Put Your Phone Down
Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley
BBC
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2023
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Most of us in the UK use our phones for over three hours/day! They are incredibly useful - but using them just a little bit less can have big benefits for your health and wellbeing. Studies have shown that reducing your phone use by one hour each day can reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. It can also increase life satisfaction, reduce smoking and enhance physical activity levels. On top of that, limiting social media use to 30 minutes a day has been found to reduce feelings of loneliness. But if you can’t bear doing any of that, just putting your phone out of sight whilst you’re doing something can have significant benefits. Michael Mosley speaks to Dr Adrian Ward from the University of Texas at Austin who has found that just the sight of your phone can have a powerful impact on your cognition. He finds out about the alluring pull of our phones on our brains (which can attract our attention even when they’re off), and why multitasking is a myth!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you could have a conversation with your younger self, what would you tell them? |
| 0:06.0 | Anonymity is our most valuable gift. |
| 0:09.0 | I'm Kristi Young, and in Young again, I'll be asking my guests what honest advice they would give their past self. |
| 0:16.0 | Believe it when they say that loving yourself is the answer. |
| 0:20.0 | Among those joining me will be Jamie Oliver, Jeda Pinkett Smith and Mel B. |
| 0:24.1 | I knew that I had a voice and I knew that I wanted to say certain things and represent certain things. |
| 0:30.0 | Young again, with me, Kirstie Young. |
| 0:33.0 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:40.0 | Hold on sec. |
| 0:42.0 | We would all like some quick and simple ways to improve our health, but we're inundated with often conflicting advice. |
| 0:51.0 | So if you were going to try just one thing to improve your mental and physical |
| 0:55.4 | well-being what should it be? Perhaps a martial art of Tai Chi to improve your |
| 1:00.8 | immune system, maybe a few nuts to slow aging, or how about cleaning your teeth |
| 1:07.1 | to give your brain a boost. |
| 1:09.8 | I'm Dr Michael Mosley and this is just one thing where each episode will explore one thing you can start doing today to improve your health or life in ways you might not expect. |
| 1:27.1 | You know, in a way it's really bizarre. I have spent a lot of my career with a paper diary looking things up in books but now I use my phone for |
| 1:32.1 | everything it's my Encyclopedia, my Navigator, my camera, and of course my entertainment. |
| 1:38.0 | Let me just check that. Okay., no nothing. |
| 1:44.0 | Now I have my phone set to alert me to meetings and I get |
| 1:48.0 | text about deliveries. |
| 1:49.0 | It buzzes all the time, and I can't help but check it |
... |
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