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I'm Madison Skinner.
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Exclusions apply.
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Seehomedepot.com Pricematch for details hello and welcome to the Vergecast, the flagship podcast of throwing your phone into the ocean and going on vacation. I'm your friend David Pearce, and on today's episode we're gonna talk about disconnecting. This is the beginning of a long holiday weekend for a lot of us here in the US in general. I hope a lot of you are planning some big, elaborate, exciting global, multinational summer vacation, and I figured it might be helpful to poll a bunch of people on our team for the best tips that they have on disconnecting. I will say the Verge is not famously a place everybody is really good at being offline, but we still grabbed a bunch of people and decided when you when you want to get offline, particularly as somebody who spends a lot of time online on devices, looking at screens. How do you get off of it? We asked a bunch of people. We have some great tips coming up. I think you're going to enjoy them. I have two before we get started. My first one is especially on vacation, to designate a place for technology. Have all of your laptops and phones, all of your chargers, all of your everything in one place, whether it's a table or like have this be the phone couch. Make it so that technology is available. I think in general, the idea of, like, not looking at your device for a week is probably not realistic to most people, but it should be a thing you have to go to, especially on vacation, rather than something that is just in your pocket all the time. You will be amazed at how many fewer times you find yourself just absentmindedly checking it. When you have to, like, stand up and walk across the house to go open your laptop, that's number one. Number two is get everybody on board with whatever disconnecting plan that you have. I've found that phone usage in particular is sort of a cascading problem. You sit down on the couch and it's like, okay, we could. We could do a puzzle, we could play a game, we could watch a movie together. We could all go do something. But then one person takes out their phone and the mood sort of shifts downward, and then somebody else takes out their phone and it sort of shifts downward, and all of a sudden you just have this waterfall effect of everybody being on their phone. But if you can get everybody to buy into this strategy of, like, whether you want to put your phones into a bowl and have nobody look at them all day, whether you want to have the technology placed, and it's like, okay, we're all going to the table and do our work for an hour while we are here, sort of in a communal technology space, and then we're going to go back to something else. Getting everyone to agree on the approach to screens goes an incredibly long way. And I have found that sitting around, being the bored one while everybody else looks at their phones sort of defeats the purpose. But making it so that no one else can do it and you all have to figure out something to do together is the whole point. So that's my other tip. Get everybody on board. Designate a place. That's my plan for the weekend.
- [03:54]
A
We'll.
- [03:54]
C
We'll see how it goes. All right, let's get into all of our other tips. Bunch of stuff for you for disconnecting. My great hope is that you get to the end of this episode, you turn off this podcast, you go enjoy your long weekend, and you don't even think about screens for a while. That's what I'm hoping for me. That's what I hope for you, too. Let's get into some tips. Verge senior reporter Hayden Field. Hi, Hayden.
- [04:15]
F
Hey, you.
- [04:17]
C
I've known you a while, and you are not a person I would say is, like, terrific at disconnecting. But do you have a good disconnecting tip for when you really want to do it.
- [04:25]
F
So, number one, any app that I feel like I spend a lot of time on, I just make it a little harder to get to. I just put it in a folder on, like, the second screen of my phone, which is really. All my tips are pretty, like, low tech, but I think sometimes that's the best because we're all lazy. Introducing any amount of friction in, like, a thing that you usually do mindlessly, I feel like, is a huge help. So that's a big help for me. And then my other tips are just about, like, notifications. Like, I don't have notifications on for any apps at all. I only have, like, of course, texts and calls, but every other app, I don't think it's a big deal if I just check it. When I check it. So someone Instagram messages me. Okay. Like, that's probably not time sensitive. If they really needed to get ahold of me, they would text me or call me. So that's a big tip for me. It's like just turning off all notifications, even email, because it's like, I check email enough, I don't need to be notified the second an email comes in. Especially since, like, in our workplace, no one's emailing us if they want to get ahold of us right away internally.
- [05:29]
C
But wait, when you say all notifications, do you literally. You literally mean every single, no exceptions, all notifications on your phone?
- [05:36]
F
I guess now that I think about it, Venmo, I have notifications on because I'm like, I mean, obviously I want to pay someone right away, but otherwise, no. Yeah, no notifications. Very proud of you for that signal because it's messaging. But yeah. And then my very last tip is, this is kind of crazy, but I don't check who. Who views my story on Instagram, who likes my posts on Twitter or Instagram. I only read comments. I don't check, like, likes. I don't check views on any social media platform because it helps me feel like I'm just posting into the void. I'm like, I don't. It's none of my business who's looking at my stuff. I don't want to know if they comment. Great. Otherwise, I don't want to be, like, too aware of who's perceiving me, because I think that is the biggest thing that is our detriment on social media a lot of the time. So, yeah, those are my tips for maybe not unplugging. Totally. But for not being as negatively affected by. If you don't want to unplug completely.
- [06:30]
C
That's pretty good. Do you, do you, like, turn that feeling on and off when you're like, sometimes I will go look at who viewed my story. Or is this just like a blanket rule you have for yourself? Post into the void. Don't worry about it.
- [06:43]
F
It's blanket. I haven't looked in years. Because I think that if you start, you never stop. You know what I mean? It's like, if you like, it's kind of a blanket rule for myself and my mental health. I'm like, I don't want to know. And also I, I can note. I remember from years ago when I would check, I would act differently. I'd be like, oh, well, what if this person sees it? Like, oh, maybe I shouldn't post this. And it's like, who cares? Like, and same with Twitter. Like, I don't need to know individually who's liking my stuff. Like, okay, it just doesn't matter. So if you need to know something, there's a comment, you know? So I just think for some people, maybe they can handle that. But for me, I think I just become too aware and of who's perceiving me. And I would rather just be myself the normal way.
- [07:22]
C
I love that. All right, Hayden, thank you. Appreciate it.
- [07:25]
F
Thanks.
- [07:26]
C
All right, next up, the Verge is Gentooy from a hotel room somewhere in deep South Carolina. Hi, Jen.
- [07:31]
B
Hi.
- [07:33]
C
What? We're, we're talking to people about disconnecting and how they get offline. And we are a uniquely online group of people. How do you disconnect? Gimme all your good tips.
- [07:44]
B
Okay, so I have two. I have one for when you stay at home and one for one sort of quality of life tip. So quality of life tip. Go camping.
- [07:54]
C
Ooh, okay.
- [07:55]
B
No wifi anywhere out in the woods. In fact, I'm in northern South Carolina right now and surrounded by mountains and woods, and my husband's already planning our next camping trip. So, yes, we're going to do this
- [08:09]
C
from, like, a yurt next time, basically.
- [08:10]
B
Yeah. And he selects campgrounds that do not have cell service or WI fi, so you have no choice. Though my children do manage to find, like, the one, like, edge of the mountain they can go stand on and hold their phone up in the air. But other than that, that is because you just disconnecting isn't just about disconnecting from the Internet. It's about disconnecting from your everyday life. And there's nothing that is more of a contrast for me from my technologically advanced Home to a travel trailer. I don't do the tent thing. I do need a trailer.
- [08:51]
C
Respect that.
- [08:53]
B
And, you know, that is the perfect experience for me for disconnecting. Simple to do. Anyone can do it. That's the other advantage. And then the other simple to do. Anyone can do it. Tip. I have in your home. So if you're staying at home and you want to disconnect is just turn off the WI fi. It's simple, but it works. And in my home especially, so I use an EERO router at the moment, and you can just literally hit a button in the app. WI fi off. And that does mean that nothing in my home will work anymore.
- [09:24]
C
But the lights go off, everything. The fridge doesn't work.
- [09:29]
B
Some things will continue to work thanks to local control. But. Yes, but for me, it's just for the whole family, it's a way of forcing everyone to get off their devices and hang out together. I mean, there are. You can buy, like, there's a device called the Brick that you can buy, but you don't really need that if you've got dedicated downtime. You're like, okay, let's just turn off the Internet. And that gives. No tv, no cell phones, no music, just family time.
- [09:58]
C
That's very good. Do you do that on a regular basis, or is that like a sort of breaking point case of emergency?
- [10:05]
B
I try and do it when we're all at home and we're doing something together. I do. Because, yes, you can do do not disturb on your phone or you can use parental controls to turn off their iPhone. You know, there's all.
- [10:16]
G
There's.
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B
There's things you can do. The problem with that is I'm still on my phone trying to do it, like, and then I get distracted and. Whereas just flip the switch and everyone's offline and it's fair and equal. And yeah, so I have. I try and I mean, regular basis. Maybe like once a month.
- [10:36]
G
Okay.
- [10:37]
B
I should do it more. I should do it more, though. You've inspired me, especially this summer.
- [10:42]
C
Yeah, I. I agree. I think turn off the WI fi, we're all going outside is a. Is a thing I should probably say more in my house.
- [10:48]
B
It's simple and it works. So that was. That would be my advice.
- [10:51]
C
It's a good one. All right. Thank you, Jen. Appreciate it. All right, next up, the Verge's senior tech editor, Marina Galperina. Hi, Marina. Hey, you. You have a tip that it seems like it is born of just the pure anarchy of living in New York City. Tell me about it.
- [11:08]
G
Let your phone die. Just don't charge it.
- [11:12]
C
Is this not the same as just turn your phone off? Which I think is like, a lovely but totally untenable idea, but you can't
- [11:18]
G
turn it back on. That's the.
- [11:20]
C
Oh, that's interesting. So, okay, do you. Is this a thing you actually do in your life?
- [11:26]
G
This is a thing I actually do in my life. I have an alarm clock on my Apple watch, so I don't need my phone necessarily. I tried plugging it in in the other room. That doesn't work. I tried screen time limits. I just keep snoozing them. Doesn't work. So thankfully, my outlet doesn't work by my bed. So the phone just dies, and then the evening's over.
- [11:49]
C
So you take this to me, and it is. It is time for me to go to bed, because my phone is dead now.
- [11:54]
G
Or watch tv, whatever.
- [11:55]
C
Yeah, I kind of love that, actually. Like, I'm just. I'm in a race against my phone.
- [12:00]
G
The news is just over. No more news, no more Instagram.
- [12:03]
C
Is this a thing you started doing on purpose or just discovered? Because literally, your phone just dies sometimes because your outlet is broken.
- [12:10]
G
The outlet. And it's not the first outlet. I recently moved, and the outlet in my old apartment also didn't work. There was, like, one working outlet per room. Room. Because Bushwick, you know, this is the
- [12:20]
C
universe sending you a sign that this is a good idea and you should keep doing this.
- [12:24]
G
Yes.
- [12:25]
C
So, okay, my actual philosophical question here is, I'm trying to decide if this is the same bit of advice that people give who are like, just have more discipline. Don't look at your phone as much. And I always just want to give those people a middle finger and be like, if that was. If I could do that, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Why is letting my phone die not just being a more disciplined person and not looking at my phone?
- [12:48]
G
Well, they always say that willpower is not a way to overcome addictive behaviors. So just create barriers between yourself and the behavior. And that is for me to keep the phone not charged. I mean, it's pretty bad if there's, like, a family emergency.
- [13:04]
C
I guess this is. This is the problem. I. I sincerely grapple with this because that's the exact thing, right? It's like, sure, I could. I could charge my phone in the basement. I sleep upstairs. It could be fine. I could be far away from my phone. There is that little tiny part of me that is like, well, what if something happens? What if somebody needs to get in touch with me. Has this ever happened in the time. Has it. Have you ever missed anything in the time that you have been letting your phone die at night?
- [13:28]
G
I've missed questions about weather from my mother when she hears there's rain in New York, but nothing but. I get up so early, and most of my calls that are important would come from three hours beforehand. So it's still evening almost. If there's an emergency, we're good. It's fine.
- [13:47]
C
No, this is a good tip. And I like the idea of having external forces require you to not use your devices. This is a thing that's kind of coming up over and over as we talk to people for this episode is like, I need to engineer some act of God that prevents me from using my devices.
- [14:02]
G
Make it in a way that is actually helpful. Yeah.
- [14:05]
C
Yeah, I think that's right. All right, Marina, that's good stuff. Thank you.
- [14:08]
G
Thank you.
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E
So good.
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G
So good.
- [14:11]
C
So good. New summer arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores. Now get ready to save big with up to 60% off brands like Rag and Bone, Levi's, Adidas and free people. Join the NordicLub to unlock exclusive discounts.
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B
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C
Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices.
- [14:33]
B
That's why you wreck.
- [14:36]
D
Hey, I just Venmoed you for rent.
- [14:38]
B
Nice.
- [14:39]
C
Now I can instantly spend it whether I'm checking out online with Venmo or using a Venmo debit card. Say more.
- [14:45]
A
More.
- [14:46]
F
Exactly.
- [14:46]
C
Because the more you do with Venmo, the more you get, like, earning up to 5% cash back with Venmo stash on a bundle of brands. So order more pizza. The math demands it. Get the Venmo debit card. Venmo stash bundle Terms and export exclusions apply.
- [15:00]
H
See terms at Venmo Me Dashterm Venmo
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C
checkout not available at all. Merchants Venmo mastercard is issued by the Bancorp Bank.
- [15:06]
H
Na.
- [15:06]
C
Priceline negotiator. It's me, the Priceline negotiator. We don't need the jingle twice. What about a third time? Stop it. This is about vacation inflation and how Priceline negotiates amazing deals on hotels, flights and rental cars. Seems like you decided. Yeah, but I didn't mention that you can save up to 60% off hotels in the Priceline app. Time to be the timeline. Fine. No one deals more deals than. Please stop. Touche.
- [15:35]
F
Priceline.
- [15:36]
H
Priceline.
- [15:38]
C
This summer, soccer is here. And so are the watch parties and Uber Eats has your game day essentials covered with 30% off orders from Aldi Kroger and Dollar General. Everything you need to keep your crowd happy, delivered straight to your door. Tips, dips, fresh ingredients and more. Order in so you can lock in for the games. 30% off your grocery order only on UberEats for a limited time.
- [16:07]
B
1, 2, 3.
- [16:08]
C
I'm standup comedian John Marco Ceres. And I'm actor penis model Russell Daniels. The Downside is our podcast, where we bring on guests to talk about how miserable their lives are because, let's face it, things are not getting better. Every episode, we talk about what's wrong with our lives. Our guests lives, the world, but in a fun way. Bottom line is, you're gonna walk away feeling better about your life. We've had so many cool guests. Caleb Huron. Busy Phillips, Stavros Halkias, Laverne Cox, Hasan Piker, Alana Glaser. I promise you're gonna have a good time now on the Vox Media podcast network. This is the Downside.
- [16:51]
E
No one could blame you if you thought this men's World cup was going to be a disaster. The president of the United States isn't exactly a welcome mat for the world, and there have been plenty of embarrassing stories for the country. There was the mom of Kate Byrd's goalkeeper, who wasn't let into the United States to watch her son play until the team started doing well and people clamored for her entry. The team from Dr. Congo hadn't made a Men's World cup in 52 years and hardly made this one because the United States was supposedly worried about Ebola, even though no one on the team had Ebola. If you were watching Senegal Norway last week and were wondering where all the Senegalese fans were, they weren't let into the country. But you probably noticed we let in, like, a million Vikings. I wonder what's different about their fan bases. Oh, and who could forget we're literally bombing one of the countries that up until Friday was playing here.
- [17:40]
C
Missiles aren't the problem, but.
- [17:42]
E
But somehow the vibes at this World cup are mostly positive. The World cup might just be healing us on Today. Explained from Vox.
- [17:52]
C
All right, next up, Meredith Haggerty, Verge editor. Welcome.
- [17:56]
I
Thank you for having me.
- [17:57]
C
First time on the Verge cast.
- [17:58]
F
Yeah.
- [17:58]
C
Yeah. It's a huge day for you.
- [18:00]
I
It is a huge day for me. Yes. Thank you.
- [18:02]
F
I'm honored.
- [18:02]
C
Tell me, your disconnecting tip. What's your plan?
- [18:04]
I
Okay, my disconnecting tip is basically the library, but not just like going to the library. It is having something to read that is not on your phone that also has basically a deadline. They're like little time bombs. Especially if you get new releases, you have to return them or someone else is waiting for you. And that pressure sometimes, occasionally keeps me from playing a game called drop the cat on my phone that I hate. And I just wish I wasn't playing it.
- [18:33]
C
Wait, so, okay, so walk me through this. Tactically, you're like a. You're like a put yourself on the list for a hundred books.
- [18:41]
I
Yes.
- [18:42]
C
And then return them on time or risk the wrath of the librarians kind of person.
- [18:46]
A
Yeah.
- [18:46]
I
I really need to get a grade A in library, obviously. So, yeah, whenever I go to a bookstore, I will just put stuff on my, like, Brooklyn library app hold list. That did result in me, like, maybe two weeks ago getting seven books at once and showing up and being like, I actually need to come back with another bag. And I'm not going to read all those books. But, you know, the ones that are most urgent, I will. I will get to. And I will feel guilty about them if I don't because I've been waiting for Strangers the Bell Burden memoir for like, three months or something, and now it's mine. And I. I like it.
- [19:21]
D
Fine.
- [19:22]
I
But it's really important that I read the whole thing before it has to go back.
- [19:24]
C
I feel like you're basically just creating for yourself an endless set of read this book deadlines.
- [19:31]
I
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
- [19:32]
G
There.
- [19:33]
I
And there are. You know, the guilt is very important to me as an Irish Catholic. So.
- [19:40]
C
Okay, so are you. Are you a read only on paper kind of person or are you doing this through, like, Libby and stuff too?
- [19:46]
I
No, I am a paper reader only. I have never, like, I will just forget that I'm reading a book on. On ebook. I have been reading a book called Scruples about, like a fancy department store for maybe four years on my iPad, and it is incredibly stupid novel from the 80s and I can't finish it. Like, it should have gone in one ear and out the other. And it's bedeviling me. So real books only for Meredith.
- [20:12]
C
So I have gone back to. This is gonna sound ridiculous. I've probably read two physical books this year for the first time in a decade. Like, I read a lot. I read a lot of books, but I have almost exclusively been a Kindle reader for a very long time. And I kind of have been amazed at the extent to which I've had that exact same experience of, like, there's literally just A thing of like when I have the book sitting on my kitchen counter and I walk past it, I pick it up and I, I read.
- [20:37]
F
Yeah.
- [20:37]
C
In a way that like I didn't. When it's my Kindle or my phone, even though ostensibly that thing is with me vastly more often, I just don't notice it the same way as a. Oh, I love this book. I should read it. Experience.
- [20:48]
F
Yeah.
- [20:49]
I
I mean, there's just other stuff in my phone that I will do instead if I try to rid up my phone, like unfortunately Twitter is in there or you know, just checking my email, which is never interesting. And yet like somehow I'm doing that instead of finishing these books that I really want to read.
- [21:03]
C
That's fair. I'm trying to do more. I have a lot of reading to do for work and a lot of it is like, you know, PDFs of books and non fiction of various kinds. And I'm. I'm trying to do more of that on my devices, Kindles and iPads and whatever because I also have to like highlight it and do a lot of that stuff. But I'm trying to do now all of my purely for fun reading on physical books and I'm out there just buying like boxes full of paperbacks and I gotta tell you, it's delightful. I'm having a terrific.
- [21:28]
I
I support you in this. I think this is a great move.
- [21:30]
C
Books are, you know, books good deadlines at the library. Love it. All right, Meredith, thank you for coming on. Appreciate it.
- [21:36]
I
Thank you for having me.
- [21:37]
C
Okay, bye. Next up, Verge director Owen Grove. Hello, sir.
- [21:42]
A
Hey, how you doing?
- [21:44]
C
Good. Do you have a good tip for disconnecting?
- [21:47]
A
Whenever I vacation, I am also normally filled with camera gear because just the nature of the job, I'm always filming something, I'm always shooting something. So to kind of disconnect from that, I would recommend that people bring a worse camera or maybe the second best camera in their arsenal. Or just be comfortable taking bad pictures. Like, especially if you're taking something with a film camera and you're not building up your. You're not going to be looking over your photos. Once you're done with them, you're going to be on your vacation again. So once you just snap something with like a film camera, I feel like you're able to escape it a little bit better. Or even if it is like a digital camera, but worse, it's something that you're not going to obsess over. You're just going to pull it out, shoot it and just forget about it and put it back in the pocket and just, like, not pay attention to it. As long as it's not something that costs, like, you know, like a $3,000 camera that you're kind of agonizing over.
- [22:40]
C
Sure. At the risk of asking a question I suspect I know the answer to, why isn't your phone that camera?
- [22:46]
A
Just because it's going to lead you into other phone things. It's going to make you want to check your text and check, oh, well, what if I post this photo somewhere? It's going to make you, like, reconnect to all the stuff that you're trying to get away from.
- [22:58]
C
Yeah, yeah. Are you a proponent of the idea of even somebody who is less into photography than you are bringing a digital camera on vacation instead of relying on your phone to be that thing? That actually strikes me as a pretty universal tip, like, take your vacation pictures with something other than your phone just because it will keep you away from your phone.
- [23:18]
A
Yeah. Also, I mean, especially if it's something that is kind of novel to you, too, where it's like you're not used to a point and shoot or even a disposable. I mean, I know it's not digital, but, like, it makes it fun to take the picture and it makes you not overthink it and just snap it and get rid of it. Then, like, that's what you want. Because then after the fact, you get to look back on a bunch of pictures you didn't really think too hard about, and you get to kind of get a memory you didn't even remember.
- [23:45]
C
Yeah, I love that. Do you develop all your pictures that way? Like, when you go shoot, do you then keep your albums of vacation photos around?
- [23:53]
A
Anytime I shoot with anything either disposable or Polaroid or anything that's like an instantly printed piece, like Fujifilm stuff, It is just, like, scattered and skewed around my apartment. When I get back. It's always kind of fun, like, picking up, like, Pokemon cards that you're like, what is this even from? And it's. Sometimes it's a little dark and you're like, oh, that's from California, I guess. Okay, cool. So I. I don't know if I would recommend people live their life in chaos like I do. Maybe you should have an album and organize these things because it makes it, like, more fun to look back on. But it's also fun just finding a bunch of chaotic pictures all over the place.
- [24:35]
C
I sort of like the idea of, like, coming home from vacation and just Sort of fling your photos all over your house and just discover them as you go.
- [24:41]
I
That's.
- [24:42]
C
That's like pure anarchy of reliving your vacation is kind of great. I love that. All right, Owen. Thank you. It's good stuff. Good to see you.
- [24:50]
A
Cool.
- [24:51]
C
Oh, my God. Well, joining me now, the Verdcast producer Travis Larchuk in a truly remarkable pair of sunglasses, I noticed, is your tip. Just wear extremely rad sunglasses.
- [25:07]
H
That's one of the tips.
- [25:08]
C
Okay.
- [25:09]
H
I think what you gotta do to disconnect is to separate yourself from your boring quotidian tech life as much as possible. So I have one tip. I don't know. I don't know how many people this is going to apply to, but I have my Apple watch face is the one that gives you the maximum amount of information possible. It's infograph.
- [25:32]
C
Oh. Oh. Even more so.
- [25:34]
B
Yeah.
- [25:34]
C
Okay.
- [25:35]
H
And I. And I found. And I use this one. It's. It's not one of the newer ones. I have an. An ultra. It's not one of the newer faces, but it does give you more information than all of the other ones. So I have my meetings. I have, like, workout crap. I have what today's date is. You don't need to know any of that stuff when you're on vacation. So my tip is to pick one of those fun watch faces that you're like, why are these here? You know, like. Like what.
- [26:03]
C
Who.
- [26:04]
H
Who's using this?
- [26:05]
C
The one where it's just like, what if huge numbers moved in small waves?
- [26:08]
H
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So, like, there's one called Playtime where the numbers look like they're made like claymation numbers with feet.
- [26:16]
A
Yep.
- [26:16]
C
I know this one.
- [26:17]
H
Yeah. Who.
- [26:18]
C
I. I believe I have specifically asked the question, why on earth does this exist? About that one?
- [26:23]
H
I mean, I'm going, oh, look, one of them just, like, sort of dropped off the face of the earth as the. As the time changed. That's dark. All right, here's Snoopy. Look, Apple bought that Snoopy ip.
- [26:33]
A
Yep.
- [26:34]
H
And now you can make it worth it for one weekend. And. And by the way, when I first checked this one out, Snoopy jumped off of the minute hand into a pile of leaves. How cute is that?
- [26:44]
C
That is pretty cool.
- [26:45]
H
This is the kind of thing. Oh, he fell asleep when my watch asleep. This is freaking adorable.
- [26:51]
C
See, this is very charming. I actually, this. This is the best case anyone has ever made for all of these.
- [26:56]
H
And then the best. The best one is the jellyfish. Anyway, I'm just saying, like, do you need all this information.
- [27:00]
A
You're.
- [27:01]
H
You're off. So either, either do that or just take off your, your watch.
- [27:04]
C
You know, do you do this with like your phone, home screen? Are you like a focus modes? Go into vacation, focus mode, person, or just the watch?
- [27:11]
H
I think that's a great idea. My focus mode is I literally delete slack off of my phone. I'm like, this is easier to me than even figuring out what focus modes are. So that's what I do.
- [27:22]
C
I've come around to that too. I used to be like a, you know, mute notifications, take it off the home screen and like, it turns out I will get around all of those things very easily. Deleting the app is the only thing that actually sticks.
- [27:33]
H
Yeah, delete your apps. Don't worry about how difficult it's going to be to set up your outlook again when you, when you need it again.
- [27:41]
C
Two factor authentication will ruin your life. But that's post vacation use problem.
- [27:46]
H
I have one more tip.
- [27:47]
C
Hit me.
- [27:47]
H
Okay. I know a lot of you are going to want to play video games over the weekend, and God bless. But have you tried board game?
- [27:59]
C
A thing everyone should know about Travis is that you should assume that whenever Travis is not actively making the Vergecast, he is at some board game convention somewhere in America, because that seems to be what's going on. What are you playing right now, Travis?
- [28:14]
H
Well, I brought this because this has been floating around the office for a while, but this is a copy of the Quacks of Quedlinburg. It's been out for a while, but this is one of the best board games available. And in this Ramageddon world, I feel like board games don't have any RAM in them. And this is going to be. I mean, the reason why board games became such a staple in the first place was during the Great Depression. They were a great value for money. Not to get all dark, but like, the more, you know, see it seems like, seems like, you know, this still would apply today. So, I mean, you, you pick up a board game for 40 bucks, you know, that's cheaper than taking your family out to the movies, you know, so I'm just saying, you know, if, if you're not already into it.
- [29:02]
C
All right, Travis, thanks for coming on.
- [29:04]
H
Sorry for wasting everyone's time.
- [29:08]
C
All right, one last one. Here's a video that Miya Sato, a reporter on our team, sent me a little while ago.
- [29:13]
D
I have two tactics and they work in kind of opposite ways. So one is go places that it is more inconvenient to use your phone than not to use it. So I'll go to the beach where it's too hot and too bright to use my phone. My phone will overheat if I take it out. I go to the movies where I'm not on my phone and you shouldn't be either. Or I'll go to a club where there is literally no cell service, so I can't even use my phone if I wanted to. And then the other tactic is to kind of accept that my phone will be part of my life and in some way, whether I like it or not. And the goal is to minimize the reliance. So for an example, I really love to take walks. I need to take my phone with me. But I recently discovered this app called Walk NYC where it tracks every block in New York City that you've walked. And your data stays on your device. It's not uploaded to a cloud somewhere, so it's relatively secure. You don't need to make an account, you don't need to pay. And it's a fun way to kind of incorporate my walk, my offline activity, with the reality that I kind of have to have my phone on me.
- [30:17]
C
All right, that's it for the show. Thank you to everybody on the team who sent me tips and came on and talked to me about stuff, and thank you, as always, for watching and listening. I really hope at the end of this podcast you get to just disappear into a long, restful, relaxing device. Free weekend. To whatever extent you are able and willing to. I hope it's a great one. If you have other disconnecting tips, this is a thing we talk about a lot on this show. I think our relationship to technology is the story of the Vergecast. So if you have tips for disconnecting, if you want to try some of the stuff that we've talked about here and report back on how it goes, I would absolutely love to hear from you. The email is vergecasthe verge.com the hotline is 866-Verge11. Call us, email us, tell us everything. We love hearing from you. And in the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful vacation. As always, the best way to support everything we're up to here is to subscribe to the Verge. Theverge.com subscribe it gets you all of our podcasts ad free, including this one. It gets you all of our exclusive newsletters. It gets you all of our coverage of absolutely everything going on. Go subscribe to the Verge, Disappear for the week. Come back, read the whole Verge on Monday. It's going to be great. You're going to love it. The Verge cast is a Verge production and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. This show is produced by Josh Kahas, Eric Gomez, Brandon thank you for Travis Larchuk and Aaron Licasio. We will see you next week. Have a great one. Rock and roll. Your package says delivered, but delivered where exactly? The hallway? The lobby? Your neighbor's apartment? Instead of playing detective with your deliveries, get a mailbox at the UPS store. We'll sign for your packages, text you when they arrive, and to keep your deliveries low, key under lock and key. Get 3 months free mailbox services with a new annual agreement at the UPS store. For full details and to get your Coupon, visit the upsstore.com offer hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.
- [32:08]
F
Now.
- [32:08]
C
I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 months, $90 for 6 months or $180 for 12 month Plan required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes me slow when network is busy.
- [32:36]
I
See terms.