Jonathan Haidt

Over time, when it's continually triggered, it starts to rewire your brain in other ways.

And how does it do that?

Through something called...

The prefrontal cortex.

If you put your hand, I like, I can use this model, but I can also just use my hands.

When you put your hand on your forehead, the area right behind your forehead right here is the prefrontal cortex.

This is a very important thing for our conversation, this area of the brain.

And what the prefrontal cortex does is it governs executive functions.

So impulse control, memory, planning, organization, strategic thinking, complex problem solving.

And there is a tension between your amygdala and the prefrontal cortex.

When your amygdala is in the driver's seat, that prefrontal cortex is quiet.

And what is happening as we continue to engage with our devices and have this primal urge to scroll, that amygdala upregulates and the prefrontal cortex downregulates.

And over time, that is very problematic for all of the reasons that we're kind of introducing at the start of this conversation.

So there's two comments to that.

First off is that, you know, when we think about social media and how society is shapeshifting to allow this short-form content, there is a concept that Jonathan and I briefly mentioned, I think prior to us filming, called second-screen viewing.

And so what's happening is that, allegedly, these big streamers are asking their creative talent, whether it's screenwriters or actors or directors, to replay, to reiterate the plot.

Because as you're watching—you know, when we were kids, we would watch—

tv or movies and you just sit on the couch and you'd have a bucket of popcorn with your family and you'd watch a movie an hour hour and a half two hours and now second screen viewing is happening which means that you're watching a movie or a tv show and you're on your device and so you are constantly having that fragmented attention and we are all doing it and so what these streamers are allegedly asking their creative talent to do is to reiterate the plot so it's shape-shifting it makes sense if my brain is you know i'm 33 years old so i've grown up with a lot of this stuff

So I would say that for kids, yes, like, you know, not engaging at whatsoever.

But for someone, you know, my approach is a little bit different for someone who's like in their 30s or in their 40s.