Social Media: Is It Rotting Your Brain?

Science Vs

Spotify Studios

Science, Education, Health & Fitness

4.4 • 11.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Social media. Many of us don’t feel very good when we’re on it, and yet we sometimes spend hours a day scrolling, eyeballs glued to our screens. Some experts say that social media is causing a mental health crisis, and governments are even talking about banning social media for kids. So what’s going on — can social media really shorten our attention span, hurt our body image or make us feel depressed? To find out, we talk to psychologists Professor Gloria Mark, Dr. Sophia Choukas-Bradley, Professor Silje Steinsbekk, and Dr. Rachel Hogg. Resources to help with disordered eating: United States: National Eating Disorders: 800-931-2237 https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/get-help/ International resources and general mental health resources can be found here: https://resources.byspotify.com/ Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/ScienceVsSocialMedia Gloria Mark’s book, Attention Span: https://gloriamark.com/, and Substack: https://gloriamark.substack.com/ Vote for the New Zealand Bird of the Year here: birdoftheyear.org.nz — we are supporting the tawaki piki toka! In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Our love/hate relationship with social media (06:36) Is social media ruining our attention spans? (14:04) Why is it so hard to stop looking at social media? (18:39) Is social media making us feel depressed? (25:56) Can social media affect your body image? (34:02) Tips for getting off social media. This episode was produced by Meryl Horn, with help from Wendy Zukerman, Rose Rimler, Ekedi Fausther-Keeys, and Michelle Dang. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Fact checking by Erica Akiko Howard. Mix and sound design by Sam Bair. Music written by Bobby Lord, Emma Munger, Bumi Hidaka and So Wylie. Thanks to the researchers we spoke to, including Professor Hunt Allcott, Dr. Jacqueline Nesi, Professor Patricia Conrad, Dr. Robert Kraut, Dr. Andrew Westbrook, and Dr. Niklas Ihssen. A big thanks to everyone who talked to us about social media in Washington Square Park! And thanks to Lori Segal, Ally Settelmayer and Whitney Potter. And extra thanks to Christopher Suter, Beverly, the Zukerman Family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman, and you're listening to Science Versus.
0:06.0	Welcome back to a brand new season.
0:08.0	We've got a lot of science, a lot of fun ahead.
0:11.0	We're really excited to share it with you. So today we are pitting facts against having
0:16.9	your phone stuck in your face as we tackle social media.
0:22.6	And before we jump in, I just want to say that this episode does discuss
0:31.7	disordered eating.
0:33.0	It's a little bit later in the show.
0:34.4	We're going to do a warning when it's about to happen.
0:36.8	But please take care while you're listening
0:38.7	and we're going to put some resources in our show notes.
0:43.0	Social media has become this huge bugbear.
0:46.7	If you ask a lot of people these days about their social media use,
0:51.2	you will hear a lot of complaints.
0:54.0	When I see through Instagram, I feel horrible.
0:56.0	I know it shouldn't matter, but I do worry about, okay, so why has this person's account gotten more
1:00.8	followers than I did?
1:02.0	Why did I make a video in the same format, but theirs went viral and mine didn't.
1:06.0	I feel like shit. It's just so soul sucking. And it's like, why are you letting yourself like fall into this?
1:13.0	Well, exactly.
1:15.0	Because even though a lot of us don't seem to like being on these apps,
1:20.0	it's as if we can't look away.
	...

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