// WIRED US/UK — MODA & SOCIETÀ
Want to Get Off Your Phone? Mina Kimes Suggests Having a Baby
As an NFL analyst and podcast host, Mina Kimes consumes a lot of news online, but ask her to spend more than 15 minutes on “any social media platform” and you might have a problem. “It's like simultaneously pouring molasses into your brain and lighting it on fire,” she says.
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.