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this video is brought to you by ground
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news hi welcome to another episode of
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Cold
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Fusion we know for a fact that what all
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of these systems do every single one is
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it exploits our own natural tendencies
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in human beings to get and want feedback
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and that feedback chemically speaking is
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the release of dopamine in your brain
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and so what these feedback loops do and
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they exist everywhere in Call of Duty in
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other video games in social networking
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sites they get you to react and I think
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that if you get too
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desensitized and you need it over and
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over and over again then you become
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actually detached from the world in
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which you live you become callous you
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become crude and you live in front of
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your screen so we all know the benefits
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and usefulness of smartphones they're
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amazing a little rectangle in your
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pocket that does everything but that
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comes with the price there's a growing
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body of research that indicates that
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smartphones can actually change the the
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way our brains work did you know that
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just the mere presence of your phone in
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a room can destroy your cognitive
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functioning even if it's switched off
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crazy I know but literal experiments
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have proved this in this episode we'll
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take a look at how phones affect our
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memory stress levels and cognitive
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function and also here's a question if
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the collective brains of billions of
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people on earth have been unknowingly
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altered worldwide what does this mean
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for society it's not all bad news though
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we'll also take a look at how we can
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help
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ourselves you are watching cold fusion
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[Music]
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TV in 2007 amst the chaos of the
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financial crisis the first iPhone was
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launched and we are calling
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it
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iPhone computer giant Apple says it's
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reinvented the phone marrying a mobile
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with an iPod giving birth to the iPhone
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an iPod a cell phone and a portable
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internet all in a little lightweight
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package the big attraction here right
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now is encased in that plastic tube back
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there surrounded by an admiring crowd
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it's a Sleek Aluminum and Stainless
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Steel creation a cell phone doesn't have
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any buttons just a touchcreen it only
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had 16 apps and that was it no app store
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and nothing else it was relatively
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simple by today's standards suddenly
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buttons were replaced with a large
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responsive touchscreen interface people
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could Now swipe tap scroll zoom and
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browse the web more efficiently than
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they could on a desktop at the time such
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features were unheard of although it
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looked interesting very few predicted
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just how quickly such a small device
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could envelop our lives with each
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passing year the phones got faster the
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features grew and the software
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exponentially improved apps became
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useful but then came the algorithms and
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feeds and before we knew it most of us
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had entered a 2d virtual reality a
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completely separate reality and view of
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the world but through a screen this was
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powered by algorithms designed to keep
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your attention and apps designed to
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trigger the dopamine responses in your
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brain it sounds like a sci-fi film when
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put that way but we all know this story
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by now it was one of the main themes of
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the Netflix show the social dilemma a
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hmark look into how algorithms rule our
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lives and the people that made those
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algorithms knew what they were
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doing in 2008 when the true impact of
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smartphones was still a mystery UCLA
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psychiatrist Gary Small began sounding
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the caution alarm he was saying that
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heavy smartphone use could alter brain
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function by weakening the circuits
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needed for inperson interaction and
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reading non-verbal cues remember the
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iPhone was only 1 year old at this time
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at the time his claims were called quote
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Ing and quote provocative by the science
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Community but it still couldn't be
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proved fast forward a decade and a half
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later and smartphones and their
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cognitive effects are being reexamined
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but what about the less known stuff what
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other effects do smartphones have on the
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Mind although there's still much to
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learn about the long-term cognitive
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impact there is some scientific evidence
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that should make us pause if you've ever
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felt that Phantom Buzz or feel anxious
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when you haven't checked your phone in a
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while you don't need an expert to tell
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you that there's something strange at
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play what exactly are smartphones doing
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to our minds and personalities let's
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take a look at the research we're going
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to cover memory addiction cognitive
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function and stress let's break them
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down number one memory back in the day
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you had to memorize all your friends
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numbers or actually listen in Math's
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class because your teachers said that
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you couldn't carry a calculator 24/7 cab
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drivers also back in the day had no GPS
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they had to know where they were going
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without stopping to check they had to
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know all the streets it turns out that
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exercising that mental muscle of memory
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has given cab drivers physically larger
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hippo campire it's the memory center of
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the brain but also AIDS in learning and
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emotional processing but now today we
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heavily rely on our devices as memory
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aids but new research suggests that
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maybe this isn't a great sign at 2021
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study found that excessive smartphone
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use can reduce the size of the
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hippocampus especially in young develop
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brains there's been other studies with
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similar findings but unfortunately
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there's even more a meta study of MRI
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scans of chronic smartphone users found
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that they have lower gray matter volumes
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in specific regions of the brain this
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includes the anterior singulate cortex
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orbitofrontal cortex fusiform gyrus and
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parahippocampal regions while the
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research is still in its early stages
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less gray matter usually means a higher
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risk of depression schizophrenia and
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dementia but remember these are chronic
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smartphone uses but on that note the
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cost of this might be an enormous
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increase in dementia quote the less you
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use that mind of yours the less you use
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the systems that are responsible for
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complicated things like episodic
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memories or cognitive flexibility the
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more likely it is to develop Dimension
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once you stop using your memory it will
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get worse which will make you use your
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devices more according to Professor
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Oliver harded even an overreliance on
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GPS's could reduce the density of gray
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matter in the brain
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to combat the effects of hippocampus
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shrinkage regular exercise has shown to
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increase gray matter and increase memory
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it's also good to try and remember
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directions where possible and generally
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try to use your memory instead of your
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phone where practical and if you still
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really just can't put your phone down
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apps like hippo camera can help hippoc
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camera is a really easyto ous smartphone
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application that mimics how the brain
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supports memory specific behaviors also
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don't do our brains any favors one of
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these is attemp to to multitask
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interestingly humans multitasking is a
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myth only 2.5% of us can do it
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effectively Katherine price writes about
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this in her book how to break up with
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your phone in particular she warns about
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the dangers of continual partial
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attention it's checking your phone while
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mid conversation or scrolling on social
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media while watching TV sound familiar
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while we do this to attempt to be more
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productive it harms our cognitive Health
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in fact trying to consistently multitask
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can actually hinder your ability to
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think deep and complex thoughts it also
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can create a false sense of urgency
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which prevents our brain's ability to
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transfer information into long-term
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storage and from here it becomes harder
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to accumulate memories in summary every
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minute distracted by your phone is a
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lost minute in the here and now this can
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leave behind a trail of Forgotten
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experiences and damage the ability to
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formulate deep and complex thoughts and
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long-term
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memories moving on to number two
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addiction now this de detrimental effect
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is more commonly known but did you know
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that nomophobia is the real fear of
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being away from one's phone for heavy
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users a study by Dr Larry rosson the
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author of The distracted mind revealed
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what a lack of smartphone access can do
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participants in the experiment were
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strapped to sweat and heat monitors as
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they read a passage their phones were
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Out Of Reach but they could hear text
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notifications flooding in the result was
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a spike in anxiety and a drop in reading
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comprehension and this will affect more
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people as we all using our smartphones
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more between 2019 and 2023 average
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Mobile screen time shot up by 23% from 2
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hours and 56 minutes to 3 hours and 46
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minutes the average user now checks
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their phones 96 times per
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day research from a peer-reviewed
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medical journal Psychiatry research
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neuroimaging confirms that excessive
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smartphone use presents itself a lot
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like addiction weakening vital brain
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networks that control things like paying
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attention and stopping inul fores this
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leads to withdrawal symptoms and
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continued use despite negative
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consequences there's a silent epidemic
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that we're neglecting one can imagine
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the impact albe it to varying degrees on
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the 6.84 billion smartphone users
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worldwide when you factor in the amount
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of developing brains that are using the
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devices what will be the end
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result as smartphone use increases each
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year even the smartphones creators are
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questioning the monster that they've
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Unleashed Tony Fidel who worked on the
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original iPhone team says quote I wake
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up in cold sweats every so often
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thinking what did we bring to the world
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did we really bring a nuclear bomb with
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information that can like we see with
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fake news blow up people's brains and
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reprogram them end quote as a side I've
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done a full episode on the story of the
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people who created the iPhone if you're
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interested but zooming out we can't
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blame the phone manufacturers if you've
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watched The Social dilemma you would
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have seen former Tech employees
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expressing a sense of regret regarding
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the designs of social media apps we are
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increasingly glued to our phones just
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look at this 30 seconds we filmed
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outside Oxford Circus earlier today all
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the white flashes are the phones people
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are on so we've left them in that room
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we've said we've left a camera on record
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to film them getting on and now we're
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just going to leave them there and see
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how many times they look at their phone
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Harry you got your phone out after 3
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minutes is that a surprise to you it is
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it is a surprise to me actually cuz I I
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didn't think I used technology that that
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often I didn't think I was that
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dependent on it I'm surprised I lost it
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4
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minutes the role of addictive design in
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social media has been well documented
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Casino like features like pull to
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refresh mimic slot machines and exploit
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the pleasure of anticipating rewards and
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interestingly this can trigger larger
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dopamine spikes than the rewards
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themselves there's also infinite
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scrolling and autoplay to lull user into
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Mindless Behavior but a silver lining is
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that since 2018 Apple and Google have
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built digital wellbeing features into
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their phones to prevent overuse so the
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tools are there people just have to use
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them number three cognitive function a
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2022 study found that our reading
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comprehension declines when we read from
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a screen even if the text is exactly the
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same as it is on paper the chart you see
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now shows reading comprehension scores
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the red is reading from paper while the
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blue is reading from a phone in addition
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as mentioned at the top of this episode
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The mere presence of your smartphone in
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the same room room lowers your ability
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to focus remember and solve problems the
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phone doesn't even have to be switched
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on researchers at the University of
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Chicago call this brain drain it happens
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because the human brain has a limited
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capacity to process information meaning
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we have to prioritize what we want to
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focus on when your phone is nearby it
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competes for cognitive resources and
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your brain must work extra hard to
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resist its Temptation This sabotages
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your concentration on other tasks so
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let's look at the experiment it's
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remarkable quote the researchers asked
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participants to either put their phones
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next to them so they were visible like
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on a desk nearby and out of sight like
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in a bag or pocket or in another room
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participants then completed a series of
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tasks to test their abilities to process
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and remember information their problem
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solving and their focus they were found
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to perform far better when their phones
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were in another room instead of nearby
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whether visible powered on or not that
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held true even though most of the
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participants claimed not to be
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consciously thinking about their devices
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end quote so it's an effect that happens
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even though we don't notice it quite
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fascinating and finally number four
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stress smartphones aren't just changing
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our Behavior they're affecting human
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biology and the health risks can get
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pretty serious endocrinologist Robert
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lustig warns that smartphone
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notifications have turned us all into
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Pavlov's dogs training our brains to be
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in a constant state of fear and stress
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here's how it happens one
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neurons in the prefrontal cortex are
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altered after exposure to a flood of
00:13:04
neurotransmitters one common trigger of
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neurotransmitters to flood the brain is
00:13:08
the anticipation of rewards like the UI
00:13:10
on Instagram two this can cause our
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prefrontal cortex the brain's
00:13:15
decision-making Hub and emotional
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control center to go completely haywire
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and even shut down and three when the
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prefrontal cortex shuts down the amydala
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responsible for emotional regulation
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takes over inducing stress and panic
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when our prefrontal cortex is overworked
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in this state one's self-control can
00:13:33
take a hit then to add to the pile
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there's the information that we receive
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from social media from Doom scrolling to
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the creation of young hypochondriacs on
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Tik Tok self diagnosing themselves into
00:13:44
Oblivion the answer is yes you have
00:13:46
trauma procrastination is actually a
00:13:48
short-term coping tool to avoid feeling
00:13:51
anxiety or dread a popular type of video
00:13:54
on Tik Tok is five things you might not
00:13:56
realize were a mental disorder and it's
00:13:58
really gen generic things like biting
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your nails or fidgeting or being a
00:14:02
people pleaser I just need to take an
00:14:04
anxiety nap can you wake me up in like
00:14:05
30 minutes I'm like not well in a lot of
00:14:07
this discussion the problem isn't with
00:14:09
the smartphones themselves but social
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media use and this was solidified by a
00:14:14
2023 Global study of over 50,000
00:14:17
participants but we have to stay
00:14:18
level-headed there's research to suggest
00:14:21
that about 30 minutes of daily social
00:14:23
media is actually beneficial but going
00:14:25
past about an hour can be detrimental
00:14:28
one of the most most impactful outcomes
00:14:30
of smartphones has been the way we
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consume daily news for example when open
00:14:34
AI released GPT 4 last week it might
00:14:37
surprise you how different media covered
00:14:38
the story in different ways take for
00:14:40
example this story on the recent open AI
00:14:43
Reddit content deal the story was
00:14:45
reported on by 55 news outlets this left
00:14:48
leaning headline from Business Insider
00:14:50
frames the story as one regarding Big
00:14:51
Data concerns a right-leaning Outlet
00:14:54
focuses on the political orientation of
00:14:56
Reddit users as well as the monetary
00:14:58
size of the deal so when someone's
00:14:59
scrolling through a news feed that's
00:15:01
tailor made for them with news articles
00:15:03
that confirm their bias they're unlikely
00:15:05
to see the other side of the story
00:15:06
outside of their bubble and this is what
00:15:08
the algorithms of today have created so
00:15:10
it's important to get the whole picture
00:15:12
and that's where today's sponsor ground
00:15:14
news comes in ground news is a website
00:15:16
and app developed by a former NASA
00:15:18
engineer who was on a mission to give
00:15:20
readers an easy datadriven objective way
00:15:23
to read the news every story comes with
00:15:25
a quick visual breakdown of political
00:15:27
bias factuality and the ownership of the
00:15:30
sources reporting all backed by ratings
00:15:32
from three Independent News monitoring
00:15:34
organizations for example let's go back
00:15:36
to that story on the open AI Reddit deal
00:15:38
on ground news everything is organized
00:15:41
to make it easy for you to see all the
00:15:42
details their biased distribution shows
00:15:45
you the political bias of the reporting
00:15:46
Outlets below you can see the factuality
00:15:49
information as well as the ownership
00:15:51
information for this story 31% of
00:15:54
reporting Outlets are owned by media
00:15:56
conglomerate I especially like the blink
00:15:58
feed which highlights stories that are
00:16:00
heavily covered by one side of the
00:16:02
political Spectrum it's important to
00:16:04
utilize critical thinking and break out
00:16:06
of online Echo Chambers if we know where
00:16:08
these views are coming from we're
00:16:09
probably going to be better equipped to
00:16:11
engage in constructive dialogue to those
00:16:13
who hold different views ground news is
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a fantastic tool for sifting through the
00:16:17
daily misinformation and bias they
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provide all the tools you need to be a
00:16:21
critical thinker today I'm offering 40%
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so subscribe today by going to ground.
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news/ coldfusion or click the link in
00:16:34
the video description to get started
00:16:36
thank you now back to the video so what
00:16:38
happens when people break away from
00:16:40
smartphones completely well fortunately
00:16:42
we have a slew of examples from those
00:16:44
who are heavy smartphone users and
00:16:46
decided to ditch them for a dumb phone
00:16:48
the way they describe their experiences
00:16:49
is pretty interesting let's take a quick
00:16:51
look at some testimonials I was not
00:16:54
ready for how much I truly enjoyed this
00:16:58
phone I was present with my kids with my
00:17:02
wife I was able to be reached by friends
00:17:04
and family bit about my experience just
00:17:06
what is it like living without a
00:17:07
smartphone for those of us who grew up
00:17:09
in the '90s I think there's a lot of
00:17:11
nostalgia around that time and for me a
00:17:13
lot of that is about the fact that
00:17:15
nobody had a smartphone or even a cell
00:17:17
phone but I was surprised and excited to
00:17:20
find that I could kind of reconnect with
00:17:21
some of the benefits of that time
00:17:23
through this experiment I've been much
00:17:25
more focused at work because all of my
00:17:28
work now takes place in front of the
00:17:30
computer so I'm much more intentional
00:17:32
and focused when it is actually time to
00:17:34
work I have time for Creative Hobbies
00:17:36
because I'm not scrolling through social
00:17:38
media or news or anything on my phone my
00:17:40
phone doesn't do anything fun and that
00:17:42
means I have time to get bored have you
00:17:44
ever been bored as an adult I don't
00:17:46
think I had until this experiment but
00:17:49
boredom equals creativity but then there
00:17:52
were others and this group wasn't quite
00:17:54
ass sold on the dumb phone idea and
00:17:56
quickly found themselves reverting back
00:17:57
to a smartphone all right so I'm nearly
00:17:59
finished with this 30-day experiment and
00:18:01
if I'm being completely honest I cannot
00:18:04
wait to get back to a smartphone I
00:18:06
entered this experiment really wanting
00:18:08
it to work really wanting to find a
00:18:10
phone that would give me all the tools I
00:18:12
needed while removing the headaches my
00:18:13
smartphone causes but unfortunately I
00:18:15
don't know if I'm ready to make the
00:18:17
switch full time not having a camera the
00:18:19
spotty directions and the clunky typing
00:18:21
are the biggest deal breakers for me
00:18:23
this is the phone that you could
00:18:24
literally only call with which is great
00:18:27
if that's all I needed
00:18:29
but I'd have to be damn confident with
00:18:32
my job security and my friendships
00:18:33
because I could see how easily I could
00:18:36
lose connections and friendships due to
00:18:38
my inability to respond there are more
00:18:40
people giving dumb phones a try so much
00:18:43
so that some call it the anti smartphone
00:18:45
Revolution you can check out my podcast
00:18:47
episode with KY Tang the co-founder of
00:18:50
lightone and I discussed this topic in
00:18:52
depth with him so if you've gotten to
00:18:54
this part of the episode you're probably
00:18:56
in one of three camps one all of this
00:18:58
information is new to you or the second
00:19:00
Camp you've heard some of this before
00:19:02
and learned some new things or even if
00:19:05
you're one of those who have heard all
00:19:06
of this before I think it's important to
00:19:08
remind ourselves but what about the
00:19:10
bigger picture what does all of this
00:19:11
mean it's insane to think that there's
00:19:13
the possibility that hundreds of
00:19:15
millions or even billions of people out
00:19:17
there could have worse memory worse
00:19:19
concentration smaller gray matter and
00:19:21
increased anxiety due to Chronic
00:19:23
smartphone overuse I'm going to ask you
00:19:25
do you think this explains part of the
00:19:27
world we live in today although it all
00:19:29
sounds terrible fortunately there are
00:19:31
very practical things that can be done
00:19:33
as we've talked about number one
00:19:35
exercise two avoid the overuse of social
00:19:38
media three stop multitasking four if
00:19:41
you want to increase comprehension
00:19:43
choose to read physical media instead of
00:19:45
your phone and five if you want to
00:19:47
improve memory limit phone use for
00:19:49
memory tasks where possible at the end
00:19:51
of the day the power is still in our
00:19:54
hands so what's your opinion on all of
00:19:56
this did this speak to you do you think
00:19:58
he use your smartphone too much or do
00:20:00
you think you've got everything under
00:20:01
control I'd love to hear from you in the
00:20:03
comments so anyway that is how your
00:20:05
smartphone is rewiring your brain thanks
00:20:08
for watching hope you learned something
00:20:10
from it if this is your first time
00:20:11
watching feel free to subscribe there's
00:20:14
plenty of interesting stuff on science
00:20:15
technology and business my name is toogo
00:20:18
and youve been watching cold fusion and
00:20:19
I'll catch you again soon for the next
00:20:21
episode cheers guys have a good one
00:20:29
I feel I'm getting older
00:20:32
older the B older
00:20:36
older I feel I'm getting older
00:20:42
older
00:20:43
look feel I'm getting old
00:20:49
[Music]
