Is Digital Detoxing Being "Performatively Offline"?
ICYMI
Slate Podcasts
3.9 • 800 Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Alex Kirshner, Slate contributing writer and host of Hang Up And Listen. Back in September, Alex wrote about Brick, the plastic gadget he says “broke his phone addiction.” It seems like now more than ever, people want off their phones, and are trying everything from Brick to dumb phones to make it happen. They’re also, ironically, posting all about it, which begs the question: Do we really want to get offline, or do we just want people to think we do?
This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, and Kate Lindsay.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, I'm Kate Lindsay, and you're listening to I-C-Y-M-I, or in case you missed it, Slate's podcast about internet culture. |
| 0:21.2 | And today on the show, we have Alex Kershner, welcome Alex. Kate, great to be with you. Thanks for having me out. No, thank you for coming because Alex is a contributing writer at Slate, but you might recognize his voice because he is also a co-host of Hang Up and Listen, which is Slate's weekly sports podcast. But I will say, do not worry, |
| 0:38.3 | both to listeners and Alex, I'm not going to attempt any sports talk right now. That is unfortunately |
| 0:43.7 | not my wheelhouse. But what is my wheelhouse? Is an article you wrote last fall, which is about a small piece of plastic that has become somewhat of a status symbol for people who are trying to spend a bit less time on their phones. |
| 1:03.0 | And so I will explain what I mean by that. |
| 1:05.1 | But first, Alex, this is the question we ask all first time guests on the show. |
| 1:09.3 | What is your first internet memory? My first internet memory. Yeah, I time guests on the show. What is your first internet memory? |
| 1:11.3 | My first internet memory. Yeah, I'm realizing on the spot. That's such a good question. |
| 1:16.6 | It's like asking what's the first time I ate food? I know. The first internet memory that just came to |
| 1:23.9 | mind was finding weird Al Yankovic videos. |
| 1:30.0 | Perfect. |
| 1:30.9 | When I was in probably elementary school and thinking, oh, what a silly guy this is. |
| 1:37.4 | Weird Al was huge in the sort of elementary school community. |
| 1:42.0 | I found like there was nothing funnier than, like, |
| 1:47.2 | what were some of his songs? I need to remember this. I can't even remember, but I was born in 1994, |
| 1:51.8 | so this had to be like 1999, 2000, 2001. I remember the songs that William Hung did. |
| 2:01.3 | Oh, mm-hmm. |
| 2:02.3 | Around maybe the 2004 presidential election. |
| 2:05.7 | This is very formative internet stuff for me. |
| 2:08.0 | Okay, the one that I had on my iPod from Weird Al was white and nerdy. |
| 2:13.1 | Yes. |
| 2:13.5 | Instead of riding dirty. |
... |
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