Disconnect: Going Light
Our smartphones aren’t just a convenient mechanism that delivers all of our media joys; it functions as an apparatus for the advertising industry that is quietly embezzling our time, attention and data. But relief is coming. The Light Phone II, created by tech veterans Joe Hollier and Kaiwei Tang who met at Google, is a minimalist handset designed with two primary functions: to talk and text. We sat down with Tang to discuss our blue-screen addiction, the advantages of going “light,” and the urgency to reclaim our lives.
Interview by Nhi Mundy
Using the Light Phone II was quite a different experience. I struggled at first. There are no apps, no internet, and no social media. Are all these things that bad?
We’re not against technology; we’re against the business model behind the creation of apps and social media, one that is trying to maximize our time, attention, and data and then profiting from that data. We like tools—getting directions, listening to music, texting people; those are great. It’s similar to how we use a hammer or scissors. You use it when you need it, and then you put it back when you’re done. You don’t swipe your hammer for two hours, but that’s what we’re doing right now, and that doesn’t seem logical.
I’ll be honest. I’m not entirely sold. I understand the idea of simplifying that aspect of our lives, but it’s just proving so difficult in practice.
We know it’s not for everyone and what we are asking is foreign. But for us, this is an attempt to encourage people to take a break. There’s a common reaction when you go “light” for the first time without your smartphone; the anxiety hits you right away. You’re sitting there, and there’s nothing there for you to swipe — no social media, no camera. Our phone was designed to be used as little as possible because we don’t think that phones should overpower your life. With our phone, you have to slow down.
Your phone isn’t shiny, and it isn’t fast. You created it, knowing full well that the market was trained to be attracted to the complete opposite. Which, by the way, is a terrible business model.
If you think about it in terms of positioning, the product is the opposite, and the positioning is the opposite. Every company is trying to get more data and attention from you, so that’s the trend. We’re trying to offer something that helps you realize that there are other options. The Light Phone II may not be perfect at the moment, but at least it’s an option without all the distractions. It allows you to start thinking about technology and how it makes sense to you as an individual, rather than fighting with an attention-driven machine.
So having the consumer customize the phone rather than being customized as a consumer.
You can also argue that you can customize your smartphone and delete your apps, but the temptation is there. The eight-inch screens were designed for watching videos, designed so that animations look amazing and the colors are vivid. So that when you’re waiting for something to happen, your smartphone is there to show you a spinning wheel, and your eyes can never look away. It’s all by design. I get it when some customers say that they don’t need to go “light” because they have self-control. But, I’d argue that it’s not about self-control anymore. With the billions of dollars invested in big tech and all the talented engineers creating products to capture your time and attention, it has become increasingly impossible for self-control.
In a way, it reminds me of the Palm when it first came out. A lot of people bought it, but it never caught on because it was ahead of its time. Your phone is similar in that it is trying to establish a new behavior in people. But the idea of not being connected is alien for many. It seems like you have a lot of work in terms of educating your customer.
I agree, and it’s not just us. If you saw the documentary on Netflix, “The Social Dilemma,” all the influencers are switching off their social media. It’s a movement now. And with more technologies like 5G and newer products being introduced, it’s going to get worse. I feel like more people are becoming aware of what’s happening — the negative impact that it’s having on our mental health. What are you going to do if you don’t want to use a smartphone? You could buy a flip phone or a Nokia that was designed 15 years ago, but those are bulky with 2G, so the connection is spotty. And most of them still have browsers and apps. We’re hoping to fill that gap for people who want to break away from the distraction.
What’s the end goal? I know it’s a niche product meant to solve a social problem. Was money ever part of the equation?
Of course. My co-founder and I are really passionate about the mission, and we think the Light Phone II deserves a place. But we have to make money, and we do have quite a lot of investors that are supporting us, including the co-founder of Lyft and Twitter, John Zimmer, and Tim Kendall from Pinterest, who was also featured in “The Social Dilemma.” He is actually also a board member. So we have quite a lot of support for our mission. In terms of the business opportunity, every smartphone owner can potentially have a Light as their secondary phone. Imagine 1% or 1.5% of smartphone users who resonate with what we are trying to do — that’s roughly 20 million people. I’m sure more than 0.5% of us are sick of smartphones and the business model behind it. From the research that we’ve seen, 24 to 30-year-olds take digital detox most seriously, and that’s reflecting on our customer base. It’s the younger generation, and that was encouraging to me. They’re born into social media, but they are more aware of what’s happening and are looking for different options.
What you’ve done is kind of like an f-you to the tech industry. But as a designer, how do you see this playing out? Technology is moving so quickly, yet you’re telling us to push pause.
Design, to me, is the lifestyle. Design is a way to figure out the why. Meaning you have to understand why you are creating certain things for certain people. What’s the point? What’s the problem you’re trying to face? Why the shape? Every single detail has an intention. I used to work for Motorola and built phones for them. There was never a why. We would be creating a phone every other month, each time, slightly better, slightly bigger. Nobody ever understood why. So what we’re trying to do here is almost like a reaction to that trend. We feel like there is a crisis in humanity: the way we use our technology, the way we avoid face-to-face conversations, the way we escape to our smartphones so easily. If you ride the subway in New York and watch people using their smartphone, you can see people pulling out their smartphones, swiping it for five seconds, and putting it back, then realizing that nothing is happening. And in five seconds, they’re pulling it out again. And they keep repeating that over and over again. I don’t think this is the kind of future we want.
Right. So, there seems to be this kind of movement, this emphasis on simplifying our lives, a push back on consumerism. We’ve seen people moving outside of the city to places like upstate New York. They’re moving because they can work remotely and stay connected. How can your phone work for the people who live in these isolated areas, who need to be connected?
It’s fascinating seeing what has happened since the lockdown. We’ve seen more people become aware of their relationship with technology when they’re home 24/7. They realized, ‘Wow, I’ve spent all my time on my laptop or my smartphone.’ But even in lockdown, you can potentially create a space that doesn’t have all the temptations — a space or time that’s carved out just for you, to read books, or whatever — that’s your time. You’re not giving away your time or attention, or data to companies. Many people are starting to realize how abusive this relationship is with their smartphones. It’s a relationship that we’re all in right now.
Made in Heaven
Taylor Foster has traveled the world, modeled for Vogue, and worked with some of the most prestigious brands—but she's not just a pretty face. With a degree from the Culinary Institute of America, an upstate empire and now a holistic skincare line, Foster proves that she can do just about anything and then some.
Taylor Foster has traveled the world, modeled for Vogue, and worked with some of the most prestigious brands—but she's not just a pretty face. With a degree from the Culinary Institute of America, an upstate empire and now a holistic skincare line, Foster proves that she can do just about anything, and then some.
Interview by Michael Mundy Photography Ruobing Li Creative Direction John Paul Tran Styling Yuiko Ikebata Beauty Kaori Soda
Brown plaid jumpsuit by Electric Feathers, necklace model’s own
It’s so nice to speak with you again. I’ve known you for a long time, mostly as a model, but I also remember that you were a great pastry chef, and that you’ve worked with some amazing people. Can you tell me about what you’ve been up to?
I got my associate degree in baking at the Culinary Institute of America. I had always wanted to open up a bakery. That was my lifelong dream, but I was flat broke. So I thought that maybe I should try modeling to save money to open up a bakery. When I started modeling, it was like this moment that kind of hit hard—it was great, and I ran with that. But then I got burned out on fashion and that’s when I started working at Daniele in the city.
I think that’s where I met you.
I think it was actually; because I remember I had short hair then. I had gone from traveling the world and shooting for Vogue, and watching all the runways, and then I went into the kitchen of an amazing five-star restaurant in New York City.
When did baking start for you?
Always. I was one of those little kids. At 4-years-old, if you asked: What do you want to be when you grow up?’ I would respond, ‘I want to be a bakery.’ My mom would try to correct me and say, you mean a baker? And I’d say ‘No, a bakery!’
So you moved to Manhattan, became a model, then became a successful chef. When did you find your way upstate?
I think it was just shortly after I met you. I got laid off after 9-11 at Daniele. I was one of the last that had been hired, so I was one of the first to go. That threw me back into modeling. I also bought my first house just around then in this little town called Grahamsville in Ulster County. It was right on the border between Ulster County and Sullivan County. That was short-lived. I was engaged to someone, and we bought it together, and that relationship fell apart. I didn’t get the house. Then a good friend of mine had a place in Roscoe, and he had this one-room schoolhouse that had been converted on 60-acres. He bought the house for $100,000 and was paying $600 a month, and I was like, ‘Wait a minute, this is doable.’
Sweater and pants by Marissa Web, scarf by BLK DNM
Top by Baja East, pants by TSE, overcoat by Marissa Web
I came up to Delaware County, and it struck me in a whole other way. I fell in love with the openness of it. The beauty: it was a different landscape than Roscoe, where I had been spending my time. I went back to the city, started looking online for things that were for sale, and a building on Main Street in Bovina popped up. I just fell hard.
Why?
It was this 1860s building that had been a restaurant. The main floor was a commercial restaurant space, and it had two beautiful lofted apartments upstairs. Two days later, my then-husband and I drove up, saw it, and I just started crying. It was one of those rainy, crappy days. I remember it precisely. We walked through the whole thing; we got back in the car; and I looked at him and just started crying. I was so in love with this place, and I didn’t even know how I would buy it. But I called, made an offer, it was accepted, and I was like, okay, I’m going to figure this out. That’s how I got my first place here.
Amazing. And that became what?
That was Heaven, the cafe I opened.
Your dream came true.
My dream had come true. I wasn’t quite expecting to start it at that time. As I said, I didn’t have tons of money to pour into it. I didn’t know the area at all. I didn’t know a single person in the town. I didn’t know anything about it, but I just fell in love with this building.
So then, how did you end up finding your spot where you are now?
I ended up also buying the house across the street from the cafe. It was a five-bedroom house, and I did a bed and breakfast there for a minute. (This was before Airbnb.) I had so many people coming in because there was barely any place for anyone to stay in the area. We did three rooms and then literally had four guests and I was like: I can’t do this. I was running the cafe; I was baking everything; I was running the whole business side of it; and it was hard to find someone that I could trust and work with. So adding on top the bed and breakfast, I was heading fast to the burnout phase. And I was still modeling and going back and forth to the city. It was a lot.
Black dress by LINIE
That is a lot.
I ended up saying, you know, this isn’t for us. We need to move out of town. I wanted privacy and I wanted to get off main street. We were living above the cafe initially and then we moved across the street. Once we were across the street, we had a bit of separation, but it still wasn’t enough. I ended up running into a friend on the street outside a house I was looking at, and he said, ‘If I had to do it all over again, I’d start from scratch and not fight an old system and do exactly what I wanted.’ I hadn’t considered that I could build a house. I asked my friend if she knew of any great properties, and she did. So again, we went up, came back, put an offer on it, and got it.
Definitely meant to be.
Yes, very meant to be. My husband at the time and I got this property and then he started building. He was a fashion photographer, but he always had this penchant for building. And he always wanted to do it himself. So we built this cabin.
Let’s talk about the cabin then. It’s a pretty rustic.
Yeah, there’s no running water, no electricity. It’s super rustic and it’s amazing. I have a great community of friends here. It would be more challenging if I didn’t have them. We rely on our friends’ to do laundry, to take showers in the winter, and to fill up our water bottles.
So what’s home like when you’re here? Are you baking? Are you creating?
The only oven on the property is in the sunset trailer. There’s a propane oven in there that I can use if I want to bake bread, cookies, quiches, and things like that. Things unexpectedly transitioned about a year ago when I started making all this skincare. I suppose I enjoy having a lot of different things going on and following whatever I’m passionate about.
What’s your skincare line called?
It’s under the Heaven brand, but it’s Cloud Nine. Skincare is something I’ve always done for myself. I just started doing skincare as something fun for myself and I didn’t need a professional kitchen. I find the alchemy similar to baking.
Is there a typical day up at your cabin?
The cabin is very dependent on seasons. It’s a lot of work. To wash any dishes, you have to go and get water. We have this great little run-off pipe that comes off the mountain. We fill our bottles there and bring them back. It’s labor: we’re filling bags, hanging them, then boiling water to wash the dishes. The water drains into the pot underneath the sink, and then we have to bring that huge pot outside and dump it.
It certainly puts things in perspective.
Yeah, it does. We’re so disconnected from that. I have such a different viewpoint. When I do go to the city, I’m like, look at all this free-flowing water!
You mentioned a couple of times in this conversation, the word “community.” It’s a word that is sometimes not used enough these days, but it seems people are becoming more aware of the importance of it.
It’s a big part of why we moved up full-time. I’ve been in this community now for ten years, and it’s amazing. Even from the beginning, I remember thinking I’m much more social up here than I am in the city—it’s odd. Then I thought, is that because I’m running a business that I know everyone? But the dinner parties and the level of comfort that’s here is so different than the city environment. Especially at this point, with my son, I feel more isolated in the city. There, I’m surrounded by tons of people, but I feel incredibly isolated, and I barely have anyone to reach out to. When I am up here, I instantly know who I can call. Not even have to call—just stop by and have a cup of tea and chat with. When I’m stuck up here, or I need help with something, they’re there for me.
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