"I think that's been the most helpful thing," says the ESPN journalist. "So there you go, Zoomers. There's a reason to have children."
These days, a declaration of social media hatred isn't exactly a hot tech take. But Kimes is full of those too. For one, she thinks FaceTiming anyone outside of your family is "insane behavior." She also prefers to keep her phone perpetually unlocked and practices inbox zero like it's a religion. And she loves finding corners of the internet where she can see men encouraging other men.
For our latest User Behavior, Kimes tells WIRED all about her favorite heartwarming subreddits, her "hijacked" Spotify Wrapped , and her folder of memes.
I just got it replaced because I cracked the screen with my car. I was resting it on the roof and it slid down as I was opening the trunk, and it was a real crime scene. When you bring a cracked phone to an Apple store, you know that they've seen everything, but you still feel deeply ashamed. Usually I'm pretty good about not cracking it, which is amazing because I have a toddler who likes to drop it and throw it and stuff. I got it replaced, and I didn't get the new one because I like this model.
It's dying on me a little bit. The fan, at inappropriate times, starts making noises like an air-conditioning unit circa 1985. It's like a radiator whistle. And it's one of those things where you start developing weird habits and superstitions. I'm like, "Maybe if I tilt it this way and don't plug it in and don't run too many things, it'll be fine. It won't make noises." But the truth is, I probably should just get it serviced or replaced.
A regular series that quantifies the tech lifestyles of the rich and/or famous.
I actually don't have it set up to show me, which sounds a little bit like the meme "I pretend I do not see it," but I would estimate it's probably around four hours a day. This is going to sound insane, but I have my phone set to where it doesn't lock because I don't like seeing a clock at night. So my way of hiding that information was to just have my phone not lock. When I did that, I realized it would register as a very high screen time, but I'm not actually on my phone. I realized the screen-time feature was kind of functionally useless for me.
To be honest, I don't feel bad about screen time generally, because I use my phone for reading the news, studying, looking at tape, preparing for work, answering emails. None of that stuff bothers me. However, I would feel terrible if I saw how much time I spend on social media. I think those things kind of get conflated a little bit when we think about screen time and phones. At least for me, I think there's a pretty big distinction.
I feel bad when I spend more than 15 minutes on any social media platform, because it's like simultaneously pouring molasses into your brain and lighting it on fire. And I have very much noticed a very pronounced and obvious correlation between my happiness and how much time in any given day I spend on social media in particular.
On my phone, I have Instagram, Reddit, and Bluesky. But I've taken stuff off. It's a little bit tricky because when I post clips or promote my podcast or YouTube or the various things I do at ESPN, I often do that on my phone, which makes it hard to eliminate them. But something I'll do is when I'm done, I'll just log out immediately: post, log out, walk away.
The best way to digital detox is to have a kid, because when I spend time with him I'm just not on my phone by necessity. I think that's been the most helpful thing. So there you go, Zoomers. There's a reason to have children. And honestly, I do notice when I spend a day with him, whether it's hiking or at the beach, and I'm not on my phone, I'm infinitely happier at the end of the day than any other day in my life.
I primarily use Spotify. The data is completely cooked because of the aforementioned 3-year-old. So when they do Spotify Wrapped, I swear to God, it used to be cool, but now it's been hijacked by Raffi, Elmo, Ms. Rachel, Mickey Mouse. My son is really into Mickey's Countdown lately. I feel like 99 percent of my Spotify listening now is just atrocious kids' music. Raffi's the GOAT though. I don't want to lump him in with some of the people that I mentioned. Raffi stands alone.
This is probably the thing where you're going to learn the most about me. Zero unread emails and inbox 10 and under is how I live my life. It's such an important part of how I work and get stuff done.
Sometimes that means that when I reply to emails, my response is a fraction of the email that was sent to me. And I think people feel social pressure to match an email with a commensurate email. To live the Inbox 10 lifestyle, you cannot abide by that pressure.
I FaceTimed with my brother, who's on vacation with his family in Delaware at the moment. I'm not a big FaceTimer. And candidly, I feel like FaceTiming someone who is outside of your family is insane behavior. But that's another way in which having a child changed how I use technology, I suppose, because it really is a wonderful way for young children to see distant relatives and communicate with them.
I recently, and I'm very late to this, started strength training at a gym for the first time in my life. For my entire life, I've only gone to the gym to run. And now I'm just learning what all these machines do and how to use them. But I'm like a child. I'm a total neophyte in this world. I have a trainer, but I've also found it's a really encouraging and fun section of the internet.
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