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(STATIC)

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M_I_SForEver

(KEYS CLICKING)
(ORCHESTRAL MUSIC)

These are changing human
relationships,

family relationships, with
enormous consequences.

Technology companies have
been very, very opportunistic

about hiring very smart
behavioral psychologists

to brain-hack and to
make these devices

purposely compulsing.

What company can say they
have billions of subscribers?

Billions of users?

With a B.

We know what the problems are.

We're living
them in our house.

We don't hear about solutions
from big tech companies.

We don't hear about
solutions from our schools.

And if Mom or Dad is
staring at their phone,

then the kid is gonna say,

"That's the way I'm expected
to behave in the world."

Well, it's very close to
an actual drug addiction.

MRI scans, which really
show the scan

of a cocaine addict who's high.

It's an emerging
public health crisis

of internet addiction.

(STATIC CRACKLES)

(FILM REEL WHIRRING)

(CHEERFUL, MELLOW MUSIC)

JON: Yup, that was me.

I was never good at sports.

That's probably why I
became a filmmaker.

Although I always enjoyed
being active outside

and having playtime with
my family and friends,

building lasting memories
with real people.

That guy with the
dad bod right there?

That's me now.

I still like being outside,

but nowadays, I can have
most of my interactions

conveniently located in my
pocket, on a smartphone.

And, gee, do I love my phone.

However, I think we may
all share the same problem.

I look at it all the time.

It's the first thing I
check in the morning.

My entertainment while traveling
to work.

My conversations with
people at lunch.

And it's the last thing I see
before bed,

while watching an even
larger screen in front of me.

Just like me, my wife
also checks her phone

far too often during the day.

Being a stay-at-home mom,

it's how she keeps in touch
with the outside world

while taking care of our three
busy boys.

We often chat about
our phone use

and if we are addicted
to our smartphones.

People say, "Oh, I'm so
addicted to my phone."

Do you think you're
addicted to your phone?

Yeah.

It's like smoking a cigarette.

When there's a lull in the
conversation,

it used to be like,
you would be like,

"Oh, I'm gonna go have a
cigarette,"

and that would be like something

to get you out of that lull.

Whereas now, if there's a lull,
you just check your phone.

How annoying is it when,
'cause there's so much stuff

to do around the house and
I'm looking at my phone?

Very annoying. (LAUGHS)

JON: And, boy, am I
distracted by my smartphone.

It pulls me away from my work,

my children, and my
relationships

by feeding me constant
updates and notifications,

(SMARTPHONE BUZZING)
usually unimportant,

but it's something I feel
I'm compelled to check.

So what am I looking at?
(PENSIVE MUSIC)

Like most of you, I'm
checking emails, news,

but mostly social media.

And we may be looking too much.

According to research,
70% of adults

spend almost three to
five hours per day online.

Some may be hitting seven hours.

80% of those hours logged
are on a mobile device.

And a recent study shows

that this can add up to
seven years of our lives

spent using a smartphone,
liking, tweeting,

and taking pictures of
our food and children.

And my problems focusing
may have long-term effects

because of the smartphone.

A study done by Microsoft

revealed the
average attention span

dropped from 12 seconds to eight

since the mobile
revolution began,

which makes our attention
span second below a goldfish,

which is only nine.

And what about our kids?

While my boys are very active,

adventurous, fun little guys,

the screen devices are a
hot commodity around here.

They seem mesmerized, like I
seem to be when using them,

and taking them
away is difficult.

The tone and the behavior,
as soon as the screen goes on

and has to be turned off,
is dramatic.

Ahh, he's doing all that?

- I hate my life.
- I hate you.

Why are you making me
get off the screen?

According to Common Sense
Media, children up to age eight

are spending up to three hours
a day consuming screen media,

children eight to 12 spend
closer to five hours,

and teenagers can
be more than six

and even up to nine hours.

What exactly are
these devices doing

to their long-term mental
and social well-being?

And our kids get to
watch us all day long

being drawn back
into our screens.

What do our
behaviors teach them?

We may not be paying attention
to them when they need us to.

So I decided to hit the
road and get some answers

about what these
devices are doing to us

and how they're impacting
the younger generation

who's growing up in a fully
connected, wired world.

Most people I talked to
said they were, quote,

"addicted" to their smartphone

and could not live without it.

So is this real addiction?

And what is an addiction anyway?

I would say addiction
is a loss of control

around a particular behavior,

whether it's ingesting
substances or alcohol

or engaging in a
particular behavior.

So it's a loss of control

and it's a pattern of
having a loss of control

that's negatively
impacting your life.

(SOFT DIGITAL MUSIC)

JON: So what about
looking at our phones

150 times a day?

Is this an addiction?

Are we screen-addicted?

To us, it really is
addictive-compulsive behavior.

Just go to a meeting
or go to a restaurant

or go to an airport
and look at the people,

and see them
glued to their screens

as opposed to paying attention
to the people around them.

It affects our personal
relationships.

It affects our love lives.

It affects our ability to
concentrate and our personalities

and how we work and,
really, who we are.

And I think that makes it one

of the most pervasive addictions

and potentially dangerous ones.

Ultimately, people
have free will.

They have the ability to
put down their phones.

But I think these companies
are doing everything they can

to short-circuit free
will and, in a way,

to make us forget that we ever
had it in the first place.

When we think of addiction,
we think of substances,

something that you
put in your body

and that changes the way
you experience the world.

That's been true of
addiction for centuries,

millennia, forever, basically.

But things have changed, so
now addiction can also apply

to things that are behavioral
where there is no substance.

And that's what
I'm interested in:

a behavior that is
so well designed,

an experience that
is so well engineered

that you can effectively become
addicted to that experience

in the absence of any drug.

That's really where screens
come in, because most of those,

the vast majority of those
experiences that are addictive

happen on screens.

I think we're actually
being too cautious

in recognizing
this is a problem.

Think about it very simply.

All of the aspects of gambling
addiction are present.

In fact, those are
the exact mechanisms

that are being built in.

JON: And this is why
checking our smartphones all day

may not be our fault.

In fact, it may not even be
the devices, but what's on it.

Most apps we use have been
designed

to monetize our attention

and keep us logging on
as much as possible.

And what these app
companies have learned,

like gambling and slot
machines before them,

is that we are not addicted to
the tech,

but we are, in fact,
addicted to getting rewards.

(SLOT MACHINE CHIMING)

Intermittent rewards,
to be exact.

(SOFT JAZZ MUSIC)
And what the heck

are intermittent rewards anyway?

Slot machines.

What keeps people playing
them for hours and hours?

Why don't we stop playing
after a win, big or small?

Well, this is because of
what psychologists call

the most powerful motivator
on the planet:

intermittent rewards.

Now, you might imagine
intuitively

that you want
rewards all the time.

You know, you go do
something, you get a reward,

you do it again,
you get a reward,

and so on until the end of time.

That's actually not that
interesting to humans

or any animals, really.

What we like is
unpredictability.

We like randomness.

Many years ago,
(PLAYFUL MUSIC)

influential American psychologist,
Professor B.F. Skinner,

ran experiments to help us all

better understand our behaviors.

(RAT SQUEALING)
(ELECTRICITY CRACKLING)

He used animal subjects,

in this case, a pigeon,
(PIGEON COOS)

and made it peck a button
to receive a reward of food.

He found, when the pigeon
received a reward every time

or even on a set schedule
of every three times,

it would not be as interested
in pecking the button

and would burn out quickly.

However, when the
food came randomly,

say, every 10 pecks or six,
the pigeon became hooked.

It was the anticipation
of the reward

that made it peck more
frequently

and for much longer
periods of time.

(SLOT MACHINE TINKLING)

(SLOT MACHINE CHIMING)

And that's why people
gamble for hours.

If you made those machines
(UNSETTLING MUSIC)

such that you knew when you
would be getting rewards

and you'd get small,
drip-fed doses of rewards,

people would stop playing.

So it started with these slot
machines,

and then video
games started to build in

some of these elements.

And so, I think, my sense
is the hierarchy

went from gambling
to video games,

and now, you can also
take it from the world

of social media design.

JON: Every time we
remove the devices

from our pocket and scroll,
we anticipate the reward.

Every like, bit of information,
or message is the payoff.

We then play again for more.

A basic behavioral loop that
we are stuck in endlessly.

Some apps, social networks,
and game companies

are manipulating their products
to keep us in that loop.

In November 2017,
at an Axios event,

Sean Parker, ex-president
of Facebook,

in a rare interview,
broke his silence

and spoke about how they
manipulated us all along

into becoming behaviorally
addicted to their products.

That thought process was
all about how do we consume

as much of your time and
conscious attention as possible.

And that means that we
need to sort of give you

a little dopamine hit
every once in a while,

because someone liked or
commented

on a photo or a post or
whatever,

and that's gonna get you
to contribute more content

and that's gonna get you
more likes and comments.

It's a social validation
feedback loop.

They're exploiting a
vulnerability in human psychology.

The inventors/creators

understood this consciously,

and we did it anyway.

JON: And it wasn't just
Sean Parker who spoke out.

Investors and contributors who
helped create these products

also decided to take a stance.

It seemed as though Silicon
Valley was growing a conscience.

Another early ex-senior
executive of Facebook,

Chamath Palihapitiya,

speaking at the Stanford
Graduate School of Business,

backed up Sean Parker's claim
and took it even further.

We wanna psychologically
figure out

how to manipulate you
as fast as possible

and then give you back that
dopamine hit.

We did that brilliantly at
Facebook,

Instagram has done it,
WhatsApp has done it,

you know, Snapchat has done
it, Twitter has done it.

We have created tools
that are ripping apart

the social fabric of
how society works.

JON: Even the inventor
of the Like button

regretted what he'd helped
create.

My name is Nir Eyal,
and, a few years ago,

I wrote a book called
"Hooked: How to Build"...

JON: Author Nir Eyal helps
design apps

to become habit-forming.

He shed some light on how
companies are brain-hacking

into our daily lives.

JON: So you started off

in the video
game industry, right?

Right, I was in the video
gaming and advertising industry,

and I learned a whole lot
about how these two industries

change consumer behavior.

And so I kinda put these
lessons I had gleaned

from working in
these two industries

that specialized in
changing people's behavior

so that all sorts of industries,
all sorts of companies,

all sorts of entrepreneurs
could use these same tactics

that Facebook and Twitter

and the gaming companies and
Instagram,

the tactics that they're using

to help change
people's habits for good.

The core of products that
keep you coming back,

that form these habits,
(CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC)

is what's called a hook.

It's a four-step process
that goes from a trigger,

an action, a reward, and
finally an investment.

And it's through successive
cycles through these hooks

that our tastes our formed,
our preferences are shaped,

and these habits take hold.

I'll walk you through
them very, very quickly.

Every hook starts
with a trigger.

A trigger is some
kind of call to action.

It tells you what to do next.

There's these external
triggers, like a notification,

an email, some kind of message
that says,

"Hey, come check this out."

The action phase is all about
the simplest action done

in anticipation of a reward.

And so what we find is that
tech companies are in a race

to make the product as
easy as possible to use

because they know the
easier something is to use,

the more likely you
are to use it.

(SPACESHIP WHIRRING)

(TRACTOR BEAM HUMMING)

Then comes the variable reward,

which is where you get
what you came for, right,

where you watch the video,
you scroll the feed,

then you get some kind
of variable reinforcement

for doing that behavior,
where it starts to feel good.

Then, finally, is the
investment,

where you put something
into the product

in anticipation of a
future benefit.

It's where you give the company
data or you upload content,

you accrue followers, you put
something into the service

to make it better and better
with use

so that, through successive
cycles through these hooks,

you no longer need
external triggers at all.

You're queued with what's
called an internal trigger,

and these tend to be
negative emotional states.

We use Facebook when we're
feeling lonely.

We check YouTube when
we're feeling bored.

Without any kind of
notifications,

we're using these
products on our own.

We trigger ourselves.

(DEVICE KEYBOARDS CLICKING)

(PENSIVE MUSIC)

We, as a species, we wanna
be connected with each other.

You know, at one point, it
was a matter of survival.

We needed each other to
stay warm, to get food,

to survive, and to procreate.

So we have a deeply ingrained
drive for connectedness.

What the screen has done
to social interactions

is it edited them.

It's interrupted the regular
flow of human conversation

in a way that's been incredibly
damaging

to our social relationships
and damaging to our empathy,

damaging to the way we've
learned to communicate

over thousands of years
of human evolution.

We also have a deep fear of
intimacy.

And so one of the things

that social media does very,
very well

and one of the reasons
that it can suck you in

is that it can make you
feel connected without risk.

You're safe behind the guise

of the persona you
present on social media.

Because nobody presents their
true selves on social media.

They present the self that
they wanna be seen as.

And so you portray your
perfect image

in a Facebook or
Instagram setting.

That isn't really
what your life is

but what you want other
people to believe it is.

That has a big impact on your
self-esteem

and your emotional development.

We know that the more time
people spend on social media,

the more likely they are to
have psychological distress,

anxiety, and depression.

So this is having an impact
on people's well-being.

These are things that
are unintended consequences

of an effort to both make
our lives look better

and to deal with the fact
that everybody else's life

looks even better than ours.

Media companies have
realized there are ways

that you can reinforce that in
ways that serve the company.

(MELLOW MUSIC)

JON: I decided to
take a break

from my various social networks.

I deactivated all of my accounts

but kept my email
and my phone service

so I could work and function.

My wife also decided
to take a break

but could not commit to
deactivating her account.

It was odd at first.

I felt like I was shutting
off a part of myself

in a means to get feedback

about what I was
doing in my life.

What would it be like without
all these digital connections?

And was I going too far?

Throughout filming, I had
many conversations with people

on how we, as humans,

were always worried
about new technology.

Were we just being paranoid?

Weren't we warned about the
printing press destroying us?

(FILM REEL WHIRRING)
And comics?

Oh, and the TV was bad.

(WOMEN SCREAMING)
And the Beatles,

they were making kids crazy.

The intention was different.

I think it was essentially
to make something

that was engaging first,
(PINBALL MACHINES RINGING)

but it was never as mindful
as what we're seeing now.

Facebook has been trying
to do this for a long time,

trying to hack into your
attention.

And that war for your attention,
I think,

is something that's very
different from anything we've seen

with any of these other
products.

And you also see
the rate of evolution,

how much data
these companies have,

how fast they make
changes on the fly,

and the introduction of new
small features

like the bottomless feed on all
these social media programs.

One company does it,
they all latch on,

and all the other
companies do the same thing

because it's an arms race.

That, to me, those signs,
that kind of copycat behavior,

the development of these new
techniques,

all of that is indicative that
this is something different.

Nothing like that ever
happened with pinball machines

or with TV, so to me
it's a different thing.

It's probably the most vast
thing mankind has ever made.

And there's a lot of good
that comes from the internet,

and we should
expect a lot of bads

that come from it as well.

We're going through this
process that always occurs,

which is we adopt these
technologies,

we're so excited by them,

you know, we kind of
adopt them wholesale,

and then, after a while, we say,

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait.

"There's some bad stuff here,
too," right?

We have this reappraisal
of what are the real costs

to these technologies
we're using.

JON: And I love technology.

I do realize there's the good
and the bad,

and maybe we need to figure
out where we are going wrong

so we can take it the right way.

(SOFT DIGITAL MUSIC)

So I paid a visit to
someone who knows a lot

about the history of modern
tech and its turning points.

(BIRD TRILLING)

- Hey, nice to meet you.
- Hey, Jon.

- How are you?
- Good, I'm good.

- It's great to meet you.
- This is it.

Welcome to my play land.

Welcome to the Personal
Computer Museum.

My name is Syd Bolton.

What you're about to see
is a digital play land

of all kinds of technology
(VIDEO GAME BEEPING)

through the ages.

When people started ditching
their old technology,

as people do and are
still doing today,

I started rescuing these
machines and keeping them

because I wanted to
learn about them.

Every single computer
had some sort

of redeeming quality to it,
and I wanted to try that out.

Bill Gates saw this and talked
to his buddy, Paul Allen,

and said, "You know what,
we need to make software

"for this machine, and this
is what launched Microsoft."

Aren't you worried
about any of these boxes,

just like they're gonna fall

and they're just gonna
bury you one day?

You know, I do worry
about that, actually.

Buried in tech is the way to go.

It's very simple.

We turn our phones on,
we push buttons,

and they do what we
hopefully ask them to do.

These computers all required
a certain amount of skill

and work and luck to
get them to do anything,

and people felt a real
sense of accomplishment

when they got
something done, right?

We don't feel that way
about our devices today.

We just, we use them, they
do what we need to do,

we communicate with others,

and then we move on
to the next one.

It is very hard to look cool

- with this thing.
- It is.

These would cost $1,500
to $1,800 for the phone

and your monthly plans

would be hundreds and
hundreds of dollars,

and you would get very limited
amount of minutes with those.

The BlackBerry was the first
time that you saw people

looking at their phones
all the time.

BlackBerrys did have full
keyboards,

and that is where
people were able

to communicate more effectively
using a mobile device.

And this truly, especially
having the email on the go

and being able to respond
in a meeting, for example,

to somebody else,

and this is where
distraction started to occur,

this is where the immediacy
of communication changed.

We remember the name they
used to use for the BlackBerry.

What was it?

CrackBerry?

The CrackBerry, right?

Because it's so addictive.

I remember the little
red light would flash,

and you'd be like, "I
need to go check that.

"Someone has
communicated with me."

That's right,
and that's the thing,

because a lot of it is the
fear of missing out, right?

If you see that light on,

that means somebody
wants to talk to you.

That actually gives us a
little bit of a high, right,

and it's almost like a drug,

and we get addicted
to that high.

So every time we get a piece
of communication, it's a high.

I think people are always
scared of new technology

when it first comes in
'cause we're not really sure

what effect it's gonna
have on us long-term.

Because of the portability

of the technology behind
these phones,

they are different than
these other devices,

and I think it's something
we should definitely

be concerned about.

I had to finally delete,
not deactivate my Facebook,

because I found myself
mindlessly logging into it.

Leaving became a positive
thing for me, though.

I was more clear-headed
and relaxed,

not constantly feeling the
urge to check my phone.

I even started
reading fiction again,

which I had not done in years.

My wife, however,
was having issues

with cutting back her use

with the
out-of-sight-out-of-mind method.

I've been trying to just be
more aware

to not be on the phone as
much when I'm around the kids,

and I do really well for a
couple days and then I just get

right back into old habits.
(PENSIVE MUSIC)

I always see something
flicking on my phone

or I hear a bing and
then I go check it.

It's just this revolving cycle.

JON: If someone is diagnosed
with screen addiction,

where can they go?

I traveled to Seattle, home to
reSTART,

one of the first internet
and gaming treatment centers,

founded in 2009 by Hilarie Cash.

It's a problem, for sure.

And whether or not you
call it an addiction

or you don't call it an
addiction,

at least let's call it a
problem, which is what it is.

We're right now at Heaven's
Field,

which is the Fall City campus

for the adult program,
phase one.

They spend time getting
healthy while they're here.

They're away from screens

so they can go through that
detox process.

We have a fitness program.

They're out in nature.

They're in a safe, social
environment.

They're getting lots of
psycho-education.

They're getting individual
counseling.

I mean, we are human
animals designed, obviously,

for our brains to respond
to pleasurable things,

and that's a dopamine response.

There's nothing wrong with
having a dopamine response

and experiencing pleasure,

and life would be horrible
if that weren't happening.

But when there's an
overstimulation,

it's too much of a good thing,

and the brain has to
down-regulate in response to that,

that's when it crosses the line

into an addiction.
(RAIN SPATTERING)

My main issue was my
phone screen, mainly,

and a few of the PC
and Xbox consoles.

It affected school life very
heavily.

I know I didn't do
too well in college.

I dropped out the first semester
because of the addiction.

It really, really brings
down on your whole life.

(RAIN SPATTERING)

Squandering a lot of
opportunities

to really grow emotionally

because I was substituting
video games and technology

for meaningful
interactions with people.

And I found that, for me,
there's a lot of stressful factors

that, when you actually dive
into what addiction looks like,

the same things that people talk
about,

going through withdrawal
for tobacco or alcohol,

I go to those meetings and I
feel those exact same things

about my use of tech.

What companies
want is our attention,

because if they
hold our attention,

then they can sell us stuff.

You can't hold people's
attention

if you don't design it to be
addictive,

so the two go hand in hand.

I didn't know how much

I was just looking
down at the world.

I was looking down.

I wasn't, you know, you
miss out on so much.

Now that I'm not really,
I don't use anything,

I can see everyone and what
they're doing,

and you can see them on it all
day long.

I think we are entering a
health crisis

and we're asleep at the wheel.

The evidence is
actually really strong

that, in early childhood,

interactive screens are absolutely
mesmerizing for children,

and interactive
screens are the ones

that have the highest
potential for addiction.

I won't argue

about what Hilarie's
adult patients are doing.

What I am concerned about

is that the moment you
use the word addiction,

98% of parents are going to
say, "That's not my kid."

And they're gonna let
it go until it ends up

to that final common pathway.

I wanna get to that kid
when he's having problems

because I want to help
that parent recognize

that this is not just their
kid being a pain in the butt.

This is their kid who's really
struggling

with the ability to
regulate his or her behavior

in the digital environment.
(MELLOW GUITAR MUSIC)

JON: I was worried
about my kids,

so my wife and I decided
to limit screen time

to just the weekends.

At first, the kids were not
fans.

But when confronted with not
being able to go to the screen,

something wonderful happened.

Boredom took over.

And a child never
really sits still.

They start to create, play,

and let their
imaginations run wild.

It turns out that psychologists
and neuroscientists

who have studied
boredom have found out

that, actually, our brains do
an awful lot of amazing things

in those moments when
we're not concentrating

on anything in particular.

Psychologists call that
mind-wandering.

And I think that one of
the things that we risk

when we eliminate boredom

is that we actually eliminate
a lot of opportunity

for thinking about the future,
for making sense of the past,

and we crowd out a
time that can be

some of the most innovative and
creative times in our lives.

Even people like Albert
Einstein or Pablo Picasso

or Charles Darwin
were very conscious

about how some of the
best ideas came to them

in these long periods when they
let their minds just wander.

JON: Dr. Nicholas Kardaras

has been studying children
and screens for some time now,

so I met up with him in New
York at one of his speeches

to get his take on what
effects these apps and games

were having on our kids.

Why did you get into this?

What brought you into looking
into smartphone addiction?

I was working as an
addiction psychologist,

working with substance
addiction, primarily,

and then I had a young man

who seemed to
have a psychotic break

that was related to
video game addiction.

That was an eye-opener for me.

And then that's when
I started digging.

And then, as a parent,

I started becoming really more
concerned,

and more angry, quite honestly.

I started seeing that this
was not addiction by accident.

This was addiction by design.

It's changing your kid's brain.

It's rewiring your children
developmentally, neurologically.

It's clinically impacting
your kids in ways

that you and I never even
suspected 10 years ago.

So it's damaging.
(SOMBER MUSIC)

We're creating a generation

of predisposed,
addictive young people.

And it doesn't necessarily
have to be towards screens now,

'cause now they're
wired for dopamine hits,

so they can be predisposed now
towards substance addiction.

But we're also developmentally
damaging those kids,

so we're seeing that their
creativity,

we're seeing that their
attention abilities,

we're seeing that their
cognitive abilities.

So we're damaging
them on the front end

and we're priming them
for addiction lifelong.

That's what we're doing.

We've been asleep at the switch,

so we've let
five-year-olds have it.

We wouldn't let
five-year-olds gamble.

We wouldn't let five-year-olds
do cocaine.

But because we've been
under-aware,

we've exposed this whole
generation

to this highly compulsive
and habit-forming,

addictive experiences.

Sean Parker, the original
founder,

or president, rather, of
Facebook, I mean, he said it.

"We did it by design.

"We knew what we were doing."

And he said, quote, "God
knows what this is doing

"to children's brains."

But God and some
neuroscientists,

we do know what this is
doing to children's brains,

and it's not good.

(PENSIVE PIANO MUSIC)

My lab focuses on
children birth to five,

and what are actionable
strategies

to optimize children's
cognitive,

social, and emotional
development.

One of the things that we
know is that children that age

spend about five hours a
day with media of all types.

And keep in mind
that children that age

are only awake for about 12
hours a day.

So they're spending about 50%,

40% to 50% of their waking hours

somehow engaged with screens.

We've seen the age

at which children begin
to use screens go down

and the amount of time they
spend go up.

You'll see that they're already
developing

what we might call a compulsive
use if not an addictive use.

If I take a high chair

and I put a six-month-old
on that high chair,

and I put a few toys on that,

on the table in front of the
high chair,

what's the first thing
that child's gonna do?

They're gonna push that over

and they're gonna delight in it.

They'll laugh because they
made something happen.

And then their parent will come
and they'll put the toy back

and the child will do it again.

What's being triggered
there is what we call

the dopamine reward pathway,

which is to say that they
make something happen,

it gives them pleasure,

and their inclination
is to do it again.

(CHUCKLING) And, in fact,
they would do that infinitely.

That game only stops
when the parent decides

we're not putting the toy
back up there anymore;

we are gonna move on to
something else.

We see the same kind of
experience with an iPad,

except an iPad doesn't set
conditions on which we...

We don't have stoppage
rules around it

unless parents impose them.

So the experience a
child can have

of pushing something and
making something happen,

it's incredibly gratifying.

What we find is that
many of these games

activate that same pathway
quite deliberately,

and they can do it in excess,

and they can do it without
consequence.

And that is the basis for
developing

behavioral, habitual addictions.

At least compulsions
if not true addictions.

JON: Most things in our
lives have a natural endpoint.

When we read a book, there
are chapters and paragraphs

and ideas that end.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

When we watch a show, film, or
theater, it comes to a stop.

In life, these are known as
stoppage cues.

They actually are
very good for us.

We need those cues to tell us

that it's time to interact
with your loved ones

or go outside, do some exercise,
do something different.

The companies that make the
experiences we engage with today

are excellent at
eradicating stopping cues.

Basically, you are not
getting any of the feedback

that says it's time to move on.

JON: The feed on social
networks is bottomless.

The video games our children
play can have no end in sight.

An open-ended experience
that can go on forever.

(SOMBER MUSIC)

I decided I will never
interact with experiences

that have no end in sight.

So I don't even start, right?

I'll watch movies 'cause I
know the movie's gonna be

an hour and a half, two hours.

I know exactly how long it's
gonna take.

But I don't start these
experience

that I know are designed
to keep me coming back

again and again and
again and again.

Why, because I don't wanna
invest in them

with no end in sight.

JON: For us parents,

this is why the screen
is the great pacifier.

Whenever we need a
minute or an hour,

we can turn it on
and get things done.

Our children are instantly
hooked

in the endless
stimulation it provides.

What we've done is we've
fallen into the easy solution

of the screen as keeping
the child quiet and engaged.

One of the interesting
things you wanna look at is,

what are the guys who are
engineering this

doing with their children?

Right.

Steve Jobs never gave
his kids iPads.

There's a reason for that.

A lot of the tech giants

are much more careful
about what they do at home

than what they're suggesting
people should do publicly.

The Waldorf School,

known as the Waldorf
School of the Peninsula,

which is in the Bay Area,
75% of the kids there

have parents who are
Silicon Valley tech execs.

This interesting thing about
this school

is it's a school that says,

until kids are about
14 years old,

we don't introduce them to
screens at all.

STUDENT: 263.

(STUDENTS GIGGLE)

279?

(STUDENTS LAUGH)

STUDENT: Oh,
that's it, isn't it?

Several of my class, actually,

(CHILDREN CHATTERING)
are children of parents

who work in the major tech
companies.

What the tech folks realize

is that, in order to be a good
creator,

you have to have had a lot
of experience doing that.

As I think about what it is

that the Waldorf School
does very, very well

is that we are living and
we focus on the young child,

the child as being a
living, growing organism.

They need to move.

They need to feel.

They need to grow, to change.

They need to be exposed

to incredible variety of
experiences.

And we try to do that in
everything

that our school is all about,

so the children are
able to live fully.

A lot of people in
the tech industry

send their kids to
Peninsula School

because we really pride ourselves
on preserving childhood.

We have a natural campus.

Kids can climb trees here.

They have a lot of choices
throughout their day.

We really pride ourselves also

on those authentic interactions.

So I think we're really
unique in Silicon Valley.

And I think, because we
don't have that screen time,

that parents send
their kids here

because they want that
interaction,

they want that authentic
interaction

and they want that face-to-face
interaction for their kids.

(CHILDREN CHATTERING)

Tech, of course,
wants to build

a future consumer
for their products.

We have to stand
up and say, "That's fine.

"You can sell computers
to our children

"when they get to be 14 or 15

"or however old we
decide they should be.

"But our children, our young
children are going to learn

"through doing, through
being with human beings,

"through being
active in the world,

"and that does not involve
screens right now."

JON: My kids will be teens
one day.

And if they end up acting like
I did, I'm already terrified.

It's been one year and 20
years since I was a teen,

so I'm pretty sure
I'm out of touch

with the digital world
they are growing up in.

So I talked with them and
professionals

to gain a better
understanding of this world.

All they talk
about at lunch is,

- Is Fortnite.
- "Oh my gosh,

"to get to level," yeah,
Fortnite, this game.

It's a really bad game.

- Everyone's addicted to it.
- I think it's 18 and up,

but you know kids don't listen

- to that kind of stuff.
- But it's free also,

so if you have,
what is it on, Xbox?

- Yes, Xbox.
- If you have an Xbox,

you have it.

- The game comes with it.
- Mm-hmm.

And that's all they talk about
at lunch,

like, "Oh my gosh, I
just got to level 24."

I was like,
"Do you have a life?"

(BLONDE GIRL GIGGLES)

My name's Jean Twenge.

I'm professor of psychology
at San Diego State

and the author
of the book, "iGen."

I loved your speech, and I
love the title of your book.

Maybe you can tell me about,
you know, what's iGen.

And then you got some good

and you got some
bad in your title

- so if you can elaborate
- (CHUCKLING) Yeah.

- on that a bit?
- Yeah, iGen is the generation

born 1995 and later.

They're the first generation

to spend their entire
adolescence with smartphones,

and that's had ripple effects

across many
areas of their lives.

On the upside, they have
a very strong work ethic,

they're very practical,

and they're very good at
keeping themselves safe.

It's good that iGen
teens are safe,

but it also means,
as some have argued,

they might be too safe.

They might not be having
those independent experiences

which can help them as
they grow to adulthood.

The screens are not neutral,

that they are gonna
affect your child.

So we know that if
they're on a screen

for even five hours
during the school day,

that, when they get home,

there really isn't room
for any more screen time.

My oldest son, Adam,

when he was in middle
school and high school,

he became addicted to video
games right under my nose,

and I didn't even know it was
going on.

We didn't see it coming.

There's no way.

So we started
Families Managing Media

as a direct result of that
experience.

I have a nursing
degree from Emory,

I used to do a lot of research,

and what I see my goal

is to take all that medical
information

and put it in a simple format
so parents can understand it,

and, quite frankly, it's
what I wish I had known

back when I was trying
to figure this out.

It causes brain changes,
(PENSIVE MUSIC)

and that's not to be sensational
or scary.

It just does.

It stimulates the limbic system.

It stimulates the amygdala
and the fight/flight.

It stimulated all that.

It falls under that
electronic screen syndrome.

And what makes it a syndrome

is when the child depends on
this for their daily routine.

Time online among teens
has doubled since 2006,

and if you total the
amount of time

that teens say they spend

texting online and on social
media,

just through activities and
just during leisure time,

not counting homework, it
adds up to six hours a day.

That's just through activities,
though.

More comprehensive
surveys have concluded

it's more like eight or
even nine hours a day.

Depression, suicide, self-harm,

all of them started to increase
right around 2011 or 2012.

That's exactly when the
smartphone became common,

so the time sequence lines up.

It is part of them, it is part
of them.

And when you speak to them
and ask them, you know,

what it's like when they
don't have their cell phones,

they say, "I feel lost.

"I feel disconnected.

"I don't know what to do with
myself."

It's an ongoing issue
that we discuss regularly

in staff meetings.

Teachers are frustrated.

We're not sure what to do.

Oh, if I were to get
off of social media,

I feel like I would be spaced
out from all my friends

and I wouldn't be
connected with them

as much as I could
be with the phone.

Which I know is
bad to say, but it's true.

Everything is on the phone.

If you wanna plan something,
it's already on the phone.

If you wanna watch
something, it's on the phone.

So you don't need to go out
when it's already there for you.

- (PENSIVE MUSIC)
- There are some people who,

since between 6th grade and now,

they've become so
more socially awkward

since they started
using social media

and have distanced themselves
from a lot of people.

It's common to see five or six
students

hanging around, socializing
with one another,

but not speaking to one another,
not looking at each other.

They've got their earbuds in
their ears

and their eyes on their phones,

and they're essentially
ignoring one another

in their presence.

Today's kids may
grow up not knowing

how to just interact (CHUCKLING)
face-to-face with people

in an authentic way,

and to be able to read other
folks' facial expressions

or even the way that
they wanna communicate.

When the kids come to see
me, they're on their devices

six, seven, eight,
nine hours the day,

and their parents aren't
parenting them,

and so they have unrestricted
access to whatever,

meaning their hours
aren't set up.

The characteristics
that these kids feature

is that they can't make the eye
contact.

Their body language is
really all closed off.

A lot of them don't
have true relationships

outside their devices.

When they wake
up every morning,

they are building their brand.

They're thinking 24 hours a day

about what their brand is

to their friends and
to their public.

A child really believes that
their biggest goal in life

is to be (LAUGHING) famous.

They wanna be famous and they
wanna make money on YouTube.

Those are the two things
they're really concerned about.

They wanna fit in so badly

that they'll change themselves

to become someone who
they're not on social media,

so it is like forcing them to
grow up.

It's just like a pressure
to be perfect all the time,

which is just false.

Like you have to have the
perfect picture,

the perfect place.

You always have to be doing
something.

It's not that important to
look perfect on Instagram.

I just, I want to look good on
Instagram.

(LAUGHS)

They're worried about all
their selfies.

They're worried about how
this is all being presented

to their social media platform.

This is a very
stressful way to live.

My internet persona,
which was everything's fine,

I look happy, I look healthy,
I'm happy with who I am.

But then there's the real part
of me

that was depressed, anxious
all the time, barely eating,

doing things to myself that
I never thought I'd be doing,

thinking that I wanted to die,

and just things that
you would not see

in an Instagram picture.

I think they're overwhelmed,

and I think they don't know it.

I think they are so
connected all the time,

they don't know how to relax.

Some days, if I'm doing
homework

or if I'm just reading
a book for English class

and I get a text, put the book
down, answer that real fast.

Then I try to read again

but another text
comes in right away.

And then you're on other
things and you get off-task

and you just never
go back to it.

You try to have two
conversations at once

and see if you can remember
everything that's going on.

You can't.

That's what multitasking is.

When you're doing
two things at once,

two visual tasks at once,

what your brain is doing

is oscillating between
the two of them.

And the young, nimble mind
can do that quite well,

in a way that seems as
if they're simultaneously

doing their homework,
checking Facebook,

and updating their Instagram.

But, in fact,
they're doing it at a cost.

It's inefficient to switch
back and forth that many times

between that many different
processes.

I think they're really
having a hard time

getting done everything that
is expected of them to get done

and stay connected 24/7.

'Cause they are connected 24/7.

If you were to teach a
first-period class,

the amount of kids who
are late regularly

because they've slept in,

because they were up all night
on their phone, is enormous.

- (PENSIVE DIGITAL MUSIC)
- I'm always on my phone

at night just to stay on it
and be on it for no reason.

Like the other night,
I was just on it,

just looking at pictures
till three in the morning,

just 'cause I couldn't
go to bed.

You just are scrolling
and people are still up

and you just look at pictures.

Sleep is just crucial for
mental health

and for physical health,

and teens need more of it
than adults do, not less.

They need about nine
hours a night.

And fewer and fewer are getting
the sleep that they need.

One reason is
because a lot of them

are looking at their phone
right before they go to bed.

But, even more serious,
some of them

are looking at their phones
in the middle of the night

or staying up late or
staying up all night

because the phone is so tempting
and they can't put it down.

Each night, I try to go
to bed around 12 o'clock

because homework will keep me up

and then just other things I
need to do.

But then maybe I'll
go on Instagram

for, like he said, five
minutes, 10 minutes,

thinking that it's only gonna be

for five minutes or 10 minutes,

but there's just this constant
flow of new information,

information that really doesn't
matter,

but that just keeps me hooked

and I stay up later than I
should.

And then I wake
up the next morning

(LAUGHING) regretting it, and
then I do it again that night.

They feel anxious.

If we have a student who
is in need of some help,

they might wait weeks to
see a school social worker,

and that's only because their
case loads are so large.

I don't think
parents are aware

of the amount of cyberbullying
that goes on with it

and just pressure, all
the way around pressure

from social media.

Cyberbullying.

People can say anything they
want online

and don't have the guts
to say it in face-to-face.

There's also things like
Photoshop

that can help you turn into a
completely different person,

so there's people that
catfish other people.

If you don't do this,
then I'm gonna do this.

I'm gonna capture
some pictures from you,

I'm gonna get you to give me
some videos,

and then I'm gonna
blackmail you.

I'm gonna post them,
I'm gonna repost them.

The way that children use this
as a weapon

is astounding.

(SOMBER MUSIC)

We're seeing this confluence

of events, right, where
smartphones,

there's just more and
more of them everywhere

and teenagers are using
them more and more,

and we're also seeing

some troubling data on teen
depression.

Something's going on
there because the uptick,

it's been only in the
past four or five years

but we're starting to see
that it's at higher levels

than it has been for a couple
decades.

Most concerning of all is
that the suicide rate for teens

has roughly doubled over this
time period.

It was so scary moment for me.

I think I wanna lose my life
there when I,

because it looks like
she has serious plans

to jump from the window.

(CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC)
(FATHER SIGHS)

I just got addicted
to the screen

and just always looking
at other people's lives

and just kinda
getting jealous of them.

Just saw people and how
nice their lives were,

their nice houses, cars, and
how much money they have.

They were basically,
I guess, rich,

and that's what I want in life.

Sometimes, I don't
get any sleep.

Instagram is always
on my mind now.

She start to spend

long, long periods of
time on the phone.

We trying to cut it
off a little bit

but we're busy, we're
so busy all the time.

We leave it a little bit
and troubles came up.

I was on Instagram

and I searched up #depression,

and I found all these
depressing quotes,

and just, they got to me.

Eventually, I opened my window

and I was standing on the ledge.

But my dad was in the balcony

so he saw me and
he told me to stop.

I wish that
treatment center help a lot.

They told me at
the treatment center

that social media

is, I guess, addicting,

it's really bad for your brain,

and we could have so
much more in life.

While I was away
from social media,

I kinda learned
more about myself.

I guess I'm talented

and there is some (CHUCKLING)
self-confidence in me.

My parents tried giving me a
flip phone

and taking my phone away and
hiding it and lying to me,

but I just kept on
begging them for my phone.

She was basically dying
to have her phone back,

so we did, but we put
those little conditions.

I know still she can do stuff,

but we normally
check a little bit.

My friends did think that
I shouldn't have my phone.

Some of them were saying,

"I'm gonna tell your
dad to take it away."

I was like, "No, that's
not good." (LAUGHS)

Instagram gave me a
lot of pain in my life,

a lot of insecurity.

JON: But yet you have it
back on your phone again.

Yes, I still have Instagram.
(CHUCKLES)

I don't think I'll ever be able
to get away from the phone.

JON: How does it make you
feel hearing her say that?

Oh, it's sad.

But I believe we have
to work on it together.

We need to find a
way to keep it away

from the smartphone or the
social media.

One of the really
interesting things

that I'll do with my patients

is I'll ask them, "What
can Mom or Dad do better?"

when Mom or Dad is
out of the room, right?

More than half of the
responses I get from kids is,

"Pay more attention to me."

They're off doing their thing,

whether it's staring
at their phone

or answering an email or
just keeping up with life.

I think that, not only
are we not being mindful

about what our kids are doing

or teaching them how
to be mindful

in their use of these devices,

we're not mindful of
what we are doing

and what we are modeling
when we do it.

I see so many
parents in the park,

we call it distracted parenting,

where they're kind of pushing
their toddler on the swing

and simultaneously
checking their Facebook.

That toddler is, in many cases,
preverbal,

but they're already picking
up on the lack of social cues.

And when they're a
little bit older,

they're already thinking that
they wanna have a cell phone

like their mom or dad does,

and they think that this is
totally acceptable behavior,

that you're not socially engaged

with the person
that you're with.

Every time you hear
your phone buzz,

you're gonna be alerted.

You're gonna get that
little dollop of dopamine.

You're gonna be
wanting to go check it.

It's gonna be really hard.

So, as parents and as adults

who have fully functioning
frontal cortex,

we need to realize

this is not a neutral
activity for us either.

Watching your
child learn to swim

is an agonizingly boring thing.

There's really nothing else
to do but look at your phone.

Your kid's been looking
up at you for two minutes,

trying to get your attention
to show you what they can do,

that they can finally
hold their breath

underwater for a few seconds,

and you've missed it because
you're checking your texts

or checking Twitter or just
looking for something other

to hold your attention
for a few seconds.

And that's a terrible feeling.

Are we not talking to our
child or our romantic partner

because we're
staring at our phone

to get the latest tweet
from the president?

What is going on?

And so we need to be very
thoughtful and mindful

about the way we integrate
this into our lives.

The real message to parents
is to look in the mirror.

Consider yourself, what you are:

your kid's most
important role model.

You have to walk the walk.

You can't just talk the talk.

How does it make you
feel when Mommy and Daddy

are on their phone and
not listening to you?

Sad.

JON: Why does it
make you feel sad?

'Cause I can't talk
with you for a little bit.

What could we be doing better

than spending so much time on
our phone?

Um...

Spending a little bit of time.

Spending more time
with us and outside.

JON: Doing things
that are not on phones?

Yeah.

Doing thing that
aren't on screens.

We're the largest
organization,

not just in the United
States but in the world,

that focuses on media's
impact and technology's impact

on kids and families.
(PENSIVE DIGITAL MUSIC)

And we did the
pioneering research

on tech and media
addiction a few years ago.

That actually came because,

as a parent of four kids
myself, I watch my own kids,

and as an educator, watch
all the kids I teach

be constantly
glued to their phones

in a way that made TVs and
video games seem quaint.

The silence from Silicon
Valley is deafening.

It's a no-brainer, if you will,

that brains are being
affected by technology,

and specifically by devices.

It's clear that's happening.

And do I believe that
some of the companies

are intentionally designing
products and software

in order to make
them more addictive?

Absolutely.

Does the sun rise every day?

Absolutely.

The reason is 'cause of
their business models.

Because their business models
are dependent on that usage.

Particularly advertising-driven
business models.

You and I don't
pay for Facebook.

We're not Facebook's customer.

So they aren't
beholden to you and I.

You and I are the product
Facebook sells.

'Cause they give you and I the
service for free of Facebook.

But they own our data
and they own our eyeballs

and they own our attention span

and, increasingly, our brand
preferences.

You and I are the
good being sold.

It's also why they've
eviscerated

so many privacy standards.

Getting consumers to give up

their personal private
information

so that a company like Facebook
can have this mass database

of all your preferences,
et cetera,

and send you targeted ads.

So it's not because
they're evil people.

It's because they want your
information

or they want your to be
constantly checking your screen,

'cause they make more
money when you do that.

It's that simple.

And the way to do that

is to get you to give up your
information

and get you
addicted to your device.

We're screwed because the
average person

doesn't have the same power
that these companies do.

Aside from me, the
average Joe doesn't have

a social behavioral scientist

walking around with them,
saying,

"No, I don't think you should
do this; you should do that.

"No, I don't think you should
do this; you should do that,"

like these companies do.

They know everything
about you.

They know exactly how
much time you spend

looking at this page
versus that page,

whether you like cute
puppies or cute kittens.

Their whole business
model is predicated

upon providing you more of
what you've liked in the past

so you will keep coming back.

It is a little bit reminiscent
of what people once said

about smoking, which is to
say that the industry insisted

that there was no evidence of
addiction.

Cigarettes and nicotine
clearly do not meet

the classic definitions of
addiction.

- There is no intoxication.
- We'll take that as a no,

and, again, time is short.

JON: With chilling parallels
to the tobacco industry,

Mark Zuckerberg testified before
Congress

and denied manipulating their
products

and making them addictive.

We're almost at time so
I wanna ask you one more.

Do social media companies
hire consulting firms

to help them figure out

how to get more dopamine
feedback loops

so that people don't
wanna leave the platform?

No, Senator.

That's not how we've talked
about this

or how we set up our
product team.

They sat on that research
and they sold it to us anyway.

They made money hand over fist.

The big tech, social
media, and video gaming,

they know that this is
addicting,

they know that it's problematic,
and they didn't care.

Sean Parker said that
"we did it anyway."

JON: How long before
tech and gaming companies

become too powerful to stop?

A country that understands
this well is South Korea

where internet and gaming
addiction

have a stranglehold
on the country.

They have more than 400 internet

and gaming rehabs
operating presently.

It got so bad, a law
had to be passed,

known as the Cinderella Law,

which will prohibit children
from playing games after dark.

I have to say, for me,

that's like treating a
drug problem in a culture

by punishing the end user
instead of punishing the pusher,

the person who actually
makes this product

and decides that it
should be distributed.

So I think it's a short-term
solution.

But it shows the
severity of the issue.

I think it's a really
powerful illustration.

JON: In 2010, a
three-month-old baby

died of starvation while
her parents played for hours

at an internet gaming cafe.

They were ironically
nurturing a virtual child

while their real baby
starved to death.

They were let off
easy by the judge,

as he said they were addicts
and did not understand

the consequences
of their actions.

In China, the social networks
working with the government

have now implemented
a social credit system

where your life will be
rated by how you act online.

Like a scary science fiction
story, with a bad credit score,

you can be refused travel
and stay in certain hotels,

held back from
getting a better job,

not allowing your
children in good schools,

and being publicly
shamed as a bad citizen.

How long before
these social ratings

spread across the globe?

You know, the last time
Congress

passed an important
piece of legislation

around privacy or
regulating technology,

Mark Zuckerberg
was in first grade.

So Congress has had a
disgraceful performance

in the United States,
largely 'cause, I think,

they accept large contributions
from the tech industry.

JON: In 2017, the tech
industry spent

a record $50 million
lobbying powerful people

on both ends of the political
spectrum,

making them the largest
lobbyists in Washington DC.

I think if you're
trying to do something

that is bad for your consumers

but is good for the bottom line,

there is no other way to look
at that other than to say

that is not what a
company should be doing,

especially when it has an
audience of a billion-plus people.

(CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC)

One of the things
that we give up

when we are in front of a screen

is that ability to look
inward, to process,

to be reflective, to
synthesize what's coming in.

Understand that our
mind is important,

and mindfulness

is the opposite of mindlessness.

All of these algorithms

that are built into
the echo chambers,

that are built into these
interactive apps

are about us using them
mindlessly

and following the path that
they've laid out for us,

right to the profit
centers that they want to.

Who should have the
right to interrupt you

is really important in
figuring out how to fight back

in a world that will take your,

will take as much of your
attention

as you're willing to give,
and then some.

We're quick to say,
"Okay, put down your phone.

"Remove the screen
from your life."

Well, then what?

And I think it's that fear
of missing out,

and the fear of what
happens in that silence

when we put our screens down,

that cause us to quickly go
and pick them again, right?

It is the sense of loss

and a sense of missing
out on something.

One of the things we
teach here is mindfulness,

and it's all about being able

to sit with yourself in
the moment and observe,

be tuned into and observe
what you're experiencing

physically and emotionally
and cognitively,

just being really aware,
self-aware.

If you are trying to break
a habit or break an addiction,

you have to learn to separate
yourself from that activity

that you're habitually
caught up in.

But, to do that, you have to
have a sense

that there's an alternative.

The reason why
people develop addictions

is because, you know,
from one point of view,

they really want to be happy.

If you can tune into that in
meditation

and actually experience it,

then you can feel happy.

When you develop the capacity
to just sit with yourself,

you can allow, for
instance, a craving to pass.

A craving arises,
you observe it,

and if you wait, it will
actually pass.

If someone walks into a room

and they're totally stressed

and agitated and all strung out,

everyone in the
room will feel that.

If you've had a good
meditation in the morning,

feel really peaceful
and abundant, positive,

you are gonna improve people's
experience wherever you go

just by virtue of that energy
that you have in your mind,

and people will feel that,
and that's good for you.

I'm an advocate for
scheduling time for focus.

We literally need to put in
our day, I have it every day,

from eight o'clock to
10:30 is my focus time.

I turn off all notifications,

I use apps to block the
internet,

so that that is my focus time.

And so we have
to schedule that in.

That is not something that is
going to happen on its own.

No matter where I am,
no matter who I'm with,

what I'm doing, when I have
dinner, it is tech-free.

Even if I'm alone, I don't use
my phone.

And it's just an attempt to
carve out some of the day,

to keep some of the day sacred,

where I'm either interacting
with people

or doing something that's
in the here and now

in the real world.

Having tech-free time
in the home,

whether an adult or a young
person, a parent or not,

having time that you've decided

that you're not gonna use tech,

whether it's for two
hours on a Saturday,

after a certain time at night,

or within a certain time of
waking up,

that can be very, very good
for mental and physical health.

One of the things that we
have, really, to our advantage

is that children hate to be
treated like they're idiots.

They hate to feel
they're being manipulated

or snookered in some way.

And if we can engage
them into understanding

that they are not actors
in this environment

but they are reactors in this
environment

to algorithms that have
been pre-engineered

to get them to twitch

exactly how the makers
of those algorithms

want them to twitch,
then they can back off

and use their higher cortical
functions.

You don't have to, especially
for a high school student,

you don't have to
take the phone away.

It's limited use.

So two hours a day or less

doesn't seem to have serious
effects on mental health.

That's enough time
to text your friends

and get on social media
and watch a few fun videos,

and then go and live your life.

I think that's good
advice for everybody,

teens, parents, adults,
everybody.

The people who
are returning to analog

or seeking it out
in their lives,

if someone's going to the
trouble of buying a turntable,

you know, going out and spending
a couple hundred dollars

on a new record collection,
they're doing it as a choice.

They're doing it because they
see that this is an experience

that is different and often
complementary

to what happens on their
phone and their computer.

I think that's a healthy
way to live in this world.

And I think that the great
challenge for all of us

is to learn how to use these
technologies

in ways that are mindful
and meaningful

rather than we're responding

to design cues,
(INSPIRING MUSIC)

responding to incentives that
have been programmed for us

to sell us on an online life

and then to sell portions

of that online life to
advertisers.

JON: Large tech companies
that still do not admit

to the addictive nature of their
products

have committed to create more
apps to monitor screen use.

In June 2018, Apple announced
Screen Time

at their conference,
which does just this.

Time will tell if this approach
will work.

I really do hope it's a
turn in the right direction

for all our sakes.

Let's face facts.

These screens can take us live

to the summit of Mount Everest

or to the depths of the ocean

or to cultures and experiences

we could never
have in real life.

There is great hope in that.

JON: I still use my
smartphone, but far less.

I do feel that I took
my time back

from something that was
stealing it from me.

And you can, too.

I'm not saying you have
to delete your apps.

Just decide on where you want
your attention to be focused.

In the real world or in theirs?

And, really,
who deserves it the most?

Provided by explosiveskull
https://twitter.com/kaboomskull