We need to stop glamourising people who are always on their phones, Arianna Huffington says
Media mogul wants to help people detach from their phones — with a mobile app
By Hadley Gamble and Natasha Turak
It’s time to stop glamourising people who are always on their phones and embrace switching off, says billionaire media mogul Arianna Huffington.
Speaking to CNBC at the World Government Summit in Dubai, the Huffington Post co-founder discussed her new app, Thrive, which is designed to help people detach from their phones and turn off distractions from social media.
“We launched a new app to help us manage our relationship with our phone better. It’s paradoxical — it’s basically using technology to help us re-calibrate our relationship with technology,” Huffington said, acknowledging the irony of using a mobile app to decrease people’s attachment to their phones.
“The end of 2017 was when we realised that there are some really bad unintended consequences about our growing addiction to our phones and to social media,” she said, referencing the myriad of studies that have revealed growing anxiety and depression rates among teenagers who are hooked on their devices.
By using the app and putting your phone on “Thrive mode,” she explains, anyone who tries to contact you will receive a message saying you’re on “Thrive mode” until a given time of your choosing. Huffington hopes this will help people get back to focusing on their family or work time with less distractions.