The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Brain Rot Emergency: These Internal Documents Prove They’re Controlling You!
16 Feb 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the largest threat to humanity right now?
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Chapter 2: How are short-form videos impacting our attention spans?
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Chapter 3: What happens to our mental health when we scroll on social media?
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You are actively rewiring your brain for the worst by engaging with social media, high volume, quick videos.
And the social media executives don't let their kids use this stuff because they designed it to be addictive. And they know that millions and millions of kids have been cyberbullied, sextorted. Many have committed suicide. So I'm getting angry.
Chapter 4: What strategies can help us reclaim our attention from social media?
And then from the medical perspective, it's rewiring your body, increasing your risk of heart disease and PTSD.
We've moved too far into the virtual world and the results are catastrophic. People are spending roughly about six and a half hours a day on their phones. What do we do about this? Well, here's the amazing thing. We actually can control our fate. We are joined by a social psychologist and a Harvard physician to dive into the technology addiction and brain rot crisis billions are facing worldwide.
And how we can counter its devastating mental health effects.
You have to reclaim your attention because without the ability to pay attention for several minutes at a time, we're seeing the destruction of human potential, the human relationships, the connection.
But there's all these small tweaks that you can do to override that primal urge to scroll. For example, 91% of people had an improvement in attention, well-being, and mental health. Just two weeks of continuing to use their device, but not having internet access.
Next, keep your phone out of your arm's reach because the sheer potential for distraction has actually been shown to change your prefrontal cortex, which is called brain drain.
So yes, we should exert more self-control, but we're being pushed in addictive apps and it's messing us all up. That's not our fault. Would you advise people to delete these short form videos? Oh my God, yeah. That was the most important thing you can do for your intelligence and for humanity.
But if I was going to offer some specific advice, here are the three things that I do with my students to reclaim your attention.
And then to add to that, I have the three second brain reset. So first.
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Chapter 5: How can I recognize my phone addiction?
I can very quickly tell when I'm starting to get that feeling of addiction or compulsion. And so I course correct early, but that's only because I know the science and I course correct. I'm definitely addicted. You can. I keep my phone outside. I walk the talk.
Chapter 6: What are the effects of quitting social media?
I keep my phone outside my bedroom. It is not within arm's reach. I grayscale my phone during periods of deep focus during the day. When I have a deadline, I have to get things done. And at night, so I avoid revenge, bedtime procrastination. But sometimes it happens. Like, I'm a human, you know? So this past week—
Chapter 7: Why is the term 'popcorn brain' relevant today?
Not to be a real downer, but there have been things that have been in the media the past week that have been really challenging, especially as a woman. And so I have found myself with the primal earth to scroll. My amygdala has been triggered. I have been going down rabbit holes, and I wouldn't ordinarily do that. So I give myself grace, too, and have a sense of self-compassion.
Do you feel like you're addicted to your phone?
No, I'm not at all addicted to my phone because I don't have any slot machine apps on it. But I really want to question – you made a distinction that many scientists do, which is, well, we can't quite say it's addiction because addiction is certain biochemical pathways based on heroin and addictive substances.
But I believe that this is one of the meta-talking points that they are able to push, that we can't call it addiction. It's different. I'm not trying to have a meta-talking point. I'm sorry. You and I are total allies on this. We see the problem. All I mean is we're supposed to be very careful about using the word addiction.
Chapter 8: What steps can I take to reclaim my attention?
But, and you had Anna Lembke on, and she was very clear, like in her practices, now it's overwhelmingly digital addictions. It's all of this is working through dopamine. If you feel compulsive use, definitely dopamine. So it's most of the same brain centers as it is for heroin or crack or any other drug. And it's the same effects.
That is, it's compulsive use where you don't want to do it, you want to change, but yet you find yourself doing it, and you have withdrawal effects, right? And people have terrible withdrawal effects when they're heavy users of these things and they stop. And so, you know, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck and swims like a duck, I'm going to call it a duck.
In fact, that's what they call it. So I just want to read one more quote. Again, the quotes are just so astonishing. Some meta researchers, one of them says, quote, it seems clear from what's presented here in this internal study. that some of our users are addicted to our products. That's their word, addicted to our products.
And I worry that driving sessions incentivizes us to make our products more addictive without providing much more value. How to keep someone returning over and over to the same behavior each day? Intermittent rewards are most effective, think slot machines, reinforcing behaviors that become especially hard to extinguish even when they provide little reward or cease providing reward at all.
People, I mean, just imagine an industry that has caused 85% of people to feel that they're addicted.
And not calling it addiction.
And not calling it addiction. And these people are having their lives diminished, their relationships diminished.
So I'm trying to convey is we're seeing the destruction of human capital, the destruction of human potential, the destruction of human relationships, the destruction of connection, the destruction of sense of meaning at a scale so vast, I don't think people are capable of comprehending it. I now believe this is affecting most human beings.
These industries, these few companies have damaged the lives of most human beings. We don't have good data from the developing world, but certainly the developed world, wherever kids are going through puberty on touchscreens, you have this constant fighting over the screens, over the technology. And you have these diminishing outcomes, diminishing cognition, diminishing sense of purpose in life.
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