Practicing Appstinence

PRESENTED BY SUPERHUMAN AI

Happy Tuesday, TFP. The countdown is on. In just three days, someone’s walking away with Apple AirPods Pro 2, and it could be you. Keep referring friends to TheFutureParty because every sign-up boosts your chances. Don’t let time run out. Your referral link expires May 23rd. Go! 👉 {{ rp_refer_url }}

Gen Zers and millennials are starting to turn away from smartphones and toward simpler devices that limit their access to the attention economy.

Why It Hits: The ills of phone addiction are not news at this point, and people under 40 can hardly remember a time when they didn’t have uninhibited access to the internet. That’s had a profound impact on people’s ability to be present in their everyday lives… so it’s no surprise that some are revolting against technology that makes them easily distracted.

Behind the (Lack of) Apps: Are you planning on practicing “appstinence?”

The Future: While everyone may soon (not) be scrolling on their dumbphones, switching over could be tricky. Gabriela Nguyen, the founder of APPstinence, told Insider that she toggles between three dumbphones to accomplish necessary tasks. One couple who reviewed the Light Phone said they loved how the phone made them present during a date, but it led to them arguing about how to get home when they couldn’t order an Uber (hilarious). In other words, going analog in a digital world might take some buffering.

Prediction: Until society mass-disconnects (unlikely), we may see a trend of apps that pride themselves on helping users accomplish tasks efficiently, so they can get off of them as quickly as possible.

Keeping up with AI is hard – we get it!

That’s why over 1M professionals read Superhuman AI to stay ahead.

Sign up and start mastering AI

The stadium-tour era is making concerts bigger and richer than ever, but many concertgoers aren’t loving how it’s also making it harder than ever to see their favorite artists.

The Big Picture: Post-pandemic, the live-music industry is doing incredibly well, with market leader Live Nation posting record revenues. That growth is driven by stadium tours, which are nearly doubling in grosses and now represent the top-five biggest acts on the road. With stadium shows increasing by 60% last year, selling out stadiums is quickly becoming the Holy Grail of touring for superstars.

Behind the Curtain: How many of you are excited to see your favorite artist with 80,000 of your closest friends?

Encore: None of this is to say that there are no benefits to stadium tours. Artists get to play on the biggest stage possible (except for free beach concerts), which allows them to execute a blockbuster vision of their show. That theatricality may validate the ticket price more than anything else. And, again, the money doesn’t hurt — all those seats mean a lot of butts willing to pay top dollar for a performance.

Prediction: With artists like Post Malone, Ed Sheeran, Kendrick Lamar and SZA, Billie Eilish, and others having just kicked off or about to kick off stadium tours, aggregate ticket sales could spell whether people are getting a little exhausted from seeing concerts as big as possible. If they lag, expect a return to smaller venues that cater to either the very rich or very lucky.

With car insurance premiums projected to reach a record $2,101 annually in 2025, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re not overpaying.

In fact, switching car insurance providers could save drivers over $1,300 a year, according to a 2024 survey.

See if you could save with Money’s best car insurance list.

69% of you voted No in yesterday’s poll: Have you ever used Letterboxd to track or review movies?

“But honestly, I’ve never heard of them before. I do use other sites, though. Guess it’s time to check them out.”

“I used to, but I don’t anymore. It’s become an insufferable wasteland of snarky review one-upmanship. I want to read genuine feedback from cinephiles — not Twitter rejects workshopping their best unfunny one-liners.”

“Over 700 reviews and 4,000+ movies logged.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

🎮 The delay of Grand Theft Auto VI will cost the video game industry a cumulative $2.7 billion this year. Ouch.

🤖 SAG-AFTRA filed an unfair labor practice charge on Fortnite for debuting a deepfake generator of James Earl Jones’ Darth Vader voice.

📺 Sesame Street is coming to Netflix… which saves the iconic children’s show from extinction.

🏛️ President Donald Trump has officially signed the Take It Down Act, which criminalizes the creation of nonconsensual deepfake porn.

🧬 23andMe assets are being sold to biotech firm Regeneron for $256 million.

😎 Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have unveiled “LegoGPT” — an AI system that can build anything out of Legos. Way cool.

👕 Kering has named former Valentino designer Pierpaolo Piccioli as the new creative director of Balenciaga.

💰 SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the commission is exploring allowing more investors to get into private-investment products.

🍺 Atsushi Katsuki, the CEO of popular Japanese beer brand Asahi, blamed video games and social media for the declining sales of alcohol.