Brain Rot Emergency: These Internal Documents Prove They’re Controlling You!

**Steven Bartlett** (0:00)
This episode is sponsored by Morgan Stanley's Thoughts On The Market. Today's financial markets move fast. Morgan Stanley moves faster with their daily podcast Thoughts On The Market. Thoughts On The Market covers daily trends across the global investment landscape with actionable insights from Morgan Stanley's leading economists and strategists. And with most episodes under five minutes long, staying informed has never been easier. Listen and subscribe to Thoughts On The Market wherever you get your podcasts.

**Dr. Aditi Nerurkar** (0:30)
You are actively rewiring your brain for the worst by engaging with social media, high-volume, quick videos.

**Jonathan Haidt** (0:36)
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.

**Dr. Aditi Nerurkar** (0:47)
And then from the medical perspective, it's rewiring your body, increasing your risk of heart disease and PTSD.

**Jonathan Haidt** (0:53)
We've moved too far into the virtual world and the results are catastrophic.

**Steven Bartlett** (0:57)
People are spending roughly about six and a half hours a day on their phones. What do we do about this?

**Jonathan Haidt** (1:02)
Well, here's the amazing thing. We actually can control our fate.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:06)
So 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.

**Jonathan Haidt** (1:18)
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.

**Dr. Aditi Nerurkar** (1:32)
For example, 91% of people had an improvement in attention, well-being and mental health after just two weeks of continuing to use their device, but not having internet access. Next, keep your phone out of your arms reach because the sheer potential for distraction has actually been shown to change your prefrontal cortex, which is called brain drain.

**Jonathan Haidt** (1:50)
So yes, we should exert more self-control, but we're being pushed to addictive apps and it's messing us all up. That's not our fault.

**Steven Bartlett** (1:56)
Would you advise people to delete these short-form videos?

**Jonathan Haidt** (1:59)
Oh my God, yes. 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 attention.

**Dr. Aditi Nerurkar** (2:09)
Then to add to that, I have the three-second brain reset. So first.

**Steven Bartlett** (2:13)
I wanted to ask you guys what you thought of this.

**Dr. Aditi Nerurkar** (2:16)
Hey, you're back. This terrifies me.

**Jonathan Haidt** (2:18)
We've got to stop this now.

**Steven Bartlett** (2:23)
Guys, I've got a favor to ask before this episode begins. 69% of you that listen to the show frequently haven't yet hit the follow button. That follow button is very smart because it means you won't miss the best episodes. The algorithm, if you follow a show, will deliver you the best episodes from that show very prominently in your feed. So when we have our best episodes on this show, the most shared episodes, the most rated episodes, I would love you to know. The simple way for you to know that is to hit that follow button. Thank you so, so, so much.
Jonathan, Aditi, Jonathan, I've heard you say that the destruction of attention is the largest threat to humanity that's happening around the world. But I've also heard you say that short form videos are the worst of the worst because they're shattering attention spans. The reason why I wanted to have this conversation today is somewhat personal. And in fact, all of the conversations I have in The Diary Of A CEO are somewhat personal to some degree. They're inspired by some unanswered question I have in my head. And also some observation I have in my life. And the observation I've had is that short form videos in particular are making my life worse. And actually, I've got to say the catalyst moment really where I thought, do you know what I need to get you exceptional people together to have this conversation was I thought this, I then looked at my screen time and saw a huge change. I felt so much worse because all these social platforms have short form video now. And then I actually heard Elon Musk who has a social media platform that does short form video say that he thinks it's one of the worst inventions for humanity. Jonathan, why did you say what you said about short form video and this corruption of attention?