January 8, 2026 • 8 mins
Today, we have two callers tell us about their relationships with their phones and screentime.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Get your hand us together, and we're going to start
to party.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Start part I'm ready to party.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
The Elvis Duran after Party.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
It's the after Party Podcast. Don't we love a podcast
after the party? Yeah, well, because that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Could you imagine podcasting after an actual party?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
No, not at all. So we were talking about the
need to detox from our phones, put them down. We're
so locked into our phones. We are forgetting about ourselves,
you know, because every time you pop online, you're really
not paying attention to yourself at all. You're paying attention
to something else always. Yeah, a lot of people are
calling in about this. Joanne on line nineteen. Joanne just
(00:49):
admits that out loud she hates her phone, and so
you actually give it up every Sunday a Sunday phone
free day for you, Joanne.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Yes, Digital de Talks Day.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
When and why did you start this?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
I started it. I'm going to say about nine years ago.
Oh wow, Okay, my uncle sent me a video from
YouTube and it's like this love story that wouldn't have
happened if we were looking down at our phone. This
man walks around the park. He asked this woman for directions.
They fall in love, they have this great life. If
(01:25):
you were looking down at your phone, you wouldn't have met,
You wouldn't have had gotten married and had this wonderful life.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Wow. Kind of makes you wonder what we were all missing.
What we're all missing when we're on our phone all
the night. We'll never know because we're not paying attention.
There's a whole world going on out there. You do
know that, right? Scary there's a world going on out
there while you're on your phone. Something I said, yes, yes,
okay somehow So so Joanne, if someone needs to get
you on a Sunday, they have to call you. There's
(01:52):
no texting. Yes, your phone has to ring.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
It actually has to ring if you text me. I
wake up on Monday morning and I have text messages.
I haven't responded to Facebook, you know, comments, all these
things that I just I don't respond to it, and
I tell them, you know, if you need me, you
better call me.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Wow, So you had to train people over nine years.
It took nine years to train them to call you
on Sunday.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
And so my new friends do not like this, well, of.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Course, but let me ask you this, how does it
affect your life? Monday through Saturday. I mean, are you
using your phone less during those days as well?
Speaker 5 (02:29):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (02:31):
And it is my goal. You know how you get
like the uh usage once a week?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, yeah, it.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Is my goal to have that less every week. And
when it's higher, I'm like, what the hell did I do?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Why was I on my phone?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I have a question, do you on Monday, when you
have all of these other texts and everything that came
in on Sunday that you ignored, do you have to
play catch up on Monday? Or do you just not
answer those at all?
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Depends on if I feel it's important enough. Okay, Like
sometimes I'm just like I don't care about you, move on.
But if it's like you know someone something somewhat important, sure.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Okay, it's fair.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Wow. You know it's interesting, Joan, because we're about to
talk to someone else who is from what their parent
company they work for is in Germany, where they I
think legally not allowed to have their phones on nice
or even their company at least says you you cannot
respond to anything business wise on the weekends.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
We'll get to that in just a second. All right,
any of the thoughts for Joanne, It sounds like she's
onto something pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, a great idea. I might have to implement something
like that myself. Yeah, I'll talk to me. She just
doesn't want you to talk to her.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
The question why, I mean, I feel like Sunday is
an important day. Why day? But aside from that, but
why not like a random weekday? I mean, I feel
like Sunday would be the day that you would really
want to connect with people.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
That's really my day to like recoup and get ready
for the week. You know, I work Monday through Friday.
I work at a town hall. I don't want to
be bothered. If you want to bother me and you're
like my dad, you know you're going to call me
and you want to hang out with me, and you're
going to pick up the phone. You want to hear
my voice. Yeah, I need to reset. I want to
(04:22):
be home on Sundays. I want to chill. I don't
want the stress of the phone. The phone is stressful.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, as you did, you took charge. You took charge
of your life, and it is your your rules. People
will follow them, including yourself, because you have to follow
your own rule as well. Joanne, thank you. That was very,
very very eye opening. We appreciate you being part of
the show.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Thank you, thanks for talking to me.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
You're very welcome. Arleen is online eighteen, who I was
talking to earlier. Hi Arlen, how you doing good? You
doing well? So, Arlene says, my parent company is in
Germany not allowed to have their phones on or even
smart watches or anything like that during the workday. They
need to lock up these phones in their desks. They
(05:03):
can check them at breaks only. And you always find
it crazy when people visit you in the US and
they see you wearing no you find it crazy when
you visit the US and you see people wearing their
smart watches and have their cell phones on them at
all times, you do find it crazy. What we're doing
here is insanity, right, Arlen?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Agree? Agree?
Speaker 5 (05:21):
I mean I'm in the US here, and you know
we're I g said, like you guys, you're used to it.
It's with you. We even are company in the US.
Most of us work from home. We need our phone
to just log into our computers. But still, of course
you use it for that, but then of course you're
checking it throughout the day. Anytime the Germans come here
and they see us, they're like, what are you doing? Like,
how can you have that out? You know why? You know,
why do you need it? You know the interesting and
(05:43):
logging on? But then why do you need it? After that?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Wow? Didn't even know that? Do we know this?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
No? No?
Speaker 5 (05:51):
And I don't know if it's every company out there,
but like, I mean, this is a pretty big company
in Germany that I work that we're the parent company of.
And yeah, they even they're smart watches like they The
first I got introduced to it to them was a
few years ago. One of their interns was here, which
is a college student, and she was like, you guys
who were smart watches? Were like, what do you mean?
And then she explained to us they have to walk
(06:12):
them up. They're not allowed to.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Have Now I like it. Yeah, but also how many
times are we in here and we're talking about something
and you look around and people are on their phone,
not paying attention anything the time, and then we repeat,
we repeat what someone just said because we're not paying attention.
This is the first place I've been where the phones
were allowed to be out during the show. The other
shows that I was at, if you had your phone out,
one of the hosts saw you oh my god, the
(06:35):
end of the world.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Yeah, I get scary sweating now he's sweat.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Sometimes you use this the phone for research though, I
mean in the moment stuff. Yeah, sometimes, But how do
we how do the rest of us know that? I
won't tell you this, Arlene. Back when people started bringing
their laptops into the room, and I used to get
all pissed off because I would try to get people's
attention and they were on their laptop doing something I
don't know. And we were considering making it illegal to
(07:05):
have your laptop on in the room. That's and that's
back before cell phones were you know, they took the
place at the laptop.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
Actually, yeah, your small laptop.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
We can always bring it back.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
I like it. Yeah, I mean we have done. We've
done in the US here because most of what's were remote.
We have you know, company meetings online, you know, via
our WebEx we use. And they started now we have
to have our cameras on because they knew people were listening,
but what else were they doing on their phone or
something else and not really engaging. And so now unless
(07:41):
for some reason you have some reason you can't put
your camera on. Your camera's got to be on.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
That's so funny.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Whenever we have like a big iHeart meeting, I'm at
home and sometimes I'm cleaning and my camera off and
i have my airpot in and I'm listening. But I'm
cleaning and I'm doing this.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, but you're not. You're not paying attention to one. No,
that's that's why. That why it's illegal for us to
be on our phones while we're driving. Yeah, because I
mean I've done to myself. I'll be on the phone
with someone and I'll find myself running a red light.
I mean, and so I stopped doing it because you
need to be paying attention. And so I don't think
it's anything. They're not asking for too much for your
(08:18):
full attention while you're on their dime and you're working
for them and trying to problem solve for the company.
I get it, all right.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Well, I mean, go back ten twenty years ago, we
did not have it, and come we had no problem with.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
It then, you know, yeah, right, all right, any of
the thoughts for Arlene or questions, no.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I like this. I like this idea though.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
We're moving to joy right.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, all right, Arlene, thank you and thanks for listening
to you so we sure do appreciate you very very
very much.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
Thanks you guys have a great days after party.
Get your hand us together, and we're going to start
to party.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Start part I'm ready to party.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
The Elvis Duran after Party.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
It's the after Party Podcast. Don't we love a podcast
after the party? Yeah, well, because that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Could you imagine podcasting after an actual party?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
No, not at all. So we were talking about the
need to detox from our phones, put them down. We're
so locked into our phones. We are forgetting about ourselves,
you know, because every time you pop online, you're really
not paying attention to yourself at all. You're paying attention
to something else always. Yeah, a lot of people are
calling in about this. Joanne on line nineteen. Joanne just
(00:49):
admits that out loud she hates her phone, and so
you actually give it up every Sunday a Sunday phone
free day for you, Joanne.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Yes, Digital de Talks Day.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
When and why did you start this?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
I started it. I'm going to say about nine years ago.
Oh wow, Okay, my uncle sent me a video from
YouTube and it's like this love story that wouldn't have
happened if we were looking down at our phone. This
man walks around the park. He asked this woman for directions.
They fall in love, they have this great life. If
(01:25):
you were looking down at your phone, you wouldn't have met,
You wouldn't have had gotten married and had this wonderful life.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Wow. Kind of makes you wonder what we were all missing.
What we're all missing when we're on our phone all
the night. We'll never know because we're not paying attention.
There's a whole world going on out there. You do
know that, right? Scary there's a world going on out
there while you're on your phone. Something I said, yes, yes,
okay somehow So so Joanne, if someone needs to get
you on a Sunday, they have to call you. There's
(01:52):
no texting. Yes, your phone has to ring.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
It actually has to ring if you text me. I
wake up on Monday morning and I have text messages.
I haven't responded to Facebook, you know, comments, all these
things that I just I don't respond to it, and
I tell them, you know, if you need me, you
better call me.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Wow, So you had to train people over nine years.
It took nine years to train them to call you
on Sunday.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
And so my new friends do not like this, well, of.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Course, but let me ask you this, how does it
affect your life? Monday through Saturday. I mean, are you
using your phone less during those days as well?
Speaker 5 (02:29):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (02:31):
And it is my goal. You know how you get
like the uh usage once a week?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, yeah, it.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Is my goal to have that less every week. And
when it's higher, I'm like, what the hell did I do?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Why was I on my phone?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I have a question, do you on Monday, when you
have all of these other texts and everything that came
in on Sunday that you ignored, do you have to
play catch up on Monday? Or do you just not
answer those at all?
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Depends on if I feel it's important enough. Okay, Like
sometimes I'm just like I don't care about you, move on.
But if it's like you know someone something somewhat important, sure.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Okay, it's fair.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Wow. You know it's interesting, Joan, because we're about to
talk to someone else who is from what their parent
company they work for is in Germany, where they I
think legally not allowed to have their phones on nice
or even their company at least says you you cannot
respond to anything business wise on the weekends.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
We'll get to that in just a second. All right,
any of the thoughts for Joanne, It sounds like she's
onto something pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, a great idea. I might have to implement something
like that myself. Yeah, I'll talk to me. She just
doesn't want you to talk to her.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
The question why, I mean, I feel like Sunday is
an important day. Why day? But aside from that, but
why not like a random weekday? I mean, I feel
like Sunday would be the day that you would really
want to connect with people.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
That's really my day to like recoup and get ready
for the week. You know, I work Monday through Friday.
I work at a town hall. I don't want to
be bothered. If you want to bother me and you're
like my dad, you know you're going to call me
and you want to hang out with me, and you're
going to pick up the phone. You want to hear
my voice. Yeah, I need to reset. I want to
(04:22):
be home on Sundays. I want to chill. I don't
want the stress of the phone. The phone is stressful.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, as you did, you took charge. You took charge
of your life, and it is your your rules. People
will follow them, including yourself, because you have to follow
your own rule as well. Joanne, thank you. That was very,
very very eye opening. We appreciate you being part of
the show.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Thank you, thanks for talking to me.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
You're very welcome. Arleen is online eighteen, who I was
talking to earlier. Hi Arlen, how you doing good? You
doing well? So, Arlene says, my parent company is in
Germany not allowed to have their phones on or even
smart watches or anything like that during the workday. They
need to lock up these phones in their desks. They
(05:03):
can check them at breaks only. And you always find
it crazy when people visit you in the US and
they see you wearing no you find it crazy when
you visit the US and you see people wearing their
smart watches and have their cell phones on them at
all times, you do find it crazy. What we're doing
here is insanity, right, Arlen?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Agree? Agree?
Speaker 5 (05:21):
I mean I'm in the US here, and you know
we're I g said, like you guys, you're used to it.
It's with you. We even are company in the US.
Most of us work from home. We need our phone
to just log into our computers. But still, of course
you use it for that, but then of course you're
checking it throughout the day. Anytime the Germans come here
and they see us, they're like, what are you doing? Like,
how can you have that out? You know why? You know,
why do you need it? You know the interesting and
(05:43):
logging on? But then why do you need it? After that?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Wow? Didn't even know that? Do we know this?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
No? No?
Speaker 5 (05:51):
And I don't know if it's every company out there,
but like, I mean, this is a pretty big company
in Germany that I work that we're the parent company of.
And yeah, they even they're smart watches like they The
first I got introduced to it to them was a
few years ago. One of their interns was here, which
is a college student, and she was like, you guys
who were smart watches? Were like, what do you mean?
And then she explained to us they have to walk
(06:12):
them up. They're not allowed to.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Have Now I like it. Yeah, but also how many
times are we in here and we're talking about something
and you look around and people are on their phone,
not paying attention anything the time, and then we repeat,
we repeat what someone just said because we're not paying attention.
This is the first place I've been where the phones
were allowed to be out during the show. The other
shows that I was at, if you had your phone out,
one of the hosts saw you oh my god, the
(06:35):
end of the world.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Yeah, I get scary sweating now he's sweat.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Sometimes you use this the phone for research though, I
mean in the moment stuff. Yeah, sometimes, But how do
we how do the rest of us know that? I
won't tell you this, Arlene. Back when people started bringing
their laptops into the room, and I used to get
all pissed off because I would try to get people's
attention and they were on their laptop doing something I
don't know. And we were considering making it illegal to
(07:05):
have your laptop on in the room. That's and that's
back before cell phones were you know, they took the
place at the laptop.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
Actually, yeah, your small laptop.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
We can always bring it back.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
I like it. Yeah, I mean we have done. We've
done in the US here because most of what's were remote.
We have you know, company meetings online, you know, via
our WebEx we use. And they started now we have
to have our cameras on because they knew people were listening,
but what else were they doing on their phone or
something else and not really engaging. And so now unless
(07:41):
for some reason you have some reason you can't put
your camera on. Your camera's got to be on.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
That's so funny.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Whenever we have like a big iHeart meeting, I'm at
home and sometimes I'm cleaning and my camera off and
i have my airpot in and I'm listening. But I'm
cleaning and I'm doing this.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, but you're not. You're not paying attention to one. No,
that's that's why. That why it's illegal for us to
be on our phones while we're driving. Yeah, because I
mean I've done to myself. I'll be on the phone
with someone and I'll find myself running a red light.
I mean, and so I stopped doing it because you
need to be paying attention. And so I don't think
it's anything. They're not asking for too much for your
(08:18):
full attention while you're on their dime and you're working
for them and trying to problem solve for the company.
I get it, all right.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Well, I mean, go back ten twenty years ago, we
did not have it, and come we had no problem with.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
It then, you know, yeah, right, all right, any of
the thoughts for Arlene or questions, no.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I like this. I like this idea though.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
We're moving to joy right.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, all right, Arlene, thank you and thanks for listening
to you so we sure do appreciate you very very
very much.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
Thanks you guys have a great days after party.
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