Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.
Speaker 2: It is Sunday, December seventh, and this week one country
Speaker 2: is doing something that no country on planet Earth has
Speaker 2: ever done before. They are banning all kids under the
Speaker 2: age of sixteen from social media. And we just got
Speaker 2: two new studies that shows they might be onto something.
Speaker 2: And with that, welcome to this episode of Aby and
Speaker 2: TJ Robes. It's no surprise we get new studies and
Speaker 2: new information. But at this point we all understand that
Speaker 2: cell phones are bad for kids.
Speaker 3: I gues and I think cell phones are probably bad
Speaker 3: for all of us because of the way and how
Speaker 3: often we use them.
Speaker 1: The way we use them. It's not the phone itself, right.
Speaker 3: No, it's you know, it's ever since we have these
Speaker 3: smartphone capabilities where we can engage in whatever content we
Speaker 3: want or need to make us feel however we want
Speaker 3: to feel, and just literally basically disappear away from the
Speaker 3: real world.
Speaker 2: So, yes, one country is now doing something about the
Speaker 2: impact social media is having on kids, and they have
Speaker 2: banned it all together. It kicks in this week on Wednesday.
Speaker 2: I believe I have it right, and the country is, folks, Australia. Yes,
Speaker 2: this is something they have been keeping an eye on
Speaker 2: for quite some time. They have this thing and I
Speaker 2: have it right. Yes, you're hearing us writing. Folks in Australia,
Speaker 2: if you are under the age of sixteen, starting this
Speaker 2: week you are not supposed to be on social media.
Speaker 1: You are breaking the law.
Speaker 3: Yes, it goes into effect on December tenth. And they
Speaker 3: mean business. They've been talking about this for months now
Speaker 3: and it actually goes into effect on Wednesday of this week.
Speaker 3: And Malaysia is following suit in twenty twenty six, they
Speaker 3: are going to do the exact same thing. I wouldn't
Speaker 3: be surprised if we start to see countries one by
Speaker 3: one putting in these types of bans. The problem is
Speaker 3: going to be enforcement, as it almost always is with
Speaker 3: any even good or decent law. Good luck enforcing it.
Speaker 2: Didn't you just say you wouldn't be surprised to see
Speaker 2: more countries do this. Will you deny it? Its states
Speaker 2: be one of them?
Speaker 1: I doubt it.
Speaker 3: No chance in hell, never, no chance, right, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Not, not even it's dead on a rifle.
Speaker 3: I mean, what we can't even we can't even balance
Speaker 3: our budget. You think that we can get something. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, there's just no way.
Speaker 1: You say, balance. We can't even get it in on
Speaker 1: time the budget.
Speaker 3: We can't even pay our federal employees.
Speaker 2: Okay, good, good point there. I don't think it is
Speaker 2: ever happened in the United States, but we keep seeing. Look,
Speaker 2: every year we get a trickle of new studies and
Speaker 2: whatnot about cell phones and the damage to kids and
Speaker 2: social media and TikTok and how it's addictive and blah
Speaker 2: blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: But there were two and these.
Speaker 2: Are not just studies another random group. These were as
Speaker 2: legit as they get, at least in this community. Robes
Speaker 2: two studies, one of them in particular, is kind of
Speaker 2: giving us a number an age for you better not
Speaker 2: be giving your kid a cell phone before this age,
Speaker 2: because it shows it's having a very serious impact.
Speaker 3: Yes, and I would imagine right about now a lot
Speaker 3: of you parents have kids who are asking for a
Speaker 3: new iPhone for Christmas or their first iPhone for Christmas.
Speaker 3: And look, I know my kids are older. Mine are
Speaker 3: twenty three and nineteen. I gave Eva her first iPhone
Speaker 3: at thirteen, and Annalise at twelve because she was riding
Speaker 3: the bus by herself, so she got one a year earlier.
Speaker 3: But they were literally the last in their classes, even
Speaker 3: back then ten years ago who got cell phones. And
Speaker 3: they were complaining to me starting at about nine or ten,
Speaker 3: and they wanted an iPhone and all the study says,
Speaker 3: you did the right thing, yes, but you know what,
Speaker 3: it was hard and they were really upset with me,
Speaker 3: and who knows what else they sneaked around and did.
Speaker 3: But I understand the need for a phone for safety purposes.
Speaker 3: As parents, Yes, you want to be able to be
Speaker 3: in contact with your child when they're away from you,
Speaker 3: and a cell phone is the best and easiest way
Speaker 3: to do it. So I totally get it. That's when
Speaker 3: I wish we had flip phones. That's when I wish
Speaker 3: we could just have the contact and not give them
Speaker 3: all the content. That's the tough part.
Speaker 1: Well, they get that. Can you imagine trying to give
Speaker 1: a kid a flip phone these days?
Speaker 3: Oh mommy, I'd rather not have a phone at all.
Speaker 3: That's so embarrassing.
Speaker 1: That's probably what it's going to be.
Speaker 2: But folks, there is a this week is study in
Speaker 2: the Journal Pediatrics taking a look at cell phones and
Speaker 2: when a kid should get one, and they found that
Speaker 2: there was a particular age in which it has just
Speaker 2: a really devastating impact. And we're talking about things along
Speaker 2: the likes of depression, anxiety, obesity, and they're pointing to it.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how they landed on this, but they
Speaker 2: are saying, Robes, if you give a kid the cell
Speaker 2: phone before this age, you're probably doing more damage than
Speaker 2: you realize.
Speaker 3: Yes, here is what the published article, the results of
Speaker 3: this really interesting study that they did in the General
Speaker 3: Pediatrics said, children who had a smartphone by the age
Speaker 3: of twelve, we're at higher risk of depression, obesity, and
Speaker 3: insufficient sleep than those who did not yet have one.
Speaker 3: So the younger that children under twelve were when they
Speaker 3: got their first smartphones, the greater their risk of depression, obesity,
Speaker 3: and poor sleep.
Speaker 2: Package Hey, uf, you all hear that. That's the key
Speaker 2: is if it's before twelve, and the younger they are
Speaker 2: before twelve, the greater the risk is are for these moments.
Speaker 2: This is a pretty clear indication, at least to each
Speaker 2: his and her own And I know kids are different
Speaker 2: can hand a responsibility differently, but this is something we
Speaker 2: got to pay attention to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So they said, the big takeaway from this study
Speaker 3: that they did is that age matters. It matters. They said,
Speaker 3: a kid at age twelve is This was a direct
Speaker 3: quote from one of the researchers. A kid at age
Speaker 3: twelve is very, very different than a kid at age sixteen.
Speaker 3: It's not like an adult at age forty two versus
Speaker 3: forty six. There are significant differences in kids, and this
Speaker 3: is a really important time of life when kids' brains
Speaker 3: are developing at a very rapid pace. They're taking in
Speaker 3: so much and they're learning habits, they're learning attention span,
Speaker 3: all of those things. So when they're just flipping and
Speaker 3: scrolling and then they're comparing and contrasting and wishing they
Speaker 3: had things different than and everyone else looks happier than them.
Speaker 3: Like we struggle with this as adults. I cannot imagine
Speaker 3: having to navigate social media and all of what it's
Speaker 3: telling me I should have or should look like when
Speaker 3: you're that age.
Speaker 2: It drives me crazy. It's we've been we've spent some time.
Speaker 2: We were traveling with Sabine over the weekend twelve. Look,
Speaker 2: she's always bouncing around with us and doing stuff, so
Speaker 2: she's never in a point where she's just sitting in
Speaker 2: a corner by herself, necessarily, but at night it drives
Speaker 2: me crazy to see her. We might have a game on,
Speaker 2: our movie on, and she is very comfortable just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling,
Speaker 2: scroll for hours, like looking at a ten second clip.
Speaker 2: I don't And yes, it's addictive. I understand that it is.
Speaker 2: I don't understand that. I ask all the time, what
Speaker 2: is the appea of what you're seeing?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's entertainment, it's their form, it's their thing, it's what
Speaker 2: they're coming up with. But I don't get it, and
Speaker 2: it's driving me crazy.
Speaker 3: I absolutely understand that, because ironically, you said, we watch
Speaker 3: our kids spend hours scrolling, doom scrolling, and they're not
Speaker 3: focusing on one thing. They probably focused on ten thousand things.
Speaker 3: So it's teaching them this. Just they're not able to focus.
Speaker 3: They're not able to stay and watch a full movie.
Speaker 3: They my kids don't even listen to full songs. That
Speaker 3: drives me crazy. I was like, let the song finish.
Speaker 3: They get bored with the song halfway through and just
Speaker 3: keep and switch it to the next one. And that
Speaker 3: is absolutely I believe a byproduct of these phones and
Speaker 3: their attention spans. I was like, you can't even listen
Speaker 3: to a three minute song without changing it to the
Speaker 3: next one because you're bored already. That is like telling.
Speaker 2: To me, Okay, let's not go too old fogy on
Speaker 2: this episode, because we're starting to sound like it. My
Speaker 2: question is we talk about the age here with this study,
Speaker 2: the kids should or shouldn't get phones, and we talk
Speaker 2: about we talked about Australia already, how do you keep
Speaker 2: a kid from These kids are smarter than all of
Speaker 2: us obviously when it comes to cell phones. That's the
Speaker 2: question you brought up in the very beginning. How do
Speaker 2: you enforce this thing? And it's more so they're not
Speaker 2: going to go after the kids and try to right.
Speaker 2: They're not for breaking the law if you will. It's
Speaker 2: more so they're going to go after these social media companies,
Speaker 2: but they put whatever policies in place to try to
Speaker 2: keep a kid off who's under the age of sixteen. Already,
Speaker 2: there are reports and kids out there putting it out
Speaker 2: how they've beaten the system already.
Speaker 3: They already know how to navigate around. In fact, they
Speaker 3: actually were proudly putting their names out there, yes with
Speaker 3: talking to news outlets saying I already know how I'm
Speaker 3: getting around. My friends already know how we're getting around it,
Speaker 3: but at least if they're making it more difficult. Look,
Speaker 3: the inevitability of something doesn't make it right. I've always
Speaker 3: believed that, and so they're saying this isn't right. We
Speaker 3: know this isn't good for our kids. This is incredibly
Speaker 3: harmful what we're allowing our children to expeci and think
Speaker 3: about it. The obesity rates in this country and around
Speaker 3: the world are skyrocketing. Kids aren't moving, they aren't getting outside,
Speaker 3: they aren't interacting, they don't have social skills, they aren't
Speaker 3: physical people like all of those things. Look, as parents,
Speaker 3: we can try to help navigate. You know, I tried
Speaker 3: to do this until they got into high school and
Speaker 3: then they're like I needed for homework and I had
Speaker 3: to go to bed early. But I kept devices out
Speaker 3: of the bedrooms, like there was like an eight thirty
Speaker 3: nine PM policy when mom went to bed, the phones
Speaker 3: went into my room and we're charging in my bedroom.
Speaker 3: And that was the only way I could have any
Speaker 3: kind of control over the hours in which they were
Speaker 3: looking at all of this content.
Speaker 2: And the experts will tell you that is a very
Speaker 2: good first step, right, your kids are going to have
Speaker 2: a phone. That's one thing you can do. I don't
Speaker 2: do that with Sabine. She and for the most part,
Speaker 2: I trust it. She likes to sleep and likes to
Speaker 2: go to bed, but still from nine to ten, it
Speaker 2: shouldn't be the last thing she's doing. Everybody will tell
Speaker 2: you that's staring at a screen. No matter what age
Speaker 2: you are, it's the last thing you should be doing.
Speaker 2: But that is a good sometimes difficult. I guess was
Speaker 2: it tricky for you?
Speaker 3: It?
Speaker 1: Did they push back?
Speaker 3: Oh? Of course they did. They were very upset with me.
Speaker 3: And then of course when they got into high school,
Speaker 3: they said they needed their iPad for homework and they
Speaker 3: hadn't done their homework. And I had to go to
Speaker 3: bed because I had to get up early, and so
Speaker 3: I just had to go ahead and trust them. But yes,
Speaker 3: they'll tell me. Oh, I stayed up till two am
Speaker 3: watching whatever Gray's Anatomy, and I couldn't stop watching it.
Speaker 3: But you'll even see Sabine will be in a certain
Speaker 3: mood and then she'll be on her phone and something
Speaker 3: will happen. We don't know what. Mood will suddenly drastically
Speaker 3: change and you see it happen and obviously it's nothing
Speaker 3: that's around us. It's something that's happening on that phone.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, dad phone. Oh, I followed her. I'd
Speaker 2: be crazy. Well, folks, that is I think the age
Speaker 2: they're saying now is eleven is the average age. The
Speaker 2: study says twelve is the age you certainly shouldn't at
Speaker 2: least the information shows them you probably shouldn't give a
Speaker 2: kid a phone before twelve. But the median age shows
Speaker 2: that it's eleven in the country, which means that's the
Speaker 2: average a lot.
Speaker 3: Of nine year olds and we see them walking around
Speaker 3: have those smartphones. I was like, bring the flip flip
Speaker 3: phone back.
Speaker 1: I'm one hundred percent okay with you.
Speaker 3: I would love that.
Speaker 1: I prefer one at.
Speaker 3: Times, you know what, You're right, I do like my
Speaker 3: Google Maps. I get lost a lot. But short of that, yes,
Speaker 3: I agree.
Speaker 2: Well, folks, we told you there were several major headlines
Speaker 2: related to kids and cell phones. Yes, one is that
Speaker 2: Australia're going to become the first country to ban social
Speaker 2: media for kids under the age of sixteen. We tell
Speaker 2: you about this study now that shows that twelve is
Speaker 2: really that sweet spot where you shouldn't give a kid
Speaker 2: a cell phone. But there was another study this week
Speaker 2: that showed and folks, stay here because.
Speaker 1: You are not going to believe how.
Speaker 2: Much people's life, moods, everything changes once they put that
Speaker 2: phone down, and they didn't even have to put it
Speaker 2: down for that long. Stay here, all right, folks, We
Speaker 2: continue here on Amy and TJ talking about these cell
Speaker 2: phones these kids. This is as old, folky of an
Speaker 2: episode as we have ever done.
Speaker 3: Back in day, get.
Speaker 1: Off my lawn.
Speaker 2: When I was a kid, did you know I didn't
Speaker 2: talk to my mom until I got home at night.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's wild. Okay, sorry, this is uh No
Speaker 2: matter what you do, you're gonna become your parents at
Speaker 2: some point. This is just what happens. So yes, Australia
Speaker 2: gonna be the first country in the world this week
Speaker 2: to ban social media use for kids under the age
Speaker 2: of sixteen. We got a new study from Pediatrics, the
Speaker 2: journal Pediatrics that shows that yes, the younger a child
Speaker 2: is before the age of twelve and getting a cell phone,
Speaker 2: the higher their risk is for depression, anxiety, obesity, and
Speaker 2: then roles. We got one other study. This is the
Speaker 2: one that kind of blew my mind. And how much
Speaker 2: we can improve our lives, just like getting off that
Speaker 2: phone for a short time.
Speaker 3: Yes, and not even completely. This was a study published
Speaker 3: in Jamma, so a very reputable organization, and they actually
Speaker 3: had volunteers between the ages of eighteen and twenty four
Speaker 3: who said, we will dramatically reduce our social media intake.
Speaker 3: So they didn't stop it completely, but they were basically
Speaker 3: their rules were stay off social media media as much
Speaker 3: as possible. So on average, this group that they studied
Speaker 3: reduced their consumption of social media to just half an
Speaker 3: hour or at least under two hours a day, which,
Speaker 3: by the way, I'm not even on it that much.
Speaker 3: So they reduced their social media intake to under two hours.
Speaker 1: You know what wasn't Did you see what it was before?
Speaker 1: Good god, I know two hours.
Speaker 3: I don't know what it was before, but it must
Speaker 3: have been significantly longer.
Speaker 1: Well, you know what they said. The volunteers were eighteen
Speaker 1: to twenty four.
Speaker 2: Yes, I wonder what the average time on social media
Speaker 2: per day for an eighteen to twenty four years.
Speaker 3: I should ask. I've got that exact age grew are
Speaker 3: my daughters nineteen to twenty three? And I would guess
Speaker 3: I mean, if I asked, you can find out it
Speaker 3: is probably five hours more.
Speaker 1: I want a day a day. There's not that much
Speaker 1: time in a day.
Speaker 3: Honestly, children communicate with me throughout the day before they
Speaker 3: call TikTok videos.
Speaker 2: So that tells me, damn, did she just open the door?
Speaker 2: I wonder I want to ask. I think you can
Speaker 2: check your front. I'm very curious to see. So, I mean,
Speaker 2: can you check to see how long you were on
Speaker 2: TikTok and social media?
Speaker 1: Like in several days?
Speaker 3: She is cringing her face. She doesn't want to tell you.
Speaker 1: Say check for me.
Speaker 2: Just pick a couple of days and tell me how
Speaker 2: long you were on social media, all of it and
Speaker 2: the day.
Speaker 3: I'm just curious, Okay, go ahead, She'll report back. Yes.
Speaker 3: So they that's that's wild to me. That that was the
Speaker 3: study that was them reducing it under two hours a day.
Speaker 3: So before they did this, they answered questions about their depression,
Speaker 3: their anxiety, insomnia, loneliness, just a number of different issues
Speaker 3: that folks face when you know they're dealing with their
Speaker 3: mental health. So the symptoms of anxiety after they took
Speaker 3: this break dropped by more than sixteen percent. The symptoms
Speaker 3: of depression dropped by almost twenty five percent. That is
Speaker 3: that's remarkable. I got chills thinking about that. How many
Speaker 3: people suffer from depression? If you just reduce your social
Speaker 3: media intake, you could have a quarter Like that's huge,
Speaker 3: that's amazing. A quarter percent or yeah, twenty five percent.
Speaker 3: Symptoms of insomnia drop by almost fifteen percent, and they
Speaker 3: say the improvements that we're talking about. These numbers were
Speaker 3: most pronounced with people who initially said they had severe depression.
Speaker 3: So the more you were depressed going into this study,
Speaker 3: the more you were helped by taking a break from
Speaker 3: social media.
Speaker 2: Soon you're talking about it sounds silly like every doctor,
Speaker 2: everybody should that comes in right and says they're feeling
Speaker 2: these anxiety or.
Speaker 3: Depression, they usually get a prescription for.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying, should are they doing? This is the
Speaker 2: doctor's first thing out of his mouth. What are your
Speaker 2: social media habits?
Speaker 1: Doubtful?
Speaker 3: Probably not doubtful?
Speaker 2: Is it in there?
Speaker 3: They'll probably ask you, what's your relationship like with your mom?
Speaker 3: Moms always get to blame.
Speaker 1: Oh my again, it's not that episode.
Speaker 3: Bro.
Speaker 1: Sorry, Okay, Sabine, you're gonna have to come help me.
Speaker 2: Make sense of what I'm seeing, because I'm very disturbed
Speaker 2: by what I'm seeing. It doesn't make any sense, sweetheart,
Speaker 2: So give me a day tell me that.
Speaker 3: Yeah what, Yeah, that's what I thought. Five hours.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no talk.
Speaker 3: Alone, So five hours that was my guess. I asked,
Speaker 3: let's see this, you know.
Speaker 2: She even softened it. She says, it's like two hours.
Speaker 2: It's two hours and fifty five minutes and one day
Speaker 2: on TikTok. So the total for the day was this, Yeah,
Speaker 2: five hours, says five hours of forty.
Speaker 3: Minutes, almost six hours. I'm telling you that is probably
Speaker 3: Sabine is not any different than any other thirteen year
Speaker 3: old terrible parents, and that is that is Also if
Speaker 3: I checked avan anasons they aren't with me right now,
Speaker 3: it's probably similar.
Speaker 1: Oh my, see you lying TikTok alone.
Speaker 3: But then total it's almost six hours right on social
Speaker 3: These are the totals his by the way, everyone, if
Speaker 3: you could see TG right now, his jaw is genuinely dropped, like.
Speaker 1: These are days.
Speaker 2: That's a day for one day, that's what you're on
Speaker 2: social media. Oh the phone, okay, but still that's terrible. Okay,
Speaker 2: she's on.
Speaker 4: That amazing It was like Monday, Dad, Monday, she's on
Speaker 4: the phone for eight hours and forty eight minutes.
Speaker 1: Sweetheart, It's okay, but that's the total.
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, TikTok two hours and forty minutes that day.
Speaker 2: Why five hours and forty minutes on TikTok on Tuesday
Speaker 2: December second?
Speaker 1: Okay, will yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, that Apple. You know them.
Speaker 1: They can't get anything right on those iPhones. Stop.
Speaker 3: Okay, how shocked are you?
Speaker 1: But that's the thing.
Speaker 2: I know how much she does it when you see
Speaker 2: the numbers, And I encourage everybody if you have a
Speaker 2: kid who has an iPhone, go to that section of
Speaker 2: screen time and just spend a minute looking and you'll go,
Speaker 2: what the actual fuck that is insane. I don't know
Speaker 2: how I can't find three hours in my day to
Speaker 2: look at a social media.
Speaker 3: I mean, will you look on mind to see what
Speaker 3: mine was? This is what I'm just curious, Like, I'm
Speaker 3: just curious because I don't even know how to look.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Okay, So to your point, ro it's about this study
Speaker 2: that we're talking about, you, sweetheart, This WEE could solve.
Speaker 2: It sounds like a bunch of the problems that we
Speaker 2: are using pills to solve yes by doing simple little
Speaker 2: behavioral changes.
Speaker 3: It's kind of an AHA moment because, look, I've even
Speaker 3: had my daughter say to me, I really think I'd
Speaker 3: like to talk to a therapist. I'm feeling anxiety, I'm
Speaker 3: feeling depression. A lot of our girlfriends are on medications,
Speaker 3: and somehow I think she thinks she needs to be too,
Speaker 3: because everybody's on something that their therapists prescribed for them.
Speaker 3: And then you see a study like this, and I was,
Speaker 3: and in my mind, I'm thinking back to when I
Speaker 3: was in college, and sure, everybody has a lot of
Speaker 3: changing attitudes and there's a lot of shifting and changes
Speaker 3: in your life, so you feel maybe anxiety, but not
Speaker 3: at this level. And literally social media would be the
Speaker 3: number one thing that is different between then and now.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, what's mine? Sabine say, it's not true. It's
Speaker 3: just two hours and thirty one minutes on messages. Oh okay, messaging, Yes,
Speaker 3: that's the thing I use it the most for.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying like any I don't.
Speaker 3: Really go on social media anymore for like an hour,
Speaker 3: so I googling things. Instagram today was just one minute,
Speaker 3: one minute, But can you see yesterday, yesterday it was
Speaker 3: twenty four minutes on twenty four minutes. Yep, that's it.
Speaker 3: So I got twenty four minutes on social She's hunting.
Speaker 1: She can't find any social media usage of yours.
Speaker 4: That is because I'm living my life, my life. Look,
Speaker 4: we don't want to check it, but of course we do,
Speaker 4: but we all and I don't want to take away
Speaker 4: from anybody. Social media has some wonderful uses.
Speaker 2: Obviously we're talking about kids here, and I just think
Speaker 2: it's remarkable the difference that can be made, the differ.
Speaker 1: What am I looking at?
Speaker 3: Yes, I play music a lot, see like that's the
Speaker 3: phone is like for us Spotify number one Spotify and messages.
Speaker 3: I message people. That definitely is my longest That's my
Speaker 3: most usage of my phone is messaging children, parents, friends,
Speaker 3: that's my number one thing.
Speaker 2: Well, she's looking through ours and she has to scroll down.
Speaker 2: Social media isn't registered.
Speaker 3: Her jaw is dropped. She can't believe, yeah, you're not
Speaker 3: on social media the way they are.
Speaker 2: That is incredible. Look, it's it tells you everything. But
Speaker 2: this this other study, this last one we're talking about here.
Speaker 2: I think this if we pay attention to everybody. You
Speaker 2: don't have to go to a doctor, you don't have
Speaker 2: to do stop on your own, and you will see
Speaker 2: how different you feel. They are saying this as plain
Speaker 2: as day. Get off social media and you will feel better.
Speaker 3: I want to quote the co author of this study
Speaker 3: out of jama This is what this doctor said. If
Speaker 3: you are struggling with a mental health condition and you
Speaker 3: have treatment already, it is likely worthy experimenting to see
Speaker 3: whether reducing social media makes you feel better. And he
Speaker 3: said the mental health benefit isn't about changing your overall
Speaker 3: scream time. It's not about getting off your phone. You
Speaker 3: might use it for other things. It is specifically about
Speaker 3: social media. So it's He's like, it's we're not telling
Speaker 3: you you can't use your phone, don't constantly be on
Speaker 3: social media. He said, this is a solution that will
Speaker 3: empower most parents and young people themselves use less social media,
Speaker 3: and there was a reasonable chance you will start to
Speaker 3: feel a whole lot better.
Speaker 2: I think this is wonderful a tool we can all have,
Speaker 2: and it's not hard to implement, it's not complicated.
Speaker 1: I love this is real.
Speaker 2: This good information that can improve your health, and you
Speaker 2: have the power to do it. I love this information. Please,
Speaker 2: by all means spread it so I love them.
Speaker 3: You know, I have chools because it is empowering. And
Speaker 3: I know that Ava, when she was about a senior,
Speaker 3: she was really struggling a little bit and she got
Speaker 3: off social media. She actually deleted her accounts and she
Speaker 3: said she noticed a huge improvement when I took those
Speaker 3: girls hiking one week where there was no cell service.
Speaker 3: Ava said, her mental health and she recognized it. I
Speaker 3: think you can't force this on your kids, but if
Speaker 3: you get them to join in an experiment with you
Speaker 3: and they genuinely feel better, they will then make the
Speaker 3: decision on their own. That's the only way it's going
Speaker 3: to work. If they recognize how differently they feel, they
Speaker 3: will choose and make better choices. And I think that
Speaker 3: is cool to have that information and just say, hey,
Speaker 3: we're going to do a family experiment or we're going
Speaker 3: to try this for a week and see how we
Speaker 3: all feel. And I feel like it's going to be
Speaker 3: something that is undeniable.
Speaker 2: And look to we understand and we respect that there
Speaker 2: are people out there who are struggling who have I
Speaker 2: guess heavy or deeper, more serious issues that they do
Speaker 2: need help. They do need, doctors, they do need maybe
Speaker 2: even medicine. Yes, But combined with this, I think for
Speaker 2: so many people, and maybe even the.
Speaker 1: Majority, this could work.
Speaker 2: So we encourage you all. This is very interesting stuff
Speaker 2: this week. And wow, we learned a lot about kids
Speaker 2: and their cell phones.
Speaker 3: You've learned a lot because apparent, but every single person listening,
Speaker 3: if you go do that, I think you will be shocked, Like,
Speaker 3: look at your phone and then look at their phone
Speaker 3: and compare it.
Speaker 2: Well, folks who always appreciate you spending some time with us.
Speaker 2: We've got some parenting to go do, apparently, but for now,
Speaker 2: I don't make that face at me. For now, I'm
Speaker 2: d J. Holmes on behalf of my dear Amy Robach
Speaker 2: and my daughter Sermine Holmes. Talk to Oultser