The Four Foundational Harms: Of the Cuckoophones (Heroic +1 #1,931)

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. In our last couple ones, we've been exploring some wisdom from the week I recently spent hanging out with Jonathan Haidt, immersed in 1,000 pages of wisdom from his last three books. As you may recall, we talked about cuckoo birds. Crazy creatures, huh? Then we talked about the things our cuckoo smartphones might be pushing out of our lives. I promise to share the specific things Jonathan talks about in the anxious generation. He calls them the four foundational harms. Here's how he frames it up and I'm quoting Jonathan now. In fact, he says smartphones and other digital devices bring so many interesting experiences to children and adolescents that they cause a serious problem. They reduce interest in all non screen based forms of experience. Smartphones are like the cuckoo bird which lays its eggs in other birds nests. The cuckoo egg hatches before the others and the cuckoo hatchling promptly pushes the other eggs out of the nest in order to commandeer all of the food brought by the unsuspecting mother. He continues by saying, similarly, when a smartphone, tablet or video game console lands in a child's life, it will push out most other activities at least partially. The child will spend many hours each day sitting enthralled and motionless in except for one finger while ignoring everything beyond the screen. Of course, the same might be true of the parents as the family sits alone together. And he says, are screen based experiences less valuable than real life flesh and blood experiences when we're talking about children whose brains evolve to expect certain kinds of experiences at certain ages? Yes, a resounding yes. End quote. Now I never knew that about the cuckoo birds. That's fascinating again, isn't it? And what a frightening metaphor for the opportunity costs of our kids spending most of their waking lives staring at their phones. In a chapter called the four Foundational Harms, Jonathan walks us through what kids lose when they spend as much time as they do immersed in the virtual worlds of their phones. Which for the record, for teens aged 13 to 18 is close to 50 hours per week. Now as crazy as 50 hours per week is, even that is an underestimation according to Jonathan. As I quote again, a third of teens say they are on one of the major social media sites almost constantly. So here's a super quick look at the four foundational harms. Harm number one Social Deprivation Jonathan tells us, and I quote, children need a lot of time to play with each other face to face to foster social development. And one of the things he comes back to most often is the importance of in person free play. It's really important. Later, he asks, isn't connecting on Instagram, Snapchat, and online video games just as good? No, he says. As a leading researcher has shown, teens who spend more time using social media are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and other disorders. Harm 2 Sleep deprivation Jonathan tells us, sleep deprived teens cannot concentrate, focus or remember as well as teens who get sufficient sleep. So how much do they need? Well, he tells us, teens need more sleep than adults at least nine hours a night for preteens and eight hours a night for teens. Harm Number three Attention Fragmentation. He says this never ending stream of interruptions, this constant fragmentation of attention takes a toll on adolescents ability to think and may leave permanent marks in their rapidly reconfiguring brains. Does being a heavy user of smartphones and video games cause ADHD? He says it appears so. Harm4addiction Jonathan walks us through the behavioral design hacks that social media sites use to get us hooked. He references Johan Hari's Stolen Focus See those Notes? And tells us the creators of these apps use every trick in the psychologist's toolkit to hook users as deeply as slot machines hook gamblers. Check out our notes on Irresistible and the Scarcity Brain for more as well. And of course, watch the Social Dilemma if you haven't yet. And that's today's plus one. Remember the cuckoo birds and their four foundational harms every time you pick up your smartphone today.

What's up? This is Michael, President and head coach at Heroic. One quick note before we go. I just think it's so amazing that Brian keeps reading all these books, instilling them into more wisdom in less time. By the way, thank you Brian for continuing to read the books is still them for us. I love not having to read the book, just getting them more wisdom and less time to the plus ones of Philosopher's Notes. And if you're into this kind of thing, expressing the best version of yourself and using your greatest gifts make a positive impact on the world. Make sure you head to Heroic Us to check out all the other resources that we have available to you. You can download a bunch of free goodies including Philosopher's Notes, Master Classes and our scientifically proven Heroic app. You you can also explore advanced resources to help you go next level, including live and virtual workshops, working one on one with a Heroic Performance coach, or even becoming a certified coach yourself as you master Heroic performance, the fundamentals of coaching Excellence and Heroic Coaching prosperity. Again, head to Heroic Us to get the ancient wisdom, modern science and practical tools you need to activate your heroic potential and change the world together. And please do hit subscribe. Appreciate you have a fantastic day and see you again soon.