How Smartphones Are Rewiring Our Brains, Why Social Media is Eradicating Childhood & The Truth About The Mental Health Epidemic with Jonathan Haidt (Re-release) #613

Children are programmed to play, and there's a biological purpose for that play. A smartphone is an experience blocker. Once a kid has it, it's so enticing. They're just not gonna have many of those experiences that they need to wire up their brains properly. The more you think about it as giving your kid a play based childhood instead of just taking away the phone based childhood, the easier it's gonna be. Hey, guys. How are you doing? Hope you're having a good week so far. My name is doctor Rangan Chatterjee, and this is my podcast, Feel Better, Live More. Today's episode is about a topic that I am truly passionate about, the introduction of social media and smartphones into all aspects of our lives, and what impact this is having on us individually, collectively, and perhaps most urgently, what impact this is having on our children. Jonathan Haidt is one of the world's leading psychologists. He is a professor of ethical leadership at New York University's Stern School of Business, and the author of four best selling books, including his latest, The Anxious Generation, How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Now this conversation first came out in 2024 and ended up being one of the most shared podcast episodes in The UK that entire year. And the reason I've decided to rerelease it right now is because for the first time in a long while, there is a real sense that something might actually be changing in The UK. Right now, MPs from across different political parties are supporting proposals to raise the minimum age for social media use to 16. This is hugely significant and represents a real opportunity to protect our children's health and well-being. And over the past three days, more than 150,000 people have already emailed their MPs to say that this is an issue that truly matters to them. This is one of the most important things that we can all do that really does make a difference. If MPs get inundated with emails, it signals to them that this is an important issue, and they are much more likely to take action. In our conversation, Jonathan and I discuss why exactly social media use in children is so problematic and why we need to urgently wind back the amount of screen time kids are being exposed to, which has increased dramatically over the past few years. Jonathan is really keen to emphasize the need for collective action rather than simply putting the onus on individuals and parents. And this is why I am so excited that there seems to be a political will to change things. Literally this week, parliament will be debating key amendments to the children's well-being and schools bill, and the more MPs that get emails telling them that this is an important issue to their constituents, the more likely it is that they will act. If you would like to …