March 14, 2018 • 4 mins
The creator of the Lilspace app has a super simple way to help us take a break from our smartphone addiction: find activities that make us forget about it all together.Follow Rich on Social Media:Facebook: http://facebook.com/RichOnTechTwitter: http://twitter.com/richdemuroInstagram: http://instagram.com/richontechNEW! You can add the Rich on Tech Daily Update to your Alexa Flash Briefing! Just search for the "Rich on Tech" skill in your Alexa app and add it to your briefing! You'll get a daily dose of tech news each day and a longer show on the weekends!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
One easy way to put down your smartphone. I'm Rich Demiro.
This is Rich on Tech Daily.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I know the irony of a podcast telling you to
put down your phone, but here's the deal. We all
understand that we love our phones, but sometimes they can
be a bit much. And if you already know how
to manage your phone and put it down and not
look at it for a long period of time and
not really care, then congrats.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
But for the rest of us, it is really tough.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
We love our notifications, we love checking social media.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
We just want to overall be on our phone.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Look no further than any line anywhere, Like when you're
at Starbucks. Just look at every person just kind of
looking down at their phone, not really interacting with each other.
It's a scene that we see over and over. Recently,
we visited the milk in community schools and we talked
to a bunch of teenagers on the National Day of Unplugging,
which was last week, and a bunch of them told
us that they can't get off their phones. In fact,
(00:54):
some of them leave their phones on while they sleep. Yes,
notifications going off all night long, but what are they
doing on their phones? Snapchat, Instagram, texting, social media, talking
to their friends, basically a lot of the same stuff
that adults do on their phones. And we talked to
this woman, Kim Annenberg Cavallo. She created a new app
called Lil Space, and basically she said that, you know what,
(01:17):
I realized that I was on my phone just as
much as everyone else out there, and I wanted to
figure out what can I do to get people off
of their phones. And she came up with this app
called Lil Space, And what it does is it's kind
of like a timer and it urges you to disconnect.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
But your disconnection is tied to a cause.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
So maybe the longer that you are off your phone,
the more that some business they basically partner with businesses
to donate stuff or maybe give you some sort of
reward like a dessert at dinner.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
But really she wanted to find ways to motivate people
to get a little space, as she said it, So
the app encourages you to put your phone away during dinner, workouts,
quality time with your kids, all that good stuff. There's
an interesting thing that happens when we put down our phones.
According to the counselor at this Whitney Fish, she said
there's a constant fear, a constant anxiety of what if
something happens and I need my phone?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
And for adults, that could be maybe you want to
take a picture when I'm on a hike.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
You know, I don't necessarily need my phone, but I
sometimes want to take a picture. Or if you're out
and about, you think, well, what if someone needs to
get in touch with me? What if I get an
email from work that's really important. All these things that
we kind of put in our mind that don't necessarily matter,
but sometimes they do. Now that same counselor told us
that parents are often telling their kids to disconnect, but
there's something that parents don't realize. It's not going to
(02:31):
work if you're constantly on the phone. So you kind
of have to be a role model and set your
own boundaries. And I see this in my house. You know,
I tell my kids I don't want them on their
iPad or watching TV.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
And what am I on doing? What am I doing?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I'm sneaking away to check my phone every couple of minutes.
Bottom line, how do we put down our phones? Well,
I thought the creator of this app and Cavallo, had a.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Really good solution. Some really good insight. She said this.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
She said, to find some activities that make you forget
about your phone in the first place. So if you
have something that you're already in interested in and your
phone is kind of interrupting that, take those opportunities to
start unplugging just.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
A little bit every day. And I thought this was brilliant.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
It's not something that's totally mind boggling that we've never
thought of before. But when you really hear it put
like that, you realize, Yeah, let me find those activities that.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Make me forget about my phone.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Maybe I go for a run for forty five minutes,
maybe I go for a swim, maybe a.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Hike, whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Find those activities where your phone becomes secondary, and then
you'll sort of forget about it. In fact, this is
how Cavallo came up with the idea for a little space.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
She started taking a spin.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Class and realized that she wasn't thinking about her phone
during that forty five minute class. I love this advice,
but I do find there is one tiny flaw in
this whole thing of finding an activity that's bigger than
your phone, and that's the camera on our phone. Because
what keeps us coming back to our phone. What makes
us carry our phone during an activity that's really fun?
(03:52):
We want to take pictures, and I think that's the
problem is that our phone and our camera are now
linked together and you can't ditch one without ditching the other.
So other than wearing a smart watch with cellular, which
gets kind of expensive, or taking along a separate camera,
which is kind of unrealistic these days, that's the problem
I find is that, Yeah, I can go on a
(04:12):
hike with my entire family and not really care about
my phone, but I want to take pictures during that hike.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And then what do I end up doing.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I end up taking a picture and then I kind
of sneak a look at my notifications.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
So my bottom line, if.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
You want to get off your phone, get into something
that's more exciting than what's on screen, that's gonna do it.
For this episode, thanks so much for listening. I'm Richdemiro
rich on tech dot tv. For links to everything I
mentioned here, and don't forget you can now add this
daily update to your Alexa flash briefing. So just go
into the Alexa app, search Rich on tech and add
it in so you can hear this every single day.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I do appreciate you guys listening. I'm rich Demiro. Talk
to you real soon.
One easy way to put down your smartphone. I'm Rich Demiro.
This is Rich on Tech Daily.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I know the irony of a podcast telling you to
put down your phone, but here's the deal. We all
understand that we love our phones, but sometimes they can
be a bit much. And if you already know how
to manage your phone and put it down and not
look at it for a long period of time and
not really care, then congrats.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
But for the rest of us, it is really tough.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
We love our notifications, we love checking social media.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
We just want to overall be on our phone.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Look no further than any line anywhere, Like when you're
at Starbucks. Just look at every person just kind of
looking down at their phone, not really interacting with each other.
It's a scene that we see over and over. Recently,
we visited the milk in community schools and we talked
to a bunch of teenagers on the National Day of Unplugging,
which was last week, and a bunch of them told
us that they can't get off their phones. In fact,
(00:54):
some of them leave their phones on while they sleep. Yes,
notifications going off all night long, but what are they
doing on their phones? Snapchat, Instagram, texting, social media, talking
to their friends, basically a lot of the same stuff
that adults do on their phones. And we talked to
this woman, Kim Annenberg Cavallo. She created a new app
called Lil Space, and basically she said that, you know what,
(01:17):
I realized that I was on my phone just as
much as everyone else out there, and I wanted to
figure out what can I do to get people off
of their phones. And she came up with this app
called Lil Space, And what it does is it's kind
of like a timer and it urges you to disconnect.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
But your disconnection is tied to a cause.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
So maybe the longer that you are off your phone,
the more that some business they basically partner with businesses
to donate stuff or maybe give you some sort of
reward like a dessert at dinner.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
But really she wanted to find ways to motivate people
to get a little space, as she said it, So
the app encourages you to put your phone away during dinner, workouts,
quality time with your kids, all that good stuff. There's
an interesting thing that happens when we put down our phones.
According to the counselor at this Whitney Fish, she said
there's a constant fear, a constant anxiety of what if
something happens and I need my phone?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
And for adults, that could be maybe you want to
take a picture when I'm on a hike.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
You know, I don't necessarily need my phone, but I
sometimes want to take a picture. Or if you're out
and about, you think, well, what if someone needs to
get in touch with me? What if I get an
email from work that's really important. All these things that
we kind of put in our mind that don't necessarily matter,
but sometimes they do. Now that same counselor told us
that parents are often telling their kids to disconnect, but
there's something that parents don't realize. It's not going to
(02:31):
work if you're constantly on the phone. So you kind
of have to be a role model and set your
own boundaries. And I see this in my house. You know,
I tell my kids I don't want them on their
iPad or watching TV.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
And what am I on doing? What am I doing?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I'm sneaking away to check my phone every couple of minutes.
Bottom line, how do we put down our phones? Well,
I thought the creator of this app and Cavallo, had a.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Really good solution. Some really good insight. She said this.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
She said, to find some activities that make you forget
about your phone in the first place. So if you
have something that you're already in interested in and your
phone is kind of interrupting that, take those opportunities to
start unplugging just.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
A little bit every day. And I thought this was brilliant.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
It's not something that's totally mind boggling that we've never
thought of before. But when you really hear it put
like that, you realize, Yeah, let me find those activities that.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Make me forget about my phone.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Maybe I go for a run for forty five minutes,
maybe I go for a swim, maybe a.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Hike, whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Find those activities where your phone becomes secondary, and then
you'll sort of forget about it. In fact, this is
how Cavallo came up with the idea for a little space.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
She started taking a spin.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Class and realized that she wasn't thinking about her phone
during that forty five minute class. I love this advice,
but I do find there is one tiny flaw in
this whole thing of finding an activity that's bigger than
your phone, and that's the camera on our phone. Because
what keeps us coming back to our phone. What makes
us carry our phone during an activity that's really fun?
(03:52):
We want to take pictures, and I think that's the
problem is that our phone and our camera are now
linked together and you can't ditch one without ditching the other.
So other than wearing a smart watch with cellular, which
gets kind of expensive, or taking along a separate camera,
which is kind of unrealistic these days, that's the problem
I find is that, Yeah, I can go on a
(04:12):
hike with my entire family and not really care about
my phone, but I want to take pictures during that hike.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And then what do I end up doing.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I end up taking a picture and then I kind
of sneak a look at my notifications.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
So my bottom line, if.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
You want to get off your phone, get into something
that's more exciting than what's on screen, that's gonna do it.
For this episode, thanks so much for listening. I'm Richdemiro
rich on tech dot tv. For links to everything I
mentioned here, and don't forget you can now add this
daily update to your Alexa flash briefing. So just go
into the Alexa app, search Rich on tech and add
it in so you can hear this every single day.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I do appreciate you guys listening. I'm rich Demiro. Talk
to you real soon.
Host
Rich DeMuro
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