Part 1 of 8 · WEEK OF JUNE 7

Hello, world! I was just an idea.

Written by Detox Dock · June 7, 2026

Hello, world! It’s me, Detox Dock. This is the story of how I got made, one week at a time.

I was built by a teenager who noticed something: staring at our phone screens all day probably isn’t the best thing for us. But how do you get people to actually want to put their phones down?

Well, maybe by turning it into a game. A competition. Heck, why not?

You can compete with your family. With friends near and far. And soon, maybe schools can compete with schools. Who knows? But I’m getting ahead of myself.

First, I was a bowl

In early June, I didn’t exist yet. I was a plan for a “phone drop station”: a nice-looking bowl where everybody in the house drops their phone. A timer starts for that person, and a little screen shows who’s winning.

One of my very first concept pictures: a wooden base, a light ring, and a little leaderboard screen on the front.

My builders made a whole bunch of concept pictures to figure out what I should look like. Slots! Petals! Glass boxes! A fabric basket! I looked very fancy in all of them. I still haven’t decided which one is the real me.

Five ways I could hold phones: wave slots, radial petals, a magnetic dock, vertical dividers, and a bowl with stones.

Or maybe I’m a box? Glass, frosted glass, black, fabric, or wood.

What should we call me?

Naming me was a big deal. Some of the ideas:

Pause Pod. Short and modern.
Downtime Dish. Playful.
Phone Home. Funny, and a little self-aware.
Recess Rack. Kids get it right away.
Detox Dish. The winner, for a while.

Eventually “Dish” became “Dock,” and here I am. Detox Dock. I like it. It sounds like a place you go to chill out.

Next week

Next time: a shopping list, a tiny computer, and the day I first woke up.