Michael Regilio

Yeah.

And another internal memo showed that 11-year-olds were four times more likely to keep coming back to Instagram compared to other competing apps, despite the platform requiring users to be at least 13.

Right.

Well, Professor Haidt, who you've had on the show, uses a great analogy.

I've heard him say it several times in interviews.

He says that imagine if instead of an app, it was a casino that opened in the neighborhood and let children come in and allow them to gamble.

Instead of running around with their friends in the woods and playing pirates, they were suddenly spending all their time at a casino gambling compulsively.

Well,

If that were the case, parents would freak out.

They would have the place shut down.

Well, the social media apps are a casino opening in the neighborhood and robbing children of their youth and their sleep.

Yeah.

Phone addiction is not classified in the same way alcohol, opioids, or gambling addiction are.

But the fact of the matter is it checks a lot of the same boxes.

Most notably, and we just mentioned this, that dopamine-driven reward loop.

Exactly.

Notifications and likes give the brain a little dopamine reward.

Sure.

And that hits teenagers harder because the parts of the brain responsible for impulse control and self-regulation are still under construction.

Psychiatrist Ann Lemke, who you've actually had on the show as well.