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Science Vs

How To Stop Scrolling

02 Apr 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 31.757 Wendy Zukerman

Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Faces. This is the show that pits facts against phones. Today on the show, how do we stop scrolling? Scrolling. Just last week, in a landmark case, Meta, which owns Instagram and Google, owner of YouTube, were found negligent for basically creating addictive products that harmed a young woman's mental health.

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Chapter 2: How do social media algorithms contribute to addictive behavior?

31.777 - 34.06 Blythe Terrell

A huge slap to big tech today.

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Chapter 3: What are the most extreme methods to reduce phone usage?

34.08 - 42.19 Unknown

A landmark verdict that could change the face of social media. deliberately and negligently designed their products to get young users hooked on the apps.

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42.531 - 49.678 Blythe Terrell

They kept her endless scrolling, constant notifications, algorithms that learn exactly what keeps you watching.

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50.499 - 55.184 Wendy Zukerman

The tech giants have been ordered to pay her $6 million. They're appealing.

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Chapter 4: How can small nudges help us stop scrolling?

55.685 - 73.925 Wendy Zukerman

But this case has reignited a huge conversation over how these apps can just suck us in. The young woman's lawyer said during closing arguments that these apps are, quote, Trojan horses. They look wonderful and great, but you invite them in and they take over.

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Chapter 5: What happens when we increase friction to limit phone use?

74.505 - 81.773 Wendy Zukerman

Which, away from this case, is exactly the way that a lot of our listeners have been feeling about these apps.

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83.295 - 92.756 Unknown

I want to use my phone less, obviously, like everyone else. I've been trying to quit for the last two years. It has gotten worse. I want to stop news scrolling.

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Chapter 6: Is using greyscale an effective method to reduce screen time?

92.996 - 115.999 Wendy Zukerman

It just feels like I'm constantly consuming something off of a screen. Surveys find that over half of adults in the U.S. want to spend less time on their phones. My mental health is just better when I'm off social media, and it's hard to get out of the scrolling. So the question we have for this episode is this. Given that so many of us feel hooked,

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115.979 - 127.656 Wendy Zukerman

Is there any way to unhook ourselves, to stop scrolling? Rather ironically, online, you can find tons of people claiming that they've found the answer.

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127.676 - 132.963 Unknown

These are five really simple brain tricks that can help you break social media addiction and stop doom scrolling.

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Chapter 7: Do people feel better when they reduce their scrolling time?

133.063 - 137.51 Dr. Jaejeung Kim

The first tip is friction stacking. We need to create as many layers between us and that damn phone.

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Chapter 8: What practical tips can help us stop scrolling?

137.53 - 143.218 Dr. Jaejeung Kim

If you can slay that dragon, if you can resist temptation, well, you can do anything.

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146.168 - 182.345 Wendy Zukerman

So how do you slay that dragon? Is there anything that can actually get us off our phones that's science approved? When it comes to scrolling, a lot of us have been endless scrolling, constant notifications, and then there's science. Science versus scrolling. We'll be right back just after the break. Don't look at your phone. Welcome back.

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182.385 - 208.836 Wendy Zukerman

There's a lot of chat right now about how these tech giants have created social media apps designed to suck us in. Now we're going to talk about how to get unsucked. Time for the science with Beryl Horne, senior producer. Hello. Hi, Wendy. It's been a while since we've been chatting about science. Yeah, yeah, it has. So... Have you been spending all that time on your phone?

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211.719 - 213.141 Meryl Horn

Sometimes it feels like that.

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213.842 - 217.906 Wendy Zukerman

Seriously, do you have a problem with scrolling, do you think?

217.926 - 244.38 Meryl Horn

Yeah. The reason I wanted to do this episode was because I'd find myself just staring at my phone for way longer than I kind of meant to, especially at the end of the day. And it wouldn't... It wouldn't even feel, like, good. Like, I would often feel, like, worse about my life or just crappy in general, and yet I'd spend all this time, you know, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Yeah.

245.201 - 261.183 Wendy Zukerman

And, you know, this is a feeling that many of us have had, and it's kind of crazy to think about how pervasive this feeling is. So, Meryl, when it comes to this question of how do we stop scrolling, I mean, where do we begin?

261.243 - 261.343

Yeah.

261.661 - 279.957 Meryl Horn

Well, first off, the research does find that scrolling itself is especially bad compared to other things we do on our phones. Okay. So, like, one study asked people, like, how they felt after doing different things on their phones, and the researchers could spy on them to see, like, exactly what they were using their phones for.

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