The Social Dilemma – Bonus Clip: The Mental Health Dilemma

They can't stop looking at social media.

Their brains have changed.

They become addicted.

And there's something very dangerous

about that.

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The number one problem-

The number one psychiatric disorder

among teenagers is anxiety.

Typically it's anxiety about needing to

check in with social media.

There's another study that

looked at "fear of missing out"

and it looked at kids who

have high anxiety around missing out.

Even though social media makes

them more anxious,

makes them more worried

about missing out,

they can't stop looking at it.

That prefrontal cortex hasn't

developed enough for them to be able

to put it down.

To say to themselves, " it's not making

me feel good."

The prefrontal cortex

this area of the brain that is involved

in our cognitive control

our ability to process

and direct our attention

based on our goals

is the last part

of our brain to develop.

This doesn't get completely

myelinated until you're

in your mid-to-late-twenties.

So kids are getting these

tools right when they

have the least capability

of actually controlling

their behavior.

I think we can confidently say

that it's changing the

way that teens interact

with each other, with peers,

with the world.

And those changes in interactions

lead to sort of changes

in behaviors; changes in

psychiatric and sort of mental health.

We should not be surprised.

And it's not just because the

culture changed, its because

their brains have changed.

They also get trained

in instant gratification

by these devices.

And there's something

very dangerous about that.

Because in real life

we don't get everything

we want instantly.

They are bombarding our

teenagers and our young adults

with so much that they become

addicted to the continuous input

of stimulus and information.

We know that there are many

activities that are critical

for our development:

face to face communication,

physical activites,

exposure to nature,

and sleep.

I would say that all of these are

being threatened in some way

by increasing access

to information technology.

I think parents are in a really

tough situation right now.

I think because this tech has negative

effects, they have to balance between

trying to protect their kids,

but also let's face it-

there's tremendous social pressure

to use technology.

And it's also incredibly important

that children are techincally literate.

And I think there need to be

more resources that help them

make those decisions.

And frankly, the companies need

to be partially responsible-

largely resposible for ensuring

that the use of these products

is responsible.

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