BITESIZE | How Smartphones Are Rewiring Our Brains | Jonathan Haidt #554

Welcome to Feel Better, Live More Bite-size, your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is from episode 456 of the podcast with Jonathan Haidt, world-renowned psychologist and author of The best-selling book, The Anxious Generation. Now a topic that I'm truly passionate about is the introduction of social media and smartphones into all aspects of our lives. And what impact this is having on us individually, collectively, and perhaps most urgently, what impact this is having on our children.

In this clip, Jonathan shares some eye-opening insights and shares some practical advice for parents. I think a lot of us can understand why social media in particular can be toxic. So why, in your view, do you think we should try our best to avoid giving our children smartphones until the age of 16? When I started writing the book, I thought the main story was going to be about social media and girls, because that's where the evidence is clearest. But but pretty soon in I realized, no, it's the phone-based childhood.

It's when the phone moves to the center of your child's life, it blocks out everything else. In fact, I call phones experience blockers because they will they'll reduce the degree to which your child has every other kind of experience. They won't read as many books, they're not likely to have hobbies, they're not going to sleep as much. And that's even true if they're not on social media because the phone has so many fun things to do. So look at the way kids behave now.

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