Transcript
Talmage Erickson (0:00)
How can you go out and make a difference in someone's life today by just putting your phone down and looking up?
Hillary Wilkinson (0:07)
Welcome to the Healthy Screen Habits podcast. I'm Hillary Wilkinson. Whether you're starting your parenting journey with a newborn or looking to connect with your teen on technology, let's learn some new healthy screen habits together.
Talmage Erickson (0:26)
Foreign.
Hillary Wilkinson (0:31)
As a digital wellness speaker and educator who believes in creating intentional balance as the screen guy, my guest today writes, speaks, and presents on all things screens. Sounds familiar. Welcome to Healthy Screen Habits. Talmage Erickson.
Talmage Erickson (0:51)
Oh, you guys are so kind for having me on Talmud.
Hillary Wilkinson (0:54)
As someone who grew up in the digital age, you experienced, experienced firsthand what it's like to be a teenager with tech, but your origin story is a little bit different. Can you share your experience with phones? And also, what compelled you to work in digital wellness?
Talmage Erickson (1:15)
Oh, that's a great question. Go Back to the 14 year old, Talmage. All my friends had cell phones, especially smartphones and social media, and all my siblings did as well, and said, dad, it's time for me to get a cell phone. And he said, let's, let's take a step back here. What if, Talmage, you went with a flip phone instead of a smartphone? I said, okay, so how long are we doing this? He said, all of high school. What if you had a flip phone all of high school? And I was just the most perfect, obedient, kind, amazing young man.
Hillary Wilkinson (1:50)
Oh, wow.
Talmage Erickson (1:51)
And I said, dad, that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard.
Hillary Wilkinson (1:54)
Okay, that's much more like most other 14 year olds I know.
Talmage Erickson (2:00)
I said, dad, are you kidding me? You don't, you don't love me. You don't want me to have friends. You don't want me to be popular. You're not my father, essentially, is what I said. And we had a really good talk. We sat down across from each other and he said, talmage, I've. I've been seeing a lot of struggles in, in the community, and I don't want you to fall into that trap. I said, dad, you got me. And so after some pushing and shoving and pulling and tugging, he convinced me. And. And when I turned 16 years old, just before my sophomore year of high school, I got a little flip phone. It's one of those slider phones. You got the screen on top and the keyboard on bottom, slides up and down. I think it was indestructible. I chucked it off mountains. I ran over it, I lit it on fire. We, we. We shot at it with paintball Guns. That thing didn't die. It,
