Jonathan Haidt

So it's activating your amygdala.

It's dampening or decreasing the volume of your prefrontal cortex.

It's creating that reward system, the dopamine hit, those addictive behaviors.

So it's only, you know, when you're thinking about memory, planning, what was the metric here?

It was memory, right?

That was the metric that they were using to study.

And so when you're thinking about working memory or cognitive function, complex problem solving, this is all prefrontal cortex.

And so when you're engaging with TikTok, 10 minutes, five minutes, whatever it is, you are dialing down that biology in your brain.

And so, of course, you're going to see changes and you're going to see the flip side, increased hypervigilance, irritability, distractibility, fragmented attention.

It's just, again, this is not to say that this whole conversation, right, or when you're reading studies, you might say to yourself, what's wrong with me?

You know, is there something wrong with me?

Is my brain broken?

Am I weak?

It is not you.

You are not alone.

It is not your fault.

It is the biology of your brain doing exactly as it should.

So we talked about the amygdala and prefrontal cortex here.

Your amygdala is not wrong or broken.

It's by design supposed to think about your immediate needs, survival, self-preservation.