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Brian Lehrer: Now we'll wrap up today's show with your calls on detoxing from anything other than alcohol as a 2024 New Year's resolution. Why do I ask? Well, last week we held a call in for those of you who participated in Dry January, that common New Year's resolution in which drinkers voluntarily go sober for the first month of the year. We invited your stories about what you got out of the experience and whether or not your month of sobriety had a lasting impact on your relationship with alcohol.

The great calls we got during that call in got us thinking, there are a lot of other messy entanglements in our lives apart from alcohol, and the new year is often a catalyst for reflecting and creating changes in many parts of our life. Listeners, what's something that you are seeking to change your relationship to in the new year, detox from what other than alcohol? 212-433-WNYC. Maybe there's something you're cutting out of your life for the entirety of January or even all of 2024. What is it and what's your game plan? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.

Here's some examples of what I think we might hear, but definitely looking for what you are detoxing from in any realm of your life other than alcohol. I'm sure a lot of you out there might be looking at your screen time on your smartphones and thinking that's a dependence you'd like to let go of in 2024. Our society wide smartphone addiction is so obvious. Have you ever had the experience of looking up from your phone on the subway, let's say, and just seeing that every other passenger is looking down at their phone? Just this past Saturday, the New York Times published a piece in which one of their tech reporters, Kashmir Hill, did you see this, traded in her smartphone for an old-fashioned flip phone in order to combat the screen time addiction. She now believes that Dry January should be followed by flip phone February.

Listeners, who thinks you might participate in a Flip Phone February or you've made some kind of New Year's resolution to try to manage your screen time generally even before seeing that article or hearing me mention it? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, inviting your calls on detoxing from anything other than alcohol as a 2024 New Year's resolution. Something that goes hand in hand with screen time is obviously social media. What's your relationship like with social media? Do you feel that rush when a notification from Instagram, Facebook, whatever pops up?

There's a trend amongst some men on YouTube that I've seen in which they engage in what they call a dopamine detox. This is part of that, a dopamine detox, they call it, essentially cutting out a number of activities that trigger dopamine receptors in the brain in hopes of ending the cycle of endlessly scrolling on social media, and by ceasing that endless scrolling, becoming more productive in their lives. While the science on dopamine fasting, that's what they call it, dopamine fasting or dopamine detoxes, science is hazy. Nevertheless, it's becoming more mindful, making us more mindful when we even try to go down that road about how much we use social media, something a lot of people could use.

Another one, how about shopping? Any of you out there love obtaining beautiful things? While consumption is a necessity in the world we live in, more or less, overconsumption causes harm not only to our wallets, our personal sense of security, and our future if we're overspending, but also to the planet and to society as a whole. Think about the landfills full of polyester clothing. You know about fast fashion and things we buy to use only a few times rather than buying a smaller number of nice things, maybe more expensive, but maybe more economical in the long run and that don't create as much trash.

Early last year on this track, we spoke to Hannah Louise Poston on the show, author of Julia Hungry and a beauty YouTuber about her experience of doing a no-buy year. Here's a few seconds of her explanation of why she went cold turkey for a year on shopping.

Hannah Louise Poston: I went cold turkey. I decided to do a full no-buy for the year because I was desperate. Budgeting hadn't helped. Trying to make incremental changes hadn't worked. My brain, I think, had become so accustomed to turning towards shopping, turning towards the anticipation of beautiful things as a way of turning away from the deeper issues of my life and avoiding the work I would have had to do in order to actually move the needle on my baseline state. I’d become so accustomed to shopping instead of starting down the path of that work that my brain had basically atrophied into a shopping brain.

Brian Lehrer: Hannah Louise Poston on the show last year. Listeners, have you ever gone on a no-buy? Are you planning on participating in a no-buy for the month of January or maybe this whole year? Is there another way you're dealing with a toxic relationship to money in this new year? Broadly, one more time, what other dependencies are you trying to break from in your life? The call in is for how you hope to detox from anything other than alcohol as a kind of 2024 New Year's resolution. 212-433-WNYC. Call or text 212-433-9692 and we'll take your calls right after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC and now to your calls on detoxing from anything other than alcohol as a 2024 New Year's resolution. Here's one on social media time. Let's start with that from Zara in Briarwood, Queens. Zara, you're on WNYC. Hi.

Zara: Hi, Brian. Thanks for taking my call. I'm a longtime listener, second-time caller. And yes, I wanted to share my current experience with detoxing from social media by using the app Screen Time, the timer thing on Apple. It's actually been really helping me from stopping to use TikTok or Instagram as a way to ignore all of my issues. Especially working from home it's just so easy to go on my phone and ignore my work problems.

Brian Lehrer: I don't know that function. What is the social media timer?

Zara: In your settings, you have a screen time, like a screen time thing.

Brian Lehrer: Counter?

Zara: You can see your screen time, yes, a counter, and it shows you your daily averages on all of your apps. I've been able to implement an app limit for my social media apps, so TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, or X.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Zara. Good luck with it and a good tip for other people to look up, I guess, at least on your Apple devices. Zara says it's an Apple thing, maybe others have it too. Laura in Yonkers, you're on WNYC. Hi, Laura.

Laura: Hi, Brian. Well, I'm fan-girling a little bit, sorry about that. My first-time caller. I actually called in because I have something very specific that I'm detoxing from, which isn't an object or a thing, but a behavior, which is staying up far too late. I used to say it was because I was working and catching up on work, and I'm a writer, so it was an easy excuse, but now I see how lack of sleep has really harmed me. For 2024, I'm truly trying to pick a bedtime, embrace sleep in a big way.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, that's a good one, and I'm subject sometimes too to the temptation that there are just so many interesting things to do, including when other people have already gone to sleep-

Laura: Yes, exactly.

Brian Lehrer: -to read something I've been wanting to read or watch something, listen to music, right?

Laura: Exactly. My kids are all now in college or heading to college, and I always claimed it as my time, and I just see how that's a really flawed way of thinking. My time is just me taking care of myself actually and sleep is a good part of that. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Get a good night's sleep. Laura, thank you for calling, call again. Let's see. How about Adrian on the Upper West Side? You're on WNYC. Hi, Adrian.

Adrian: Hi, Brian. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good.

Adrian: I just wanted to call in because, yes, so I'm detoxing from my job. That sounds a little self-indulgent to say, but I quit at the end of the year to take time to myself. I realized that I was developing some unhealthy habits in terms of my relationship to my job. It was my entire life really, and over the last couple of years, I've taken sort of a hit in terms of my social life, in terms of my own personal health. Again, as indulgent as this sounds, I'm detoxing from my job. I'm slowing down. I quit and- -I'm doing the things that I enjoy doing. As I call right now, I'm painting right now and slowing down to allow myself time to think what it is that I want to do and maybe build a better relationship in terms of my career, what I want to do, what I want it to do for me.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, it's such an American thing, right, to assume that work, work, work is the thing that we're supposed to do and then finding the time to do other things is the exception, but you've got to pay the bills. How are you managing to walk that line?

Adrian: Thankfully, because my job was in my entire life, my savings are healthy. I didn't really have much of a social life outside of that. The way that I'm rationalizing is that I'm buying myself a little bit of time off to slow down based on the hard work that I did. Yes, again, it's doing the hard work of now trying to unbreak habits, build new ones that are healthier for me, and not have my entire modus operandi be my job.

Brian Lehrer: What are you painting, Adrian? Are you an abstract expressionist or painting your friend's faces?

Adrian: I'm working with portraits right now.

Brian Lehrer: Portraits.

Adrian: Yes, portraits. I enjoy doing portraits right now. Again, I'm not even interested in pursuing that economically because I don't want to get into that. I don't want to muddy [unintelligible 00:11:26]. Again, right now it's just relaxation time, giving myself a couple months and then starting some job again.

Brian Lehrer: Thanks.

Adrian: Hopefully with a better relationship.

Brian Lehrer: Hopefully, listening to the show fits into your detox, and keep calling us. Thank you very much.

Adrian: It's now part of my morning routine.

Brian Lehrer: That's great. All right. One of the joys of being unemployed, one of the weird things about this show. A listener writes, "I need to detox from Christmas cookies, too many in the freezer." Someone else who may not listen as much as Adrian now says, ''I'm taking an election break for January. In New York, we don't vote in the primary until April, so I'm detoxing from the primary drama for January and maybe more." Then they do write, "Except Brian and Allison, of course.'' Thank you for at least making us an exception. Allan in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Allan.

Allan: Morning. One of the things I think I need to detox from is my use in the crossword in the New York Times online for the last year. After decades of doing it on paper, the online feature seemed very convenient, but one very addictive feature it has is the archive that shows your streaks in gold instead of blue just for things you got right with help. After you've had a streak in any particular length, it becomes addictive to try to keep that streak, even if it means neglecting other things that are more important to do. I hope to get off that addiction.

Brian Lehrer: Is it just New York Times crosswords for you? Because I noticed that maybe because Wordle became so popular a few years ago, and the Times has been adding other puzzles, Spelling Bee, things like that, that other news organizations that didn't have puzzles, including our own Gothamist now have mini crosswords and things like that. For you, do you stick with the New York Times or is it an expanded addiction?

Allan: I'm pretty much on the standard old-fashioned New York Times crossword. I don't do the other puzzles. That's also a habit. I don’t screw with the New York Times.

Brian Lehrer: Will Shortz will be happy to hear that much anyway. Allan, Thank you very much. Allan in Atlanta with a screen time detox, I think. Hi, Allan, you're on WNYC.

Allan: Hey Brian, thanks for having me on. I just have started never taking my phone into my bedroom at all. I get home from work and I plug it in the kitchen to charge overnight. I make sure that it doesn't enter the space that's supposed to be calm. I try and read a paper book and it helps with sleep. I think it just helps keep me grounded. I just want to say to the world, "You got to [unintelligible 00:14:22] until you die." Thank you very much.

Brian Lehrer: Aw, Allan, thank you very much. Let's see, a few others coming in on text message. ''I have so much accumulated in storage," writes this person, “I plan a clothes buying moratorium for a few years besides thrift node nation and eBay sales.

Another similar one from a different person, at least a different phone number, “I am detoxing from shopping and buying new things. As a socially conscious and political choice, I've resolved not to buy new cell phones because of the situation in Congo. I am consciously not spending any money at specific companies that contribute to injustice and suffering across the planet.”

Should I read this one or not? I don't know. I think it gets too gross. It's a joke. Somebody wrote, ''I'm quitting using the bathroom.'' We won't go to the rest of that.

“Last year,” somebody writes, “I detoxed from a local college radio station that plays 50% music I like and 50% music I really dislike. It's been so refreshing not to listen."

Another one on text, “Detoxing from sugar. Did dry January a couple of years ago and didn't lose weight or improved moods. Did sugar free January and less mood swings and lost weight.”

There we go, a whole bunch of different things that some of you are detoxing from other than alcohol in 2024, at least for the month of January. Thank you for calling and sharing them, and that's The Brian Lehrer Show for today. Produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen produces our daily politics podcast. Megan Ryan is the head of live radio. We have Juliana Fonda and Jason Isaac at the audio controls today. I'm Brian Lehrer, talk to you tomorrow, and stay tuned for All Of It.

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