on a hike.

0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:12.600
<v Speaker 2>You know, I don't necessarily need my phone, but I

0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:14.880
<v Speaker 2>sometimes want to take a picture. Or if you're out

0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:16.560
<v Speaker 2>and about, you think, well, what if someone needs to

0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:18.160
<v Speaker 2>get in touch with me? What if I get an

0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:21.400
<v Speaker 2>email from work that's really important. All these things that

0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:23.640
<v Speaker 2>we kind of put in our mind that don't necessarily matter,

0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:26.200
<v Speaker 2>but sometimes they do. Now that same counselor told us

0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:28.639
<v Speaker 2>that parents are often telling their kids to disconnect, but

0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:31.440
<v Speaker 2>there's something that parents don't realize. It's not going to

0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:34.120
<v Speaker 2>work if you're constantly on the phone. So you kind

0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:35.520
<v Speaker 2>of have to be a role model and set your

0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:37.280
<v Speaker 2>own boundaries. And I see this in my house. You know,

0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:38.600
<v Speaker 2>I tell my kids I don't want them on their

0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:39.840
<v Speaker 2>iPad or watching TV.

0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:41.600
<v Speaker 1>And what am I on doing? What am I doing?

0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.120
<v Speaker 2>I'm sneaking away to check my phone every couple of minutes.

0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:46.519
<v Speaker 2>Bottom line, how do we put down our phones? Well,

0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:48.880
<v Speaker 2>I thought the creator of this app and Cavallo, had a.

0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:52.520
<v Speaker 1>Really good solution. Some really good insight. She said this.

0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:55.720
<v Speaker 2>She said, to find some activities that make you forget

0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:58.640
<v Speaker 2>about your phone in the first place. So if you

0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:00.800
<v Speaker 2>have something that you're already in interested in and your

0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.640
<v Speaker 2>phone is kind of interrupting that, take those opportunities to

0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:05.880
<v Speaker 2>start unplugging just.

0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.520
<v Speaker 1>A little bit every day. And I thought this was brilliant.

0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:11.519
<v Speaker 2>It's not something that's totally mind boggling that we've never

0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:13.800
<v Speaker 2>thought of before. But when you really hear it put

0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.320
<v Speaker 2>like that, you realize, Yeah, let me find those activities that.

0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:17.400
<v Speaker 1>Make me forget about my phone.

0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:19.160
<v Speaker 2>Maybe I go for a run for forty five minutes,

0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:21.079
<v Speaker 2>maybe I go for a swim, maybe a.

0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:22.040
<v Speaker 1>Hike, whatever it is.

0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:25.520
<v Speaker 2>Find those activities where your phone becomes secondary, and then

0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:27.560
<v Speaker 2>you'll sort of forget about it. In fact, this is

0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:29.799
<v Speaker 2>how Cavallo came up with the idea for a little space.

0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:31.680
<v Speaker 1>She started taking a spin.

0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:34.720
<v Speaker 2>Class and realized that she wasn't thinking about her phone

0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:38.000
<v Speaker 2>during that forty five minute class. I love this advice,

0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:40.400
<v Speaker 2>but I do find there is one tiny flaw in

0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:43.280
<v Speaker 2>this whole thing of finding an activity that's bigger than

0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:45.840
<v Speaker 2>your phone, and that's the camera on our phone. Because

0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.440
<v Speaker 2>what keeps us coming back to our phone. What makes

0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:52.120
<v Speaker 2>us carry our phone during an activity that's really fun?

0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:54.280
<v Speaker 2>We want to take pictures, and I think that's the

0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:57.680
<v Speaker 2>problem is that our phone and our camera are now

0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:01.200
<v Speaker 2>linked together and you can't ditch one without ditching the other.

0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.480
<v Speaker 2>So other than wearing a smart watch with cellular, which

0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:07.760
<v Speaker 2>gets kind of expensive, or taking along a separate camera,

0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.920
<v Speaker 2>which is kind of unrealistic these days, that's the problem

0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:12.360
<v Speaker 2>I find is that, Yeah, I can go on a

0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:14.840
<v Speaker 2>hike with my entire family and not really care about

0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.680
<v Speaker 2>my phone, but I want to take pictures during that hike.

0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:18.760
<v Speaker 1>And then what do I end up doing.

0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:20.600
<v Speaker 2>I end up taking a picture and then I kind

0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:22.159
<v Speaker 2>of sneak a look at my notifications.

0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:23.560
<v Speaker 1>So my bottom line, if.

0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:25.480
<v Speaker 2>You want to get off your phone, get into something

0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.880
<v Speaker 2>that's more exciting than what's on screen, that's gonna do it.

0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:31.400
<v Speaker 2>For this episode, thanks so much for listening. I'm Richdemiro

0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:33.920
<v Speaker 2>rich on tech dot tv. For links to everything I

0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:36.400
<v Speaker 2>mentioned here, and don't forget you can now add this

0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:39.400
<v Speaker 2>daily update to your Alexa flash briefing. So just go

0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:42.680
<v Speaker 2>into the Alexa app, search Rich on tech and add

0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:44.839
<v Speaker 2>it in so you can hear this every single day.

0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.040
<v Speaker 1>I do appreciate you guys listening. I'm rich Demiro. Talk

0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:47.600
<v Speaker 1>to you real soon.