May 24, 2022 • 19 mins
NFTs have been facing criticism recently as some investors are being left with assets that are only worth a fraction of the value from when they first bought them. The volatile market of NFTs and cryptocurrencies can make it easy to make money, but also lose huge amounts too. The problem can be compounded when celebrities and influencers promote them without also informing followers of the risks. Jesselyn Cook, investigative tech reporter at NBC News, joins us for more.
Next, its something families have been struggling with, the massive amounts of time kids are spending on their screens, but there is a small number of parents who are refusing to give their kids smartphones. 53% of kids have a smartphone by age 11 and that number swells to 89% once they hit 16. It can be a hard dilemma for families to navigate as children often feel left out and face social pressure as well. Ellen McCarthy, feature reporter at the Washington Post, joins us for what to know.
Finally, why is it so hard to get a restaurant reservation right now? It’s great for restaurants trying to make their rebound from the pandemic, but tough for customers as you need to plan a little better or have a bit of luck. Everyone is trying to get back out and there could be fewer options because of pandemic closures. Lane Florsheim, style reporter at the NY Times, joins us with some tips for nailing down that reservation.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Tuesday, I'm oscar room mirrors in Los Angeles and
this is the daily dive. N f T s have
been facing criticism recently as some investors are being left
with assets that are only worth a fraction of the
value from when they first bought them. The volatile market
for n f t s and cryptocurrencies can make it
(00:21):
easy to make money but also lose huge amounts to
the problem can be compounded when celebrities and influencers promote
them without also informing followers of the risks. Jessel and Cook,
investigative tech reporter at NBC News, joins us for more. Next,
It's something families have been struggling with the massive amounts
of time kids are spending on their screens, but there
(00:42):
is a small number of parents who are refusing to
give their kids smartphones. Kids have a smartphone by age eleven,
and that number swells once they hit sixteen. It can
be a hard dilemma for families to navigate, as children
often feel left out and face social pressures as well.
Ellen McCarthy, feature reporter at The Washington Post joins us
(01:02):
for what to Know. Finally, why is it so hard
to get a restaurant reservation right now. It's great for
restaurants trying to make their comeback from the pandemic, but
took for customers as you need to plan a little
better or have a bit of luck. Everyone is trying
to get back out and there could be fewer options
because of pandemic closures. Lane floor Sheim, style reporter at
The New York Times, joints us with some tips for
(01:24):
nailing down that reservation. It's a news without the noise.
Let's dive in. You'll hup me what's up? And then
I bought an ape. I got an ape too because
I saw you on the show with people and you
said you've got a moon pay. So I went and
I copied you and did the same thing. This is
your ape. It's really cool. Joining us now is Jesselyn Cook,
(01:46):
investigative tech reporter at NBC News. Thanks for joining us,
Jess Linker, thank you so much for having me. Let's
talk about n f t s and how you know
some investors right now are being left financially crippled in
a sense. You know a lot of these celebrity endorsed
n f t s. People look to these celebrities and
influencers and they say, Wow, this person is involved in
(02:07):
this particular project. I want to get involved in these
things too, and a lot of them. You know, the
n f T market, the cryptocurrency market is very volatile, high,
you know, extreme highs, extreme lows, and a lot of
these people are buying in at a certain price, being
told they're going to make profits of two, five, ten
times what their initial investment was, and when the prices
of these things dropped, there being left with very little.
(02:29):
So Jescelyn Police help us walk through some of what
we're seeing. Sure, it's kind of a cautionary tale about
taking financial advice from celebrities and influencers we look up
to who may not be in the best position to
be giving such advice. So I've been speaking with ordinary
people who saw a celebrity promoting an n f T,
(02:51):
being really excited about it, suggesting that it was a
very strong and safe financial investment, and deciding that they
were going to put, in some cases, their entire life
savings into the n f T s believing and looking
up to the person who was promoting it, And unfortunately,
it has not worked out very well for most of
the people. I've spoken to. The n f t s
(03:12):
have plummeted in value not long after the celebrities pumped
it up, and so it has left people in a
really bad place, and it has left a lot of
them very angry with the celebrities or influencers who were
suggesting they spend their money that way without really warning
about the financial risks or really doing any due diligence
(03:33):
to look into these n f t s before describing
them so excitedly. So one of the examples that you
focus a lot in the story is Floyd Mayweather pumping
out something called Board Buddy n f t s, and
you talked to a couple of people. There's a guy
named Tyler, for example, spent twelve tho dollars. He had
a cobbled that together with some family members and whatnot,
he bought some of the n f t s and
(03:55):
now they're really worth a fraction of that cost. Yeah,
so Tyler is really into martial arts. He has looked
up to Floyd Mayweather for many years, and not not
only as a sports legend or a boxing legend, but
he looks up to him as someone who is very wealthy,
very financially savvy, and so when he saw Floyd Mayweather
(04:16):
saying go get yourself board Bunny and f T Tyler
wanted to hop on board. He'd already been looking for
investment opportunities and if someone as rich as Floyd Mayweather
was suggesting to get in on this, he felt like
it was the best place to put his money. So
he did. And the twelve thou dollars he put into
these n f T s with the help from his mom,
(04:36):
that was more than a third of his annual income
and it was all of his savings. You know, so
what do people like Mayweather? What do people that are
responsible for the board Bunny and f T's what do
they say about this? Because I took a look at
some of their Twitter action and there's people giving it
to them saying why aren't you paying us you know
what we initially paid for. They're very defensive on their
(04:59):
side of things. You know, how did they respond to
this stuff? Floyd Mayweather has not spoken out about this.
You're absolutely right. There has been a lot of criticism
lived at him, and it seems like a lot of
these influencers, they will pop up in these ads sometimes
which are not even disclosed as ads, and they will
promote an n f T and then they'll just go
silent and kind of leave their followers who took their
(05:22):
advice paying the price and not acknowledging what happened. And
so we're seeing in response, other influencers in this world
starting to rise up and call out that behavior by
their colleagues and really kind of naming and shaming people
who won't make a quick book by promoting an n
f T without doing their research, doing their due diligence,
(05:42):
or at the very least warning their fans this is
a serious financial investment. Take it seriously. Don't just throw
your money in here. You talk to some of the
guys from Phase Clan, I guess who said, hey, we
didn't want to do this. They already previously got in
trouble with some of their members involved in all coins
and cryptocurrent. See, so I mean it's all over the place,
this type of stuff. Yeah, it is. It's kind of
(06:05):
been just an explosion of seeing all these celebrities hype
up these n f T s, driving a lot of
the excitement behind them. And there is some regulation in
place here. It's not often enforced, but the FTC, for example,
has rules in place saying if you are going to
promote anything, if you're getting paid to promote anything, you
(06:25):
need to clearly and conspicuously disclose that this is an AD.
You are being compensated in exchange for your endorsement of
a product, and the stakes when it comes to say,
promoting a lip gloss or promoting a shampoo, compared to
promoting an n f T, it's just not comparable. You know,
if a celebrity were to tell you to go get
(06:46):
a certain shampoo and you maybe didn't know it was
an AD, but you trust their advice, so you buy
the shampoo and it's not as good as you wanted,
maybe your hair is not as shiny. But if you
put your trust in an influencer who has not told
you they're promoting an an T because they're cashing out
behind the scenes, and you invest your savings into that
n f T and it does not go well for you,
(07:06):
it can be life ruining in some cases. Jesselyn Cook,
investigative tech reporter at NBC News, thank you very much
for joining us, Thanks for having me. What's going to
happen in terms of addictions, you know, to the smartphone itself,
(07:28):
to online gaming to chornography, things like that, and so
they just have sort of made the hardline decisions that
they're not going to do it. Joining us now is
Ellen McCarthy, feature reporter at the Washington Post. Thanks for
joining us, Ellen, thanks so much for having me. Well,
let's talk about an interesting story here, the parents who
are refusing to give their kids smartphones. Now, we've been
(07:50):
doing a lot of stories recently obviously about you know,
addiction to smartphones, how kids are just constantly on their devices.
You know, it's kind of a catch twenty two. It's
also a great device for a lot of people, you know,
it helps them connect with others. So there's a lot
of debate going on what's going on with the smartphones.
But you spoke to a number of parents who said, nope,
(08:11):
we're not going to do this. We're not going to
give our kids smartphones. And it's a to do, right.
There's pressures at school for the kids, and you know,
it's just a big conversation. So Ellen, tell us a
little bit more about it. Yeah, I mean, for these parents,
it really is a catch twenty two and they understand
really well how difficult it is for these children to
(08:32):
go without them because you remember when you were a teenager,
you were a middle schoolers and you didn't have something,
you know, you were going to let your parents know
about it. And so these kids are really in their
parents ears. I need a smartphone. I need it. This
is how my friends um hang out, Like I'm missing
out on that group text and so I didn't get
invited to that party. And that's not fair, mom, you know.
So it really is a difficult thing for parents to
(08:54):
at this point not give their kids a smartphone. I
think it's much easier to give them one. But the
parents who are holding out, our parents who are just
deeply concerned about the ramifications of smartphones on a developing brain.
I mean they're worried about it. The ramifications on their
own brains too, and on adult brains, but I think
especially on a brain that is still in progress, you know,
(09:16):
what's going to happen to the attention span, what's going
to happen to their social emotional well being if they
spend all of their time on social media, what's going
to happen in terms of addictions, you know, to the
smartphone itself, to online gaming, to pornography, things like that,
and so they just have sort of made the hardline
decisions that they're not going to do it. Let's put
(09:36):
a little bit of numbers to this, because I find
it always helps. So this these numbers are coming from
a report by common Sense Media. They say of American
children have a smartphone of their own by age eleven.
By the time they're sixteen, kids have one. So in
one of the mothers that you spoke to, she's actually
a psychiatrist who works primarily with high school kids and
(09:58):
college students, and that's one of the top things that
she always works with them on is well, let's start
with how much you're using your device, maybe start deleting
an app here or there, And that's one of the
first things that she tries to establish with them before
they can even continue with whatever other treatment they need.
That's right. She said that it's incredibly rare for her
(10:20):
to find a patient who comes to her seeking help,
and they often are seeking help for things like I
can't focus on my schoolwork, or depression or eating disorders
or anxiety. Almost never do they come to her. And
what she asked to see screen time is it less
than nine hours a day a day clarify which she says,
you know that that means that they are on their
phone more than their sleeping. So she's practicing this with
(10:43):
her children no smartphone, and one of her daughters. So
these are kind of the effects of what happens, right,
and to the point that you were making earlier missing
out on certain things. Her daughter was doing dance competitions
and she'd been there in a lot of downtime waiting
for the next performance and all that, and her friends
are instantly on their phones and she's trying to talk
to them. They drift away back into the phones and
(11:04):
she has like no recourse there. So she started bringing
a book, but she really felt to disconnect with the
other kids. And I think she end up quitting dance
for a while because she was just not making the
friends are making those relationships there because too many people
on their phones and she had none of herself. Isn't
that amazing? I mean, it isn't It isn't right. It's
almost like an adult was asked to go and sit
(11:25):
at a bar by themselves while waiting for a friend
and just sit there right because everybody else is on
their phone. And imagine how you feel like you just
are like what am I supposed to do with myself,
with my hands, with my eyes, with my brain? Right now,
everybody else is doing this one thing. Nobody is talking
to me. How am I supposed to spend my time?
And I think she felt really, really isolated, and it
(11:47):
was really hard. She said she just couldn't make any friends,
and so she quit the thing that she loved the
most right in the world. On the other side of things, right, parents,
you know, we're talking about kind of what's going on
in modern life right now. You need to keep in
touch with your kids. It's a tough thing. So sometimes
parents are like, Okay, well, we'll give you a dumb phone,
you know, something that only does texts and calls. And
(12:09):
even that is kind of a tough situation for the kids.
You know, we keep going back and forth. Right, it's
not a necessity, but increasingly, when your peers around you
have these things, you feel like it is. And and
some of the kids that their parents gave these these
more simpler phones, they even said, hey, it's embarrassing. I'm
gonna keep it tucked away and not bring it out
because because you know, because of all the pressure is
(12:31):
going around on around around them, you know, the question
that I came away with from this story, and I
think it's not answerable at this moment, is how are
we going to view this fifty years from now? Is this?
Is this a matter of the technology? It's here, is here,
it's arrived, It's not going anywhere, and give with it people,
you know, like, get on board. Try not to be
(12:54):
a holdout. Don't be the person who's like scared of
the television or whatever it is. Or are we going
to look back and say, oh my gosh, remember what
everybody smoked? How crazy was that? Is that how we're
going to feel about smartphones that are were going to say,
remember when we all just like handed our children, you know,
these little devices that had unfettered access to the Internet
and everything on it. I just don't think we know yet.
(13:15):
So it really is a tricky dilemma for parents and
for kids. Ellen McCarthy, Feature reporter at The Washington Post,
thank you very much for joining us. Great to talk
to you, Thanks for having me. Just Contromi is one
(13:36):
of the most popular restaurants in Mexico City, and it's
hard to get a reservation, but she and her partner
just go and always get in at the bar seats,
which never ever would have occurred to me. But it
is such a good joining us now was Lane floor Shime,
style reporter at the Wall Street Journal. Thanks for joining us, Lane,
thanks so much for having me. I wanted to talk
about interesting thing that's going on with restaurants right now.
(13:58):
Why is it so hard to get a reservation coming
off of the pandemic. And we know all the stories
that happened with the restaurant industry from closures, you know,
having to adapt with the indoor dining bands, then you
know this masnutrition of workers, you know, and then trying
to rebuild those workforces. It's been a really crazy roller
coaster for restaurants. So in a sense, this is a
(14:21):
very good thing that it's hard to get into some
of these hotspots. Again, for the consumer, maybe not so much.
Right you want to get in there and you want
to have some fun, and it might be a little
more difficult. But Lane, tell us what we're seeing with
the difficulty in getting some reservations right now? Sure. Well,
you know it's funny. When I started working on this article,
the hypothesis that I had was just it was pretty simple,
(14:41):
just that you know, everyone is so excited to be
out and out and about again, coming out of the pandemic,
excited to be back at you know, their favorite restaurants.
And well, I think that that's definitely true. Some of
the people who I interviewed just put it really well
for me. One person, John Nitich, who owned the New
York City piano bar Than Nines, talked about how, you know,
(15:04):
during indoor dining bands, you can go out and you
can have a meal on the street, but it doesn't
really compare to the magic of being inside a restaurant
like this special space like sometimes you know, romantic. And
then Jamie Patrokoff, who is an investor in the l
a restaurant Gengus Cohen, brought up to good point that
I don't think of, which is that, you know, we're
just living in this time where almost everyone is a foodie.
(15:27):
People really care about the restaurants you eat at, and
they want to be in at the hottest place. And
you know, we have great resources like Eater and then
satuation and food influencers, and so that's something I wasn't
really thinking about when I started on the article, but
that made a lot of sense to me. You know,
you mentioned that point about indoor dining. A lot of
these places increase their capacity during the pandemic, they added
(15:48):
outdoor patios, and right now that they're opening back up
fully inside and outside, they're still getting reservations at maximum
capacity there. You know, more people than ever trying to
go there. Men restaurants of added capacity, they now have
outdoor dining areas, but they're still booked to capacity um,
which is you know, all around really exciting. Right before
(16:09):
the pandemic was such a great time for restaurants and
to be you know, out and about and everyone wanted
to be dining. But the RESI data does show that
the average number of notifies, you know, that weightless function
they have has increased by fifty on average in New
York City, like and since two thousand nineteen, and that
(16:29):
you know, they keep seeing their March was their most
historically busy month, and then April was their most historically
busy month, and you know July had been the previous
But it's like dining out is you know, more popular
than it was, it seems even before the pandemic. Some
good tips on how to get nail that reservation first
(16:51):
thing among them, find out when the restaurants are posting
their reservations on these platforms, because when you know they
come out, you can go there immediately to start book right.
I talked to a couple of people who even set
alerts on their own calendars, so they not only know it,
but they don't forget it and they can log on
right away. I also think that you know, just calling
the restaurant and help, and I've experienced that in my
(17:14):
own life. Like one night, my friends and I kind
of last minute wanted to go to a popular restaurant
and they, of course didn't have anything available on their
online reservation system. I thought, oh, just give them a call,
and you know, they squeeze us in at eight. So
I think sometimes when you connect with a human they
can sort of synagle things in a way that you
can't always online. Um totally. You know in in an
(17:34):
article you noted too right, you look online for some places,
Well you're gonna be looking at ten thirty at night
or nothing on a Friday or Saturday. But yeah, calling
in you might have that chance. Hey somebody just canceled.
I have it before here and the people at the
restaurant are looking at different data than the online reservation
places are holding so you can look out. And another
one just the this is This one's tough, right because
(17:56):
you can get frustrated. But the classic walk in and
try for a seat at the are It can come
in handy all over the place. I was in Vegas
not too long ago. Everywhere was booked and we'd walk
in and say, hey, what about bar? They said, open
seating right there, and then boom, you've got a spot now.
So you've got to be nimble on your feet in
and expect for some of the worst. But you can
(18:16):
look out too, totally. And I let that thought in
mind for a while because I have I have a
good friend who you know, controm Our is one of
the most popular restaurants in Mexico City, and it's hard
to get a reservation, but she and her partner just
go and always get in at the bar seats, which
never ever would have occurred to me. But it is
such a good hack. I think. Really the most important,
(18:38):
like the one that I kept hearing over and over again,
was to become a regular or create personal relationships. I mean,
there were some anecdotes that didn't make it into the story,
like this one woman I interviewed always gets to know
the Somalia and gets their business card in their information
after they helped her out with wine, and then she
reaches out to them. And then a few other restaurant
owners said that what a good thing to do is
(18:59):
to go and make your reservation while you're already there,
which might seem counterintuitive to you know, make one for
three or four weeks away when you're already at the restaurant.
But if you're having a great experience and you think like, oh,
I want to bring my mom here, you know, whatever
it is, you can just like, you know, go walk
over to the hosts and see when they might be
able to fit you in next lane floor Shyme Style
(19:19):
report at The Wall Street Journal. Thank you very much
for joining us. Thank you so much for having me.
That's it for today. Join us on social media at
Daily Dive Pod on both Twitter and Instagram. Leave us
a comment, give us a rating, and tell us the
stories that you're interested in. Follow us on our Heart radio,
(19:42):
or subscribe wherever you get your podcast. This episode of
The Daily Divers produced by Bigger Wright and engineered by
Tony Sargantina. I'm Oscar Ramirez. And this was her daily
dive
It's Tuesday, I'm oscar room mirrors in Los Angeles and
this is the daily dive. N f T s have
been facing criticism recently as some investors are being left
with assets that are only worth a fraction of the
value from when they first bought them. The volatile market
for n f t s and cryptocurrencies can make it
(00:21):
easy to make money but also lose huge amounts to
the problem can be compounded when celebrities and influencers promote
them without also informing followers of the risks. Jessel and Cook,
investigative tech reporter at NBC News, joins us for more. Next,
It's something families have been struggling with the massive amounts
of time kids are spending on their screens, but there
(00:42):
is a small number of parents who are refusing to
give their kids smartphones. Kids have a smartphone by age eleven,
and that number swells once they hit sixteen. It can
be a hard dilemma for families to navigate, as children
often feel left out and face social pressures as well.
Ellen McCarthy, feature reporter at The Washington Post joins us
(01:02):
for what to Know. Finally, why is it so hard
to get a restaurant reservation right now. It's great for
restaurants trying to make their comeback from the pandemic, but
took for customers as you need to plan a little
better or have a bit of luck. Everyone is trying
to get back out and there could be fewer options
because of pandemic closures. Lane floor Sheim, style reporter at
The New York Times, joints us with some tips for
(01:24):
nailing down that reservation. It's a news without the noise.
Let's dive in. You'll hup me what's up? And then
I bought an ape. I got an ape too because
I saw you on the show with people and you
said you've got a moon pay. So I went and
I copied you and did the same thing. This is
your ape. It's really cool. Joining us now is Jesselyn Cook,
(01:46):
investigative tech reporter at NBC News. Thanks for joining us,
Jess Linker, thank you so much for having me. Let's
talk about n f t s and how you know
some investors right now are being left financially crippled in
a sense. You know a lot of these celebrity endorsed
n f t s. People look to these celebrities and
influencers and they say, Wow, this person is involved in
(02:07):
this particular project. I want to get involved in these
things too, and a lot of them. You know, the
n f T market, the cryptocurrency market is very volatile, high,
you know, extreme highs, extreme lows, and a lot of
these people are buying in at a certain price, being
told they're going to make profits of two, five, ten
times what their initial investment was, and when the prices
of these things dropped, there being left with very little.
(02:29):
So Jescelyn Police help us walk through some of what
we're seeing. Sure, it's kind of a cautionary tale about
taking financial advice from celebrities and influencers we look up
to who may not be in the best position to
be giving such advice. So I've been speaking with ordinary
people who saw a celebrity promoting an n f T,
(02:51):
being really excited about it, suggesting that it was a
very strong and safe financial investment, and deciding that they
were going to put, in some cases, their entire life
savings into the n f T s believing and looking
up to the person who was promoting it, And unfortunately,
it has not worked out very well for most of
the people. I've spoken to. The n f t s
(03:12):
have plummeted in value not long after the celebrities pumped
it up, and so it has left people in a
really bad place, and it has left a lot of
them very angry with the celebrities or influencers who were
suggesting they spend their money that way without really warning
about the financial risks or really doing any due diligence
(03:33):
to look into these n f t s before describing
them so excitedly. So one of the examples that you
focus a lot in the story is Floyd Mayweather pumping
out something called Board Buddy n f t s, and
you talked to a couple of people. There's a guy
named Tyler, for example, spent twelve tho dollars. He had
a cobbled that together with some family members and whatnot,
he bought some of the n f t s and
(03:55):
now they're really worth a fraction of that cost. Yeah,
so Tyler is really into martial arts. He has looked
up to Floyd Mayweather for many years, and not not
only as a sports legend or a boxing legend, but
he looks up to him as someone who is very wealthy,
very financially savvy, and so when he saw Floyd Mayweather
(04:16):
saying go get yourself board Bunny and f T Tyler
wanted to hop on board. He'd already been looking for
investment opportunities and if someone as rich as Floyd Mayweather
was suggesting to get in on this, he felt like
it was the best place to put his money. So
he did. And the twelve thou dollars he put into
these n f T s with the help from his mom,
(04:36):
that was more than a third of his annual income
and it was all of his savings. You know, so
what do people like Mayweather? What do people that are
responsible for the board Bunny and f T's what do
they say about this? Because I took a look at
some of their Twitter action and there's people giving it
to them saying why aren't you paying us you know
what we initially paid for. They're very defensive on their
(04:59):
side of things. You know, how did they respond to
this stuff? Floyd Mayweather has not spoken out about this.
You're absolutely right. There has been a lot of criticism
lived at him, and it seems like a lot of
these influencers, they will pop up in these ads sometimes
which are not even disclosed as ads, and they will
promote an n f T and then they'll just go
silent and kind of leave their followers who took their
(05:22):
advice paying the price and not acknowledging what happened. And
so we're seeing in response, other influencers in this world
starting to rise up and call out that behavior by
their colleagues and really kind of naming and shaming people
who won't make a quick book by promoting an n
f T without doing their research, doing their due diligence,
(05:42):
or at the very least warning their fans this is
a serious financial investment. Take it seriously. Don't just throw
your money in here. You talk to some of the
guys from Phase Clan, I guess who said, hey, we
didn't want to do this. They already previously got in
trouble with some of their members involved in all coins
and cryptocurrent. See, so I mean it's all over the place,
this type of stuff. Yeah, it is. It's kind of
(06:05):
been just an explosion of seeing all these celebrities hype
up these n f T s, driving a lot of
the excitement behind them. And there is some regulation in
place here. It's not often enforced, but the FTC, for example,
has rules in place saying if you are going to
promote anything, if you're getting paid to promote anything, you
(06:25):
need to clearly and conspicuously disclose that this is an AD.
You are being compensated in exchange for your endorsement of
a product, and the stakes when it comes to say,
promoting a lip gloss or promoting a shampoo, compared to
promoting an n f T, it's just not comparable. You know,
if a celebrity were to tell you to go get
(06:46):
a certain shampoo and you maybe didn't know it was
an AD, but you trust their advice, so you buy
the shampoo and it's not as good as you wanted,
maybe your hair is not as shiny. But if you
put your trust in an influencer who has not told
you they're promoting an an T because they're cashing out
behind the scenes, and you invest your savings into that
n f T and it does not go well for you,
(07:06):
it can be life ruining in some cases. Jesselyn Cook,
investigative tech reporter at NBC News, thank you very much
for joining us, Thanks for having me. What's going to
happen in terms of addictions, you know, to the smartphone itself,
(07:28):
to online gaming to chornography, things like that, and so
they just have sort of made the hardline decisions that
they're not going to do it. Joining us now is
Ellen McCarthy, feature reporter at the Washington Post. Thanks for
joining us, Ellen, thanks so much for having me. Well,
let's talk about an interesting story here, the parents who
are refusing to give their kids smartphones. Now, we've been
(07:50):
doing a lot of stories recently obviously about you know,
addiction to smartphones, how kids are just constantly on their devices.
You know, it's kind of a catch twenty two. It's
also a great device for a lot of people, you know,
it helps them connect with others. So there's a lot
of debate going on what's going on with the smartphones.
But you spoke to a number of parents who said, nope,
(08:11):
we're not going to do this. We're not going to
give our kids smartphones. And it's a to do, right.
There's pressures at school for the kids, and you know,
it's just a big conversation. So Ellen, tell us a
little bit more about it. Yeah, I mean, for these parents,
it really is a catch twenty two and they understand
really well how difficult it is for these children to
(08:32):
go without them because you remember when you were a teenager,
you were a middle schoolers and you didn't have something,
you know, you were going to let your parents know
about it. And so these kids are really in their
parents ears. I need a smartphone. I need it. This
is how my friends um hang out, Like I'm missing
out on that group text and so I didn't get
invited to that party. And that's not fair, mom, you know.
So it really is a difficult thing for parents to
(08:54):
at this point not give their kids a smartphone. I
think it's much easier to give them one. But the
parents who are holding out, our parents who are just
deeply concerned about the ramifications of smartphones on a developing brain.
I mean they're worried about it. The ramifications on their
own brains too, and on adult brains, but I think
especially on a brain that is still in progress, you know,
(09:16):
what's going to happen to the attention span, what's going
to happen to their social emotional well being if they
spend all of their time on social media, what's going
to happen in terms of addictions, you know, to the
smartphone itself, to online gaming, to pornography, things like that,
and so they just have sort of made the hardline
decisions that they're not going to do it. Let's put
(09:36):
a little bit of numbers to this, because I find
it always helps. So this these numbers are coming from
a report by common Sense Media. They say of American
children have a smartphone of their own by age eleven.
By the time they're sixteen, kids have one. So in
one of the mothers that you spoke to, she's actually
a psychiatrist who works primarily with high school kids and
(09:58):
college students, and that's one of the top things that
she always works with them on is well, let's start
with how much you're using your device, maybe start deleting
an app here or there, And that's one of the
first things that she tries to establish with them before
they can even continue with whatever other treatment they need.
That's right. She said that it's incredibly rare for her
(10:20):
to find a patient who comes to her seeking help,
and they often are seeking help for things like I
can't focus on my schoolwork, or depression or eating disorders
or anxiety. Almost never do they come to her. And
what she asked to see screen time is it less
than nine hours a day a day clarify which she says,
you know that that means that they are on their
phone more than their sleeping. So she's practicing this with
(10:43):
her children no smartphone, and one of her daughters. So
these are kind of the effects of what happens, right,
and to the point that you were making earlier missing
out on certain things. Her daughter was doing dance competitions
and she'd been there in a lot of downtime waiting
for the next performance and all that, and her friends
are instantly on their phones and she's trying to talk
to them. They drift away back into the phones and
(11:04):
she has like no recourse there. So she started bringing
a book, but she really felt to disconnect with the
other kids. And I think she end up quitting dance
for a while because she was just not making the
friends are making those relationships there because too many people
on their phones and she had none of herself. Isn't
that amazing? I mean, it isn't It isn't right. It's
almost like an adult was asked to go and sit
(11:25):
at a bar by themselves while waiting for a friend
and just sit there right because everybody else is on
their phone. And imagine how you feel like you just
are like what am I supposed to do with myself,
with my hands, with my eyes, with my brain? Right now,
everybody else is doing this one thing. Nobody is talking
to me. How am I supposed to spend my time?
And I think she felt really, really isolated, and it
(11:47):
was really hard. She said she just couldn't make any friends,
and so she quit the thing that she loved the
most right in the world. On the other side of things, right, parents,
you know, we're talking about kind of what's going on
in modern life right now. You need to keep in
touch with your kids. It's a tough thing. So sometimes
parents are like, Okay, well, we'll give you a dumb phone,
you know, something that only does texts and calls. And
(12:09):
even that is kind of a tough situation for the kids.
You know, we keep going back and forth. Right, it's
not a necessity, but increasingly, when your peers around you
have these things, you feel like it is. And and
some of the kids that their parents gave these these
more simpler phones, they even said, hey, it's embarrassing. I'm
gonna keep it tucked away and not bring it out
because because you know, because of all the pressure is
(12:31):
going around on around around them, you know, the question
that I came away with from this story, and I
think it's not answerable at this moment, is how are
we going to view this fifty years from now? Is this?
Is this a matter of the technology? It's here, is here,
it's arrived, It's not going anywhere, and give with it people,
you know, like, get on board. Try not to be
(12:54):
a holdout. Don't be the person who's like scared of
the television or whatever it is. Or are we going
to look back and say, oh my gosh, remember what
everybody smoked? How crazy was that? Is that how we're
going to feel about smartphones that are were going to say,
remember when we all just like handed our children, you know,
these little devices that had unfettered access to the Internet
and everything on it. I just don't think we know yet.
(13:15):
So it really is a tricky dilemma for parents and
for kids. Ellen McCarthy, Feature reporter at The Washington Post,
thank you very much for joining us. Great to talk
to you, Thanks for having me. Just Contromi is one
(13:36):
of the most popular restaurants in Mexico City, and it's
hard to get a reservation, but she and her partner
just go and always get in at the bar seats,
which never ever would have occurred to me. But it
is such a good joining us now was Lane floor Shime,
style reporter at the Wall Street Journal. Thanks for joining us, Lane,
thanks so much for having me. I wanted to talk
about interesting thing that's going on with restaurants right now.
(13:58):
Why is it so hard to get a reservation coming
off of the pandemic. And we know all the stories
that happened with the restaurant industry from closures, you know,
having to adapt with the indoor dining bands, then you
know this masnutrition of workers, you know, and then trying
to rebuild those workforces. It's been a really crazy roller
coaster for restaurants. So in a sense, this is a
(14:21):
very good thing that it's hard to get into some
of these hotspots. Again, for the consumer, maybe not so much.
Right you want to get in there and you want
to have some fun, and it might be a little
more difficult. But Lane, tell us what we're seeing with
the difficulty in getting some reservations right now? Sure. Well,
you know it's funny. When I started working on this article,
the hypothesis that I had was just it was pretty simple,
(14:41):
just that you know, everyone is so excited to be
out and out and about again, coming out of the pandemic,
excited to be back at you know, their favorite restaurants.
And well, I think that that's definitely true. Some of
the people who I interviewed just put it really well
for me. One person, John Nitich, who owned the New
York City piano bar Than Nines, talked about how, you know,
(15:04):
during indoor dining bands, you can go out and you
can have a meal on the street, but it doesn't
really compare to the magic of being inside a restaurant
like this special space like sometimes you know, romantic. And
then Jamie Patrokoff, who is an investor in the l
a restaurant Gengus Cohen, brought up to good point that
I don't think of, which is that, you know, we're
just living in this time where almost everyone is a foodie.
(15:27):
People really care about the restaurants you eat at, and
they want to be in at the hottest place. And
you know, we have great resources like Eater and then
satuation and food influencers, and so that's something I wasn't
really thinking about when I started on the article, but
that made a lot of sense to me. You know,
you mentioned that point about indoor dining. A lot of
these places increase their capacity during the pandemic, they added
(15:48):
outdoor patios, and right now that they're opening back up
fully inside and outside, they're still getting reservations at maximum
capacity there. You know, more people than ever trying to
go there. Men restaurants of added capacity, they now have
outdoor dining areas, but they're still booked to capacity um,
which is you know, all around really exciting. Right before
(16:09):
the pandemic was such a great time for restaurants and
to be you know, out and about and everyone wanted
to be dining. But the RESI data does show that
the average number of notifies, you know, that weightless function
they have has increased by fifty on average in New
York City, like and since two thousand nineteen, and that
(16:29):
you know, they keep seeing their March was their most
historically busy month, and then April was their most historically
busy month, and you know July had been the previous
But it's like dining out is you know, more popular
than it was, it seems even before the pandemic. Some
good tips on how to get nail that reservation first
(16:51):
thing among them, find out when the restaurants are posting
their reservations on these platforms, because when you know they
come out, you can go there immediately to start book right.
I talked to a couple of people who even set
alerts on their own calendars, so they not only know it,
but they don't forget it and they can log on
right away. I also think that you know, just calling
the restaurant and help, and I've experienced that in my
(17:14):
own life. Like one night, my friends and I kind
of last minute wanted to go to a popular restaurant
and they, of course didn't have anything available on their
online reservation system. I thought, oh, just give them a call,
and you know, they squeeze us in at eight. So
I think sometimes when you connect with a human they
can sort of synagle things in a way that you
can't always online. Um totally. You know in in an
(17:34):
article you noted too right, you look online for some places,
Well you're gonna be looking at ten thirty at night
or nothing on a Friday or Saturday. But yeah, calling
in you might have that chance. Hey somebody just canceled.
I have it before here and the people at the
restaurant are looking at different data than the online reservation
places are holding so you can look out. And another
one just the this is This one's tough, right because
(17:56):
you can get frustrated. But the classic walk in and
try for a seat at the are It can come
in handy all over the place. I was in Vegas
not too long ago. Everywhere was booked and we'd walk
in and say, hey, what about bar? They said, open
seating right there, and then boom, you've got a spot now.
So you've got to be nimble on your feet in
and expect for some of the worst. But you can
(18:16):
look out too, totally. And I let that thought in
mind for a while because I have I have a
good friend who you know, controm Our is one of
the most popular restaurants in Mexico City, and it's hard
to get a reservation, but she and her partner just
go and always get in at the bar seats, which
never ever would have occurred to me. But it is
such a good hack. I think. Really the most important,
(18:38):
like the one that I kept hearing over and over again,
was to become a regular or create personal relationships. I mean,
there were some anecdotes that didn't make it into the story,
like this one woman I interviewed always gets to know
the Somalia and gets their business card in their information
after they helped her out with wine, and then she
reaches out to them. And then a few other restaurant
owners said that what a good thing to do is
(18:59):
to go and make your reservation while you're already there,
which might seem counterintuitive to you know, make one for
three or four weeks away when you're already at the restaurant.
But if you're having a great experience and you think like, oh,
I want to bring my mom here, you know, whatever
it is, you can just like, you know, go walk
over to the hosts and see when they might be
able to fit you in next lane floor Shyme Style
(19:19):
report at The Wall Street Journal. Thank you very much
for joining us. Thank you so much for having me.
That's it for today. Join us on social media at
Daily Dive Pod on both Twitter and Instagram. Leave us
a comment, give us a rating, and tell us the
stories that you're interested in. Follow us on our Heart radio,
(19:42):
or subscribe wherever you get your podcast. This episode of
The Daily Divers produced by Bigger Wright and engineered by
Tony Sargantina. I'm Oscar Ramirez. And this was her daily
dive
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