How smartphone addiction may be hurting our brains — Transcript

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1. 0:00how much time do you spend doing this
2. 0:02according to a survey the average
3. 0:04smartphone user Scrolls the equivalent
4. 0:07of 78 miles a year that's three
5. 0:09marathons may be good exercise for your
6. 0:12finger but there is evidence it may be
7. 0:14hurting your brain me Oliver has
8. 0:16tonight's eye on
9. 0:20America Katy paage Rosenberg a freshman
10. 0:23at the University of North Carolina
11. 0:24Asheville two successes two failures
12. 0:27recently realized what too much
13. 0:29scrolling was doing to her how many
14. 0:31hours were you spending on your phone oh
15. 0:34God probably
16. 0:35like nine n hours I was just kind of
17. 0:39constantly on it you may have heard
18. 0:41stories like hers before I wasn't able
19. 0:44to focus because I would have to take
20. 0:47out my phone every couple of minutes but
21. 0:50now you can actually see the science
22. 0:52behind it smartphones have wide reaching
23. 0:55changes all over the brain and
24. 0:57specifically it grows here and it
25. 0:58shrinks there psychiatrist Brent Nelson
26. 1:01is applying this new science at Newport
27. 1:04Healthcare which has mental health
28. 1:05treatment centers for teens across the
29. 1:07country this is a brain that's addicted
30. 1:10to a smartphone these are MRI images
31. 1:12from a recent study in Korea all the red
32. 1:15indicates increases in brain activity
33. 1:18the effects of smartphone addiction do
34. 1:20you want your brain to be this colorful
35. 1:22you don't why well because this is
36. 1:25showing where the brain is working extra
37. 1:27hard compared to a non-addicted brain
38. 1:30when asked to do actually a pretty
39. 1:31simple task addicted smartphone users
40. 1:34brains were so colorful so active it
41. 1:37made them less attentive and more easily
42. 1:40distracted what's now informally called
43. 1:43brain rot what does that look like in
44. 1:45real life yeah let's take a school for
45. 1:47example sitting in class and you're
46. 1:49trying to focus they're going to be
47. 1:51looking around not attending to what the
48. 1:54teacher is trying to teach them Dr
49. 1:56Nelson says emerging research points to
50. 1:59even greater risks we're just starting
51. 2:01to see these changes and we know they're
52. 2:03connected to behavioral changes
53. 2:05depression anxiety the dangers are are
54. 2:08hiding in there social media had really
55. 2:11influenced me in a lot of ways Tik Tok
56. 2:14would kind of push these videos of
57. 2:16people popping in edible before school
58. 2:19and I was like if I do this maybe I'll
59. 2:22be cool and I started self-medicating to
60. 2:25deal with that last year she checked
61. 2:27into to a treatment facility if you
62. 2:29hadn't gone to treatment where would you
63. 2:31be today I don't think I'd be here it
64. 2:35was really bad Katie had to give up her
65. 2:39phone in treatment there she found other
66. 2:41outlets from drawing to playing guitar
67. 2:44that helped rewire her jenzy
68. 2:47[Music]
69. 2:48brain the key perhaps analog antidotes
70. 2:52reminiscent of another generation
71. 2:55playing in the dirt drinking from the
72. 2:57hose sort of the Gen X kind of mentality
73. 2:59um is shown to actually allow folks to
74. 3:02recover to feel better to to to make it
75. 3:05easier to kind of go about their day
76. 3:08gas in short it's good to stop scrolling
77. 3:12and start strumming foran America I'm
78. 3:15Meg Oliver in Asheville North
79. 3:17Carolina Katie used to spend nine hours
80. 3:20a day on her phone now she is down to
81. 3:22less than two good for her