Hi, welcome to another episode of ColdFusion.

We know for a fact that what all of these systems do, every single one, is it exploits our own natural tendencies in human beings to get and want feedback.

And that feedback, chemically speaking, is the release of dopamine in your brain.

And so what these feedback loops do, and they exist everywhere, in Call of Duty, in other video games, in social networking sites, they get you to react.

And I think that if you get too desensitized, and you need it over and over and over again, then you become actually detached from the world in which you live.

You become callous, you become crude.

And you live in front of your screen.

So we all know the benefits and usefulness of smartphones.

They're amazing, a little rectangle in your pocket that does everything.

But that comes with a price.

There's a growing body of research that indicates that smartphones can actually change the way our brains work.

Did you know that just the mere presence of your phone in a room can destroy your cognitive functioning, even if it's switched off?

Crazy, I know.

But literal experiments have proved this.

In this episode, we'll take a look at how phones affect our memory, stress levels, and cognitive function.

And also, here's a question.

If the collective brains of billions of people on Earth have been unknowingly altered worldwide, what does this mean for society?

It's not all bad news, though.

We'll also take a look at how we can help ourselves.

In 2007, amidst the chaos of the financial crisis, the first iPhone was launched.

And we are calling it iPhone.

Computer giant Apple says it's reinvented the phone, marrying a mobile with an iPod, giving birth to the iPhone.

An iPod, a cell phone, and a portable internet, all in a little lightweight package.

The big attraction here right now is encased in the plastic tube back there, surrounded by an admiring crowd.

It's a sleek aluminum and stainless steel creation.

A cell phone doesn't have any buttons, just a touchscreen.

It only had 16 apps, and that was it.

No app store, nothing else.

It was relatively simple by today's standards.

Suddenly, buttons were replaced with a large responsive touchscreen interface.

People could now swipe, tap, scroll, zoom, and browse the web more efficiently than they could on a desktop.

At the time, such features were unheard of.

Although it looked interesting, very few predicted just how quickly such a small device could envelop our lives.

With each passing year, the phones got faster, the features grew, and the software exponentially improved.

Apps became useful, but then came the algorithms and feeds.

And before we knew it, most of us had entered a 2D virtual reality, a completely separate reality and view of the world, but through a screen.

This was powered by algorithms designed to keep your attention, and apps designed to trigger the dopamine responses in your brain.

It sounds like a sci-fi film when put that way, but we all know this story by now.

It was one of the main themes of the Netflix show, The Social Dilemma, a hallmark look into how algorithms rule our lives.

And the people that made those algorithms knew what they were doing.

In 2008, when the true impact of smartphones was still a mystery,

UCLA psychiatrist Gary Small began sounding the caution alarm.

He was saying that heavy smartphone use could alter brain function by weakening the circuits needed for in-person interaction and reading non-verbal cues.

Remember, the iPhone was only one year old at this time.

At the time, his claims were called, quote,

But it still couldn't be proved.

Fast forward a decade and a half later, and smartphones and their cognitive effects are being re-examined.

But what about the lesser-known stuff?

What other effects do smartphones have on the mind?

Although there's still much to learn about the long-term cognitive impact, there is some scientific evidence that should make us pause.

If you've ever felt that phantom buzz, or feel anxious when you haven't checked your phone in a while, you don't need an expert to tell you that there's something strange at play.

What exactly are smartphones doing to our minds and personalities?

Let's take a look at the research.

We're going to cover memory, addiction, cognitive function, and stress.

Let's break them down.

Back in the day, you had to memorize all your friends' numbers, or actually listen in maths class because your teachers said that you couldn't carry a calculator 24-7.

Cab drivers also back in the day had no GPS.

They had to know where they were going without stopping to check.

They had to know all the streets.

It turns out that exercising that mental muscle of memory has given cab drivers physically larger hippocampi.

It's the memory centre of the brain, but also aids in learning and emotional processing.

But now, today, we heavily rely on our devices as memory aids.

But new research suggests that maybe this isn't a great sign.

A 2021 study found that

There's been other studies with similar findings.

But unfortunately, there's even more.

A meta-study of MRI scans of chronic smartphone users found that they have lower grey matter volumes in specific regions of the brain.

This includes the anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, fusiform gyrus, and parahippocampal regions.

While the research is still in its early stages, less grey matter usually means a higher risk of depression, schizophrenia, and dementia.

But remember, these are chronic smartphone users.

But on that note, the cost of this might be an enormous increase in dementia.

Quote

According to Professor Oliver Harded, even an over-reliance on GPSs could reduce the density of grey matter in the brain.

To combat the effects of hippocampus shrinkage, regular exercise has shown to increase grey matter and increase memory.

It's also good to try and remember directions where possible.

And generally, try to use your memory instead of your phone where practical.

And if you still really just can't put your phone down, apps like Hippocamera can help.

Hippocamera is a really easy-to-use smartphone application that mimics how the brain supports memory.

Specific behaviors also don't do our brains any favors.

One of these is attempting to multitask.

Interestingly, humans multitasking is a myth.

Only 2.5% of us can do it effectively.

Catherine Price writes about this in her book

How to Break Up With Your Phone.

In particular, she warns about the dangers of continual partial attention.

It's checking your phone while mid-conversation or scrolling on social media while watching TV.

Sound familiar?

While we do this to attempt to be more productive, it harms our cognitive health.

In fact, trying to consistently multitask can actually hinder your ability to think deep and complex thoughts.

It also can create a false sense of urgency, which prevents our brain's ability to transfer information into long-term storage.

And from here, it becomes harder to accumulate memories.

In summary, every minute distracted by your phone is a lost minute in the here and now.

This can leave behind a trail of forgotten experiences and damage the ability to formulate deep and complex thoughts and long-term memories.

Moving on to number two, addiction.

Now this detrimental effect is more commonly known, but did you know that nomophobia is the real fear of being away from one's phone?

For heavy users, a study by Dr. Larry Rosson, the author of The Distracted Mind, revealed what a lack of smartphone access can do.

Participants in the experiment were strapped to sweat and heat monitors as they read a passage.

Their phones were out of reach, but they could hear text notifications flooding in.

The result was a spike in anxiety and a drop in reading comprehension.

And this will affect more people as we're all using our smartphones more.

Between 2019 and 2023, average mobile screen time shot up by 23%, from 2 hours and 56 minutes to 3 hours and 46 minutes.

The average user now checks their phones 96 times per day.

Research from a peer-reviewed medical journal,

Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging, confirms that excessive smartphone use presents itself a lot like addiction, weakening vital brain networks that control things like paying attention and stopping impulses.

This leads to withdrawal symptoms and continued use despite negative consequences.

There's a silent epidemic that we're neglecting.

One can imagine the impact, albeit to varying degrees, on the 6.84 billion smartphone users worldwide.

When you factor in the amount of developing brains that are using the devices, what will be the end result?

As smartphone use increases each year, even the smartphone's creators are questioning the monster that they've unleashed.

Tony Fadell, who worked on the original iPhone team, says, quote,

As a side, I've done a full episode on the story of the people who created the iPhone if you're interested.

But zooming out, we can't blame the phone manufacturers.

If you've watched The Social Dilemma, you would have seen former tech employees expressing a sense of regret regarding the designs of social media apps.

We are increasingly glued to our phones.

Just look at this 30 seconds we filmed outside Oxford Circus earlier today.

All the white flashes are the phones people are on.

So we've left them in that room.

We've said we've left a camera on record to film them getting on.

And now we're just going to leave them there and see how many times they look at their phone.

Harry, you got your phone out after three minutes.

Is that a surprise to you?

It is. It is a surprise to me actually because I didn't think I used technology that often.

I didn't think I was that dependent on it.

I'm surprised I lost in four minutes.

The role of addictive design in social media has been well documented.

Casino-like features like pull to refresh mimic slot machines and exploit the pleasure of anticipating rewards.

And interestingly, this can trigger larger dopamine spikes than the rewards themselves.

There's also infinite scrolling and autoplay to lull a user into mindless behaviour.

But a silver lining is that since 2018

Apple and Google have built digital wellbeing features into their phones to prevent overuse.

So the tools are there.

People just have to use them.

A 2022 study found that our reading comprehension declines when we read from a screen even if the text is exactly the same as it is on paper.

The chart you see now shows reading comprehension scores.

The red is reading from paper while the blue is reading from a phone.

In addition, as mentioned at the top of this episode, the mere presence of your smartphone in the same room lowers your ability to focus, remember and solve problems.

The phone doesn't even have to be switched on.

Researchers at the University of Chicago call this brain drain.

It happens because the human brain has a limited capacity to process information, meaning we have to prioritise what we want to focus on.

When your phone is nearby, it competes for cognitive resources and your brain must work extra hard to resist its temptation.

This sabotages your concentration on other tasks.

So let's look at the experiment.

It's remarkable.

Quote,

The researchers asked participants to either put their phones next to them so they were visible, like on a desk, nearby and out of sight, like in a bag or pocket, or in another room.

Participants then completed a series of tasks to test their abilities to process and remember information, their problem solving and their focus.

They were found to perform far better when their phones were in another room instead of nearby, whether visible, powered on or not.

That held true even though most of the participants claimed not to be consciously thinking about their devices.

End quote.

So it's an effect that happens even though we don't notice it.

Quite fascinating.

And finally,

Number 4

Stress

Smartphones aren't just changing our behaviour, they're affecting human biology and the health risks can get pretty serious.

Endocrinologist Robert Lustig warns that smartphone notifications have turned us all into Pavlov's dogs, training our brains to be in a constant state of fear and stress.

Here's how it happens.

1.

Neurons in the prefrontal cortex are altered after exposure to a flood of neurotransmitters.

One common trigger of neurotransmitters to flood the brain is the anticipation of rewards, like the UI on Instagram.

2.

This can cause our prefrontal cortex, the brain's decision-making hub and emotional control centre, to go completely haywire and even shut down.

And 3.

When the prefrontal cortex shuts down, the amygdala, responsible for emotional regulation, takes over, inducing stress and panic.

When our prefrontal cortex is overworked in this state, one's self-control can take a hit.

Then to add to the pile, there's the information that we receive from social media, from doom-scrolling to the creation of young hypochondriacs on TikTok self-diagnosing themselves into oblivion.

The answer is yes, you have trauma.

Procrastination is actually a short-term coping tool to avoid feeling anxiety or dread.

A popular type of video on TikTok is five things you might not realise were a mental disorder, and it's really generic things like biting your nails or fidgeting or being a people pleaser.

I just need to take an anxiety nap.

Can you wake me up in, like, 30 minutes?

I'm, like, not well.

In a lot of this discussion, the problem isn't with the smartphones themselves, but social media use.

And this was solidified by a 2023 global study of over 50,000 participants.

But we have to stay level-headed.

There's research to suggest that about 30 minutes of daily social media is actually beneficial, but going past about an hour can be detrimental.

One of the most impactful outcomes of smartphones has been the way we consume daily news.

For example, when OpenAI released GPT-40 last week, it might surprise you how different media covered the story in different ways.

Take, for example, this story on the recent OpenAI Reddit content deal.

The story was reported on by 55 news outlets.

This left-leaning headline from Business Insider frames the story as one regarding big data concerns.