What Experts Really Think About Smartphones and Mental Health

Plain English with Derek Thompson

The Ringer

News Commentary, News

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I'm very concerned about the relationship between smartphone use and America's mental health crisis. But many researchers don't see things my way. They insist that there is little to no empirical data showing that smartphone and social media use drives up anxiety or depression. So what’s the truth about smartphones, social media, and mental health? That’s the question that the NYU researcher Jay Van Bavel set out to answer with his collaborator Valerio Capraro. They took dozens of claims about smartphones, sent them to hundreds of experts in the field, and asked them if these claims were probably true, probably false, or unknown—and why. The result was a massive survey, one of the largest of its kind in the history of psychology. Today, Van Bavel joins the show to tell us what he found, what surprised him, and why his consensus survey made so many researchers so angry. If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Jay Van Bavel Producer: Devon Baroldi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's up, everyone? I'm Nora Prynciotti. And I'm Nathan Hubbard. And we're coming in like a
0:07.5	wrecking ball to announce a brand new series. That's right. It's every single album, Miley Cyrus.
0:13.2	Deep dive with us into the career of one of our most creative and confounding pop stars.
0:18.7	We're starting, of course, with the best of Hannah Montana.
0:21.7	And ending with her brand new album, Something Beautiful, in June.
0:25.4	And don't forget about Miley Cyrus and her dead pets.
0:28.4	We certainly will not be doing that.
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0:46.3	Lost here, Amazon was the world's largest corporate buyer of renewable energy. Meaning all and more of our energy comes from wind farms like this one.
0:52.3	Guys, what happened to recording Apasola Farm?
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1:38.7	Before today's show, just a quick scheduling note, this month's podcast publishing schedule is going to be a bit jostled around because my family
1:47.5	and I are moving back from Chappahill, North Carolina to Washington, D.C.
1:53.9	And to all of our friends in North Carolina, a big, warm thank you for a fantastic year
1:59.9	in the Research Triangle. To all my friends in D.C.,
2:03.1	I cannot wait to come back home. And for all you listeners, as far as scheduling goes, some
2:08.7	weeks like this one will only have one episode, but we will be back to our normal twice-a-week
	...

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