Losing my Yondr virginity
And why offline experiences are the new cultural currency.
Today’s newsletter is written by our intern, Emilia Kim. ICYMI, earlier this summer, Emilia wrote about her generation’s media and entertainment habits. And she’s been all over our Instagram breaking down The Up and Up’s research and insights.
Losing my Yondr virginity
A dispatch from Emilia Kim
In true Gen Z fashion, I’m addicted to my phone. But this summer, I’m trying to break that cycle: screen time goals, app limits, deleting Tiktok. This week, I was forced to spend a night without it. It was the most fun I’ve had all summer.
On Sunday, I went to The Port Comedy Club in Baltimore. The Port requires every guest to lock their phone in a Yondr pouch at the door. You keep the pouch on you, but you can’t open it again until the show is over. My friends and I were the first ones there, which meant thirty minutes of... sitting. No phone to check, no group chat to scroll, nothing to do but talk.
Digital detox isn’t niche
The Port isn’t unique here. Yondr, the company behind the pouches, has been around for about a decade, but 2026 is the year they went mainstream. The technique has been used by Madonna, Childish Gambino, and Justin Timberlake, is deployed in over a thousand US schools, and hit The West End theater district in London.
Artists’ stated reason for Yondr-ing their audience is usually IP protection: comedians don’t want half-finished jokes leaking online, musicians don’t want unreleased songs bootlegged before an album drops.
But the byproduct, whether intentional or not, is a room full of people who have no choice but to be present.
“Going analog” is bigger than a vibe
I suppose it would be easy to write off the summer’s hottest accessory (or lack thereof) as a TikTok trend, but the numbers behind IRL summer show it’s not. A recent survey by Talker Research found that Americans want distance from their screens. In the survey of 2,000 Americans, “50% said they’ve made a point to disconnect digitally and spend less time on screens for their well-being.” Gen Z was leading the charge at about 63% saying they’re trying to disconnect — compared to 57% of millennials and 42% of Gen Xers.
IRL summer is everywhere
It’s truly not just me. This summer, we asked more than 50 Gen Zers how they are spending their free time. Here’s what we heard.