0:05

She heard it. Was.

0:10

Up Mister Cody it's warm bow

0:13

out in the world doing great

0:15

peace. Sign him Mogi new phone

0:17

number Me M O G Heart

0:19

M O G. Meat. And

0:21

Mogi. Talk

0:29

To me, Stretch. Say. Up did you

0:31

get a text from window? I

0:34

don't get taxed. I wouldn't know. I'm almost

0:36

certain I've gotten text from you. Oh.

0:38

Right? I can send tech. they just don't get

0:40

them like. I

0:42

don't mentally process that. I. Prefer

0:44

not to sure fine I am just

0:47

a little concern you know about. Warmer.

0:49

Weather smartphone out on his own.

0:52

Just seems bad for my my

0:54

god, he's gone by. Simulate

0:57

you're just being a worry, but. Warm.

1:00

Will ran away so he could discover

1:02

himself sexually. And yeah, that growth. I.

1:05

Don't think it was sexual. I mean,

1:07

I hope it wasn't sexual. Letting

1:10

Go brow we've spent most

1:12

of our lives using phones

1:14

were pretty balanced. Your.

1:17

A bus stop being that

1:19

don't worry puts you play

1:21

fetch. Listen,

1:24

I gotta go. Literally everyone at this

1:26

funerals. Leering at me, Why

1:29

do you. Care? I didn't

1:31

even know them. Later

1:35

Gator. Are

1:50

smart rules. Are

1:54

once again school. With

1:57

you. He I just had to

1:59

type after up a bunch of the

2:01

my notes as trying to get all

2:03

the efforts in one place anywhere. Hi

2:06

your some news run the ball. The

2:08

Santas just ban social media for anyone

2:10

under fourteen. real nanny state he got

2:12

their ran due to love is big

2:14

government of course. There's been a lot

2:16

of talk about smartphones and how they're

2:18

harmful. The kids are harmful to us

2:21

are ruining our brains which are the

2:23

kids of our skulls. And to hear

2:25

the news talk about this is a

2:27

straight up epidemic. Your chances of having

2:29

some. Kind of suicidal behavior? You

2:32

heard that word read suicidal

2:34

behavior is fifty percent So.

2:36

I. Sound with teens for example,

2:38

that as he spent more time

2:40

on screen say social media texting

2:42

or less happy. Tic Toc

2:44

is China's digital bet Know why it's

2:47

digital fennel in the sense that it's

2:49

highly addictive. So. It's basically digital

2:51

set know for for your brain.

2:53

This app is basically Digital Fitness Digital

2:55

Fentanyl. You mean cops are going to

2:57

faint at the sight of a smartphone

2:59

of are cool feature. There are currently

3:02

a million opinion pieces and studies about

3:04

the harm of smartphones. And. More broadly,

3:06

the fact that depression, anxiety, and suicide

3:08

or on the rise in America specifically

3:11

for teens. As. Even up whole

3:13

book by Jonathan Haidt the came out

3:15

a few weeks ago Title: Be Anxious

3:17

Generation How the great rewiring of childhood

3:19

is causing an epidemic of mental illness.

3:22

Seems. Like a big deal and something

3:24

real and of suspected after all that

3:26

rise in depression coincided with be rise

3:29

of these devices. So. I think most

3:31

people assume they are connected in some

3:33

way. Some. Studies even seem to

3:35

indicate that smartphones are literally making

3:37

kids dumber. Social. Media is of

3:40

course the main worry here outside of

3:42

the news. Even a Surgeon General is

3:44

concerned about social media. I'm sort of

3:46

the nineteen eighties headline about the Surgeon

3:48

General being concerned about video games. Let's

3:50

get the at No eight know that

3:52

that's a Nineteen seventies headline. Sweaty Surgeon

3:54

General? been concerned about television? Can we

3:56

get that bad air? It is. Okay.

3:58

Well, as with. It's.

4:00

Called out a bit. That bit was

4:02

bring up a good point that whenever

4:04

a new technology arises, there is inevitably

4:06

a moral panic about the harm it

4:08

does the kids. His. Concern is

4:10

often very overblown, and let's face

4:12

it, On. Pool: It's not

4:15

cool to talk about how kids are

4:17

always on their phones or whenever. I

4:19

mean I'm cool. But. It's

4:21

it's it's generally not. prove does concern

4:24

is also usually framed is a binary

4:26

thing you're probably wondering just from the

4:28

title. If we're going to give you

4:30

a hard yes or hard know and

4:33

spoilers. We don't have

4:35

any hard vini answers, but since

4:37

I'm so cool, I figured we'd

4:39

look at the actual and factual

4:42

information around smartphones. Which is. Also,

4:44

vini. There are, as we

4:46

mentioned, a lot of studies

4:48

about their offense, specifically about

4:50

their harm. Years. A Meadow

4:52

analysis that found that phone usage

4:55

negatively impacted college students learning and

4:57

academic achievement. And. Study by the

4:59

London School of Economics found it's

5:01

test scores increased by as much

5:03

as fourteen percent after school than

5:05

London implemented a strict no phones

5:07

policy. Smartphones, Have been

5:10

linked repeatedly to lower exam

5:12

scores myopia which is what

5:14

science nerds come near sightedness

5:16

and even decreased physical activity.

5:19

Which. All makes sense. Like obviously have

5:21

kids our phones on them. They're more

5:23

likely to use them instead of playing

5:25

stickball or smoking cigarettes or whatever physical

5:27

activity they would normally do. Jukebox.

5:30

As for the test scores, that

5:32

London School Study notes that this

5:35

fourteen percent improvement was only for

5:37

the lower achieving students. While phones

5:39

had no positive or negative effect

5:41

on the higher achieving students, they

5:43

conclude this is likely because the

5:46

lower achieving students have more issues

5:48

with concentration, which the phones made

5:50

worse. For. that other rector

5:52

studied it was an eleven year test

5:54

of two thousand four hundred thirty three

5:57

students they compared how they got their

5:59

homework answers to how they performed

6:01

on tests. They found that, quote,

6:03

students who benefited from homework reported

6:05

generating their own answers, and students

6:07

who reported copying the answers from

6:09

another source did not benefit from

6:12

homework. And of course, the most

6:14

common place they got answers was

6:16

from the internet via smartphone. But

6:18

like, no shit. If

6:20

you just look up the answers to your homework,

6:23

of course you don't retain that answer. But the

6:25

way you looked that up has nothing to do

6:27

with phones specifically, just another source,

6:29

which could just as easily be a

6:31

laptop, or the odd numbers in the

6:34

back of the book, or even another

6:36

book. Or I guess not as easily,

6:38

which is the actual issue, that students

6:40

should be taught not to rely on

6:43

their phones and to learn to study

6:45

correctly. There's no doubt that smartphones are

6:47

distracting, especially in class, and make it

6:49

easier for us to access information. But

6:52

the studies around these devices seem to

6:54

hinge on this vibe that smartphones are

6:56

changing our physiology in some mystical way.

6:59

Researchers say the mere presence of

7:01

our phones can cause brain drain, whether

7:03

they're on or even off. So

7:06

according to this study, your smartphone can

7:08

affect your cognitive abilities even when it's

7:10

shut off, so long as you can

7:12

see it. Even the people doing this

7:14

study were surprised by this. After

7:17

all, is the phone sending us

7:19

brain-inhibiting microwaves? Are we so distractable

7:21

that simply seeing a screen makes

7:23

us forget our... um...

7:29

names? Well, when you read

7:31

this study, you discover that they are

7:34

describing an experiment where students were made

7:36

to solve math problems. And in

7:38

doing so, they were given one of

7:40

three conditions. Either their phones were

7:42

left in another room, or

7:44

in their bags, or on the desk

7:47

with them. They found that

7:49

students who had the phones on the

7:51

desk were more distracted and didn't perform

7:53

as well. Specifically, their marks were lower

7:55

by a few points. And

7:58

yeah, again, no sh- They were

8:00

probably bored doing math? Or thinking about

8:03

how they really want to use the

8:05

calculator app for the math problems? And

8:07

so the claim that phones can affect

8:09

us, even when shut off, kinda

8:12

boils down to them being a minor distraction.

8:15

After all, it's all the world's knowledge

8:17

right there, which probably makes school feel

8:19

frustrating or like a waste of time,

8:21

especially if schools don't update their curriculum,

8:24

which it sure seems like they are

8:26

failing to do. Students

8:28

as a distraction are absolutely a

8:30

real problem, but a lot of

8:32

headlines and studies seem to imply

8:34

that they are also making us

8:37

dumber when there's very little actual

8:39

evidence of that. Going back

8:41

to test scores, people will often match up

8:43

the rise of smartphones against test scores lowering

8:45

between 2013 and 2020. But

8:48

the thing is, those graphs tend to be very

8:50

zoomed in so that the dip seems bigger. The

8:53

reality is that we're talking about a very small

8:55

difference. Quote, on a 500 point

8:57

scale, 13 year olds scored an

9:00

average of 280 in math in 2020, down

9:03

from 285 in 2012. On

9:06

the reading portion, these scores drop from 263 to 260.

9:10

That's coming from the National Center for

9:12

Education Statistics. And when you zoom out,

9:14

you see that on the larger timeline,

9:16

it's kind of nothing. And the most

9:18

significant dip really seems to happen from 2020 to 2022, the

9:20

pandemic. And

9:23

in fact, scores are far higher than

9:26

in the 70s, a.k.a. a time when

9:28

we didn't have smartphones or video games

9:30

or like fun. I mean, fire

9:32

was invented by then, I think. Fire

9:35

can be fun. Here's

9:37

a different graph of worldwide test scores

9:39

from the Program for International Student Assessment,

9:41

which shows a big drop from 2003

9:43

to 2022. The

9:46

problem there again is that obviously a big

9:48

part of that drop is from COVID. Luckily,

9:51

they also have data points from 2018. And

9:54

so when you look at their other graph

9:56

showing the individual countries and note the data

9:58

point before the drop. from Covid, you

10:01

see that these scores varied greatly depending

10:03

on the country. A lot of them

10:05

go up and down. The UK

10:07

and America even saw an improvement from

10:09

the previous data point. Canada

10:11

and Germany apparently have some issues to

10:14

work out, but it's not this consistent

10:16

drop across the board. And when you

10:18

go into the individual scores on their

10:20

webpage, you can more closely see that

10:22

it varies. In America, our science literacy

10:24

actually improved from 489 in 2006 to

10:29

502 in 2018. For reading, our score was 504 in 2000 and then 505 in 2018. Math

10:38

went down, however, from 483 in 2003 to 478 in 2018.

10:40

But see, none of this is particularly dramatic

10:48

and in some cases it's an improvement.

10:50

So when you average it all together,

10:53

worldwide scores dipped, but it greatly varied

10:55

between subjects and countries in a way

10:57

that doesn't really point to smartphones or

10:59

technology in general, but rather that Canada

11:02

is dragging us down and we should

11:04

dissolve it as a country. The bagged

11:06

milk was a clear warning sign. In

11:09

fact, a more recent meta-analysis of 27

11:12

previous studies found that evidence of brain

11:14

drain, which is what science nerds

11:16

call reduced cognitive capacity, has

11:19

been highly overblown. Some

11:21

researchers have started to push back against

11:23

the moral panic narrative that phones are

11:25

objectively bad for young people. Heck, some

11:28

people are questioning the internet's effect in

11:30

general. According to some of

11:32

the most recent research, the link between

11:34

social media use and anxiety and depression

11:36

is small and inconsistent. A

11:39

lot of the media outrage around phones

11:41

seems to be totally spurious. Like this

11:43

2018 study that blamed smartphones

11:45

for an enlarged bone spur at the

11:47

base of millennial skulls. Do you get

11:49

it? Do you get it? Spurious? Phone

11:52

spur? I

11:55

think it was awesome, but what

11:57

wasn't awesome is the study, which

11:59

was It was conducted

12:01

by a chiropractor who sells

12:04

posture pillows, didn't account for

12:06

age or gender, used old

12:08

x-rays taken by the aforementioned

12:10

pillow salesperson, and, most importantly,

12:13

didn't measure cell phone usage

12:15

at all. Despite

12:17

these overwhelming and obvious flaws with

12:19

the study, this made the freaking

12:21

national news. It does look sort

12:23

of like a horn, but actually, this is a

12:26

bone spur near the base of the skull. Researchers

12:29

in Australia examined hundreds of x-rays and found

12:31

that roughly 40% of people 18

12:34

to 30 years old who use their

12:36

phones more than 4 and a half

12:38

hours a day developed the growth. Again,

12:40

that study didn't even measure cell

12:43

phone usage. It's actually kind of

12:45

shocking how many smartphone studies don't

12:47

actually study the phones themselves. For

12:50

example, here's an article from the Washington

12:52

Post about a study that showed, quote,

12:54

between 2012 and 2018,

12:56

nearly twice as many teens displayed

12:58

high elevated levels of school loneliness,

13:00

an established predictor of depression and

13:02

mental health issues. The premise here

13:05

is that even before COVID, loneliness

13:07

was a problem, and the conclusion

13:09

they made is that it must

13:11

be related to smartphones. But

13:13

if you crack open the study itself, things

13:15

get really muddled. For starters, the way

13:17

they are measuring loneliness is from a mean

13:19

average between a scale of 1 to 4.

13:22

Basically, they gave kids a multiple

13:24

choice test where the answers were

13:27

strongly disagree, disagree, strongly agree, and

13:29

agree, and assigned those to a

13:31

number. The higher the number

13:33

meant the higher the loneliness. But

13:35

they also assigned a pass-fail system where a

13:37

score of 2.22 or above signified what they

13:42

called high loneliness. And

13:44

so when they are saying that twice

13:46

as many teens displayed high loneliness, they're

13:48

saying that they passed that 2.22 score.

13:52

But overall, when you look at their data,

13:54

the worldwide average score elevated from around 1.85

13:56

to 2. Obviously

14:00

I have no idea if that's large or

14:02

not, we're looking at data covering a very

14:04

short timeline. I don't know why

14:06

they're using this pass-fail system and ultimately

14:08

it's impossible to determine how severe that

14:11

rise is. But more importantly,

14:13

the study shows no actual

14:15

link to smartphones beyond speculation.

14:18

They took a handful of other statistics

14:20

like the GDP, fertility rates,

14:23

and income inequality along with cell phone

14:25

and internet usage and put them back

14:27

to back with this loneliness data and

14:29

concluded that cell phones and the internet

14:31

were the only thing that coincided. But

14:34

it only kinda matches up. Look

14:37

at the graph again. The worldwide and English

14:39

speaking averages begin to rise in 2003, not

14:41

2012. That's

14:45

because they also found this rise to

14:47

be inconsistent in various countries. Some

14:50

had a very high rise of loneliness while

14:52

others, such as South Korea, did not. They

14:55

speculate that South Korea didn't have as big

14:57

of a rise because they already had more

14:59

smartphones in 2012, but then

15:01

point out that smartphone use was also

15:03

very high in Denmark and Sweden, which

15:06

did get a huge increase in loneliness,

15:08

and even admit that quote, other cultural

15:10

forces may also be at work, which

15:13

is to say that they don't

15:15

really know. They're just guessing based

15:17

on the stuff they arbitrarily included

15:19

in their study. But like, what

15:21

about other factors? You know

15:23

what else rose also between 2012 and

15:25

2018? School

15:28

shootings. In fact, by 2018,

15:31

over half of American teens were

15:33

worried their school would be targeted.

15:36

But they don't factor that into this

15:38

study. What about mental health services? School

15:40

pressure? What about social media specifically,

15:43

as opposed to broad smartphone and

15:45

internet use? Those DCEU

15:47

movies started around 2012, huh? These

15:51

days, those! It can be literally anything

15:53

you choose to put on that graph,

15:55

so long as that thing grew during

15:57

that time. And for that exact reason,

16:00

they ultimately conclude, quote, although

16:02

such analyses cannot prove causation,

16:05

they can test whether cultural

16:07

indicators can be ruled in or out.

16:10

Cool. So now we know

16:12

that it's not fertility rates that are

16:14

making teens lonely. Thanks.

16:17

And this is the problem across the board. A lot

16:20

of the data on this issue seems

16:22

to show that the link between these

16:24

problems and phones is correlation, not causation.

16:27

And yes, that includes the Anxious Generation

16:29

book we mentioned earlier. To quote

16:31

a review by Candice L. Audgers,

16:34

an associate dean for research and

16:36

a professor of psychological science and

16:38

informatics, Hates supplies graphs throughout the

16:40

book showing that digital technology use

16:42

and adolescent mental health problems are

16:44

rising together. The plots presented throughout

16:47

this book will be useful in

16:49

teaching my students the fundamentals of

16:51

causal inference and how to avoid

16:53

making up stories by simply looking

16:55

at trend lines. So at

16:58

the end of the day, we have

17:00

dozens of news clips, countless articles, and

17:02

a whole book based entirely on people

17:04

looking at a few graphs and making

17:06

a completely unscientific connection between them. That's

17:09

wild. It also ignores a bunch

17:11

of other studies doubting that there

17:13

even is a correlation. Here's a

17:15

Stanford study published in 2022 that

17:17

found no association between when a

17:19

kid got their first smartphone and

17:21

their overall well-being. In parts

17:23

of Europe, a place where smartphones

17:25

also exist, anxiety and suicide rates

17:27

seem to not have risen alongside smartphone

17:30

usage the way they have in

17:32

America. And so at the

17:34

end of the day, the only thing

17:36

we know is that smartphones began to

17:38

get popular kind of around the same

17:41

time teen depression did, but

17:43

also not really. According

17:45

to the CDC, teen suicide rates

17:47

started to spike around 2007, while

17:49

smartphones didn't really take off until

17:51

closer to 2010 or 2012,

17:54

depending on the data. And even then,

17:56

it wasn't yet something

17:58

everyone had. that

18:00

whatever is causing the problem didn't create

18:03

this immediate change and probably existed before

18:05

that rise, right? It's

18:07

weird to think that the moment smartphones

18:09

went on sale caused kids to start

18:12

hurting themselves more. And when

18:14

we did all have phones, those suicide rates

18:16

were starting to go down after 2018. And

18:19

then actually it dropped a bit more during

18:22

the start of COVID. That's right. It went

18:24

down the same time schools were closing and

18:26

we were all stuck inside on our phones.

18:29

And then went back up after school

18:31

started opening again. Hmm.

18:33

Hey, when did we start No Child Left

18:35

Behind again? This is like signed

18:38

in 2002, so like 2003? That's interesting. Am

18:42

I saying that's the primary reason? No.

18:44

But that's kind of the point. That

18:46

there are a lot of variables we can point

18:48

to and none of them are very conclusive. Which

18:51

to me implies that it's probably a

18:53

mixture of things. Plus these rates

18:56

are now going down again, at least

18:58

for teens, who are very much in

19:00

school again. And so this

19:02

goes back to this all just

19:04

being about vibes. And the data

19:06

is not nearly as apocalyptic or

19:08

even definitive as a lot of

19:10

headlines indicate. To the point that

19:12

it's just bad science. So

19:14

after the break, we're gonna dig

19:16

into the larger moral panic around

19:18

technology and ask if we've ever

19:20

been right about it. Hold

19:23

on. Yarp.

19:26

Hey Smelly, I was just thinking about

19:28

your warmbo concerns a little bit more

19:30

and I realized something. Are

19:33

you calling me from a war zone? No,

19:36

we're just doing that gun salute thing

19:38

when soldiers die. You're

19:40

still at the funeral? Nah, this is

19:43

a different funeral. I'm funeral hopping.

19:45

Listen, do you remember that film

19:47

The Butterfly Effect? Yes. Well,

19:50

they flat out say that if you change anything

19:52

in the past, then no one

19:54

in the future will notice the change. So,

19:56

how'd that die?

19:59

No, miss. When Ashton Kutcher

20:01

purposefully hurts his hands! What?

20:04

I know, right? It doesn't make

20:06

any sense, Cody. They broke

20:08

the rules, Cody! Shh! Oh,

20:11

shh! I gotta

20:13

go. One of these jerk widows

20:15

keeps giving me crap. Like

20:18

I said, I didn't even know him! Okay,

20:21

well, this is why we have a bail

20:24

budget. Enjoy the ads, and... you

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slash more

22:15

news. Check it out. Please, please

22:19

check it out. You

22:21

don't know what they're capable of making

22:24

high quality. The

22:27

drink is what they're capable of... And

22:30

breaking my leg! Uh,

22:35

sorry, hey, I'm Venmo and Katie a bunch of money. Not

22:37

for bail. She's at Ruby Tuesday and I want her

22:39

to pick me up something. I'm

22:42

also... Laying 2

22:44

dots. Okay,

22:46

hey! Hi! Sorry,

22:49

hi. We're back. Before

22:51

the break, we were talking about how data is used

22:53

to make a lot of money. About

22:56

how data on the harm of smartphones is

22:58

flimsy at best. Which is weird because you'd

23:01

expect there to be more of a connection.

23:03

On the other hand, adults have always

23:06

been overly concerned whenever a new technology

23:08

gets in the hands of kids, right?

23:11

And so it's really hard to tell

23:13

what is a genuine problem and what

23:15

is simply a continuing pattern of moral

23:17

panics. You know, this

23:19

stuff. Critics,

23:23

including the national PTAs, say such

23:25

video games contribute to violence in

23:27

real life. Yeah, you're so right.

23:30

Mortal Kombat rocks. So, okay,

23:32

is this just part of a larger

23:34

pattern of moral panics? Or are smartphones

23:37

different? There is a notable

23:39

historical pattern of moral panics around technology

23:41

going all the way back to the

23:43

gosh dang printing press. And

23:45

the panic is almost always about

23:48

how technology will ruin our brains

23:50

to the point that even Socrates

23:52

argued that writing would quote, create

23:55

forgetfulness in the learners' souls. You

23:57

may notice that this is the exact concern. with

24:00

smartphones affecting homework. Man, if only

24:03

he got to play Mortal Kombat, he would have fucking

24:06

loved that. Most recently, we

24:09

were very concerned about television in the

24:11

80s and 90s. Depending

24:13

on the study, children watched around four

24:15

hours of TV a day, and another

24:17

hour or so with video games. It's

24:20

hard to find any exact numbers, but

24:22

here's a US Department of Education paper

24:24

from 1990 that

24:26

says eighth graders spent about 21 hours

24:28

a week on

24:30

television. So that's like three

24:32

hours a day. More recently, here's

24:35

a 2009 Kaiser Family Foundation survey that

24:37

concludes kids ages 11 to 14 spend

24:41

nine hours a day on a screen.

24:43

Mind you, that's not all on a

24:45

phone, and they include listening to music

24:47

as part of that. So it's more

24:50

like eight hours, which is still a

24:52

lot. They actually break it down in

24:54

the survey. About four and a half

24:56

hours are spent watching TV with some

24:58

of that also multitasking. That's up from

25:00

a little under four hours in 1999.

25:04

As for phones, this 11 to 14

25:06

age group spent around one hour and

25:08

40 minutes talking and texting. But

25:10

this is from 2009. They

25:13

don't even have the word social or

25:15

media in here. Twits a simpler time.

25:18

We hadn't even occupied Wall

25:20

Street successfully? Twitch

25:22

didn't even exist yet, nor had the

25:25

cruel but fair reign of Ed

25:27

Sheeran even begun. May

25:29

his reign end

25:31

soon. Kids don't actually watch

25:33

cable TV anymore is my

25:35

point. Despite that, the CDC

25:37

still references this study when

25:40

talking about screen time. And

25:42

perhaps they shouldn't? I

25:44

do declare the CDC to be

25:46

incorrect here. About this

25:49

one thing specifically. Here is more recent

25:51

data from the common sense census that

25:53

splits the age groups up a little

25:55

differently. As a disclaimer, common sense census

25:58

is a group that has pushed. legislation

26:00

regulating violent video games and

26:02

is not an objective source.

26:05

But again, it's hard to get any data

26:07

here. And they concluded that in 2019, middle

26:09

school aged kids

26:11

were spending about 4 hours and 44

26:14

minutes a day on a screen. This

26:16

went over 5 hours during the

26:19

pandemic, but that's still less than the

26:21

Kaiser Family Survey. Of that

26:23

time, 2 hours and 40 minutes was

26:25

spent watching YouTube or some equivalent of

26:27

television. Sluge viewer, talkies.net,

26:30

you know the sites. Then another hour and

26:32

a half on games. And for tweens, less

26:34

than 20 minutes on social media. Of course

26:36

for teenagers, it was an hour and a

26:39

half. So when you break down these numbers,

26:41

a lot of it is the same as

26:43

1999 and even

26:46

1990. Kids spent about

26:48

3-4 hours a day watching TV,

26:50

either on an old CRT television

26:52

or a smartphone. That hasn't

26:54

really changed. An hour, hour

26:56

and a half gaming, which is a bit

26:58

more than the 90s because games are, you

27:00

know, better now, especially

27:02

the violent ones. And so the

27:05

extra screen time really comes down

27:07

to social media, texting, and the

27:09

internet. Which you'd expect would

27:11

rise since the 90s, as those

27:13

things didn't exist. And so the

27:15

question is how much of that

27:17

is abnormal and how much is

27:19

what you would expect? Like is

27:21

texting or DMing a concern when

27:23

90s kids used to spend hours

27:25

on the phone? What about

27:27

studying or doing homework on a

27:29

phone or computer? What about the

27:31

fact that since we bring our

27:33

phones everywhere, oftentimes we're looking at

27:35

screens while doing other things? Is

27:38

playing Strawberry Hitler or Rage Socks

27:40

on my phone all that bad if

27:42

I'm in a waiting room? A place

27:44

that I'd normally just be reading a

27:46

highlights magazine in? This is all to

27:48

say that it's very hard to quantify

27:50

screen time with modern smartphones and interpret

27:53

that data beyond the general agreement that

27:55

yes, yes, we stare

27:57

at a screen a lot. say,

28:00

too much, and that's

28:02

probably causing some problems, at the

28:05

very least for our eyesight and

28:07

attention spans. And so going

28:09

back to the larger moral panic and the

28:11

pattern of us claiming that any new technology

28:14

is bad, well, I don't

28:16

want to pretend like that's all hogwash.

28:19

Gee, we ought to do something Fred.

28:21

Okay? How's about taking a nap? I

28:23

got a better idea. Let's take a

28:25

Winston break. That's it! Let's

28:28

rock. Socrates would have loved them. I

28:30

did for ten years, then I quit.

28:33

Don't smoke, it's bad for you. So

28:35

maybe television didn't make us all brain

28:37

dead, but it did constantly invade our

28:39

homes with advertisements that, at first, had

28:42

absolutely no limit to what they could

28:44

sell or how. In the

28:46

late 70s, the FTC actually took up

28:48

a massive initiative to investigate the effects

28:50

the TV ads had on children. After

28:53

three years of research, they found

28:55

that children under a certain age

28:57

could not tell the difference between

28:59

a program and a commercial, and

29:01

therefore are easily deceived by advertisements.

29:04

There's actually similar data about the internet

29:06

in that studies have shown that middle

29:08

school children have had problems figuring out

29:10

the difference between a news story and

29:13

sponsored content. I mean, so do

29:15

adults! The point here being

29:18

that just because a technology didn't literally

29:20

eviscerate our brains doesn't mean it didn't

29:22

do something bad. It just means that

29:24

we got used to the bad things,

29:26

such as the constant presence of advertisements

29:29

and violence and all the other shitty

29:31

things television puts in our homes. Was

29:34

that a huge problem for kids? I

29:36

mean, I don't know. I was one of those

29:38

kids and I feel okay. Everything's terrible.

29:41

That's just like, that's the world.

29:43

Also, I write letters to all

29:45

the Kellogg's mascots, but that's, those

29:47

are my real friends, so you gotta write

29:50

to your friends. But

29:52

of course I was also born after

29:54

we figured out how to regulate at

29:56

least some of the problems on television.

30:00

At least right now, we haven't

30:02

hit that regulatory stage with smartphones

30:04

and the internet and, most importantly,

30:06

social media. Because while

30:08

the device itself is probably finish

30:10

for us, the shit we dump

30:12

on it absolutely is not. There

30:15

are, of course, a lot of

30:17

studies that show an association between

30:20

increased social media and an increase

30:22

in mental distress, suicidality, and sleep

30:24

deprivation among other bad things. Social

30:27

media can affect teens' self-esteem and

30:29

social relations, their academic performance, and

30:31

their attention spans. The entire system

30:34

of likes and upvotes and pokes

30:36

and hearts and gropes are designed

30:38

to give us this Pavlovian dopamine

30:40

response to engagement. Children

30:43

and teens are especially vulnerable to this kind

30:45

of thing. As children

30:47

reach adolescence, their reward systems

30:49

become more activated, but their

30:51

self-control doesn't fully form until

30:53

age 21, making them

30:55

a lot more susceptible to social

30:58

media addiction. In fact, researchers from

31:00

the University of North Carolina found

31:02

that teenagers that habitually checked their

31:05

social media had a heightened sensitivity

31:07

to social rewards from peers over

31:09

time. So, the more you

31:11

use social media, the more susceptible you

31:14

are to the effects of social media.

31:17

Like a drug. Or specifically, like

31:19

an addiction. We don't really

31:21

have any large data around phone addiction,

31:23

but based on what studies we do

31:26

have, it's not hard to assume it's

31:28

a growing problem. Ever since

31:30

Facebook, these companies have figured

31:32

out ways to perfect their

31:34

newsfeed-type system. While the

31:36

earlier model started somewhat basic, it

31:38

has grown into a complicated algorithm

31:40

with the singular purpose of keeping

31:42

you on the app. And

31:45

while kids aren't going on Facebook anymore,

31:47

there's always going to be something trying

31:49

to do this, any way

31:51

it can. the

32:00

watch name. TikTok also

32:02

says it allows you to be less

32:04

of something by selecting the not interested

32:06

watch name. But Shavo says that's not

32:08

enough. The algorithm is able

32:10

to find the piece of content that you're

32:13

vulnerable to that will make you click, that

32:15

will make you watch. It

32:17

doesn't mean you really like it, that

32:19

the content that you enjoy the most,

32:22

it's just the content that's the most

32:24

likely to make you stay

32:26

on the platform. Right. So TikTok is

32:28

going to show you anything it thinks

32:30

will keep you watching, even if, and

32:33

maybe even especially if, it's something that

32:35

pisses you off. And to be clear,

32:37

humans still have like free will with

32:39

this stuff. We aren't a bunch of babies unless

32:41

we're literally a bunch of babies. What I mean

32:44

is that, for example, recent studies

32:46

have shown that the hysteria around

32:48

radicalization and the various pipelines might

32:50

have been overblown. Researchers from

32:52

Penn State found that radicalization on

32:54

YouTube mostly stems from real life

32:56

factors. That is, people who were

32:58

already going to be radicalized because

33:00

of their IRL circumstances just happened

33:02

to get there via the internet.

33:05

However, even if social media

33:07

doesn't cause actual severe radicalization,

33:09

algorithms can make users think

33:11

things are becoming more polarized.

33:14

Basically, it makes you think the world is

33:16

getting more extreme than it is. But not

33:18

in the fun extreme way where we all

33:20

slam orbits and float around on rollerblades. Oh,

33:23

I miss orbits. It was like drinking

33:25

frog eggs. And now when I drink frog

33:27

eggs, it tastes like frog

33:29

eggs. Bring back orbits is my

33:31

point. So combine all that with

33:33

the fact that misinformation often gets

33:36

the most engagement. And you see

33:38

why social media is primarily incentivizing

33:40

divisive and terrible bullshit. Kind of

33:42

like, you know, all of

33:44

media always for all of time. It's

33:47

worth noting that social media is basically a

33:49

turbo version of what we had before. Teen

33:52

bullying, for example, was always a

33:54

problem. But the internet has made

33:56

it easier to do and with

33:58

less accountability. And while this study

34:00

is admittedly limited, there's some evidence

34:02

that cyberbullying is linked with phone

34:05

addiction too. And honestly, out of

34:07

all the potential harms we've talked

34:09

about, I think addiction is

34:11

the clearest one. Although even when discussing

34:13

that, we have to recognize that the

34:16

media was concerned about TV addiction in

34:18

the 90s too. After all, TV is

34:20

also designed to be addictive. Especially

34:24

HypnoToe. And all

34:26

glory to him. What

34:29

we're talking about here is called a

34:31

non-substance addiction. As in, an

34:33

addiction to something that isn't a

34:35

chemical substance. Food, porn, porn of

34:37

food, corn, corn cream, porn

34:40

cream. The causes of that are usually

34:42

an underlying mental health problem, such as

34:44

depression or trauma. So while food and

34:46

porn and shopping and gambling and the

34:49

internet are often designed to be addictive,

34:51

that doesn't mean you'll automatically be addicted

34:53

to them. Which goes back to the

34:55

question of why we all appear to

34:57

be addicted, which I will circle back

35:00

to later. But you can certainly make

35:02

the case that smartphones are trying to

35:04

keep us hooked, even if it's

35:06

not the thing that causes that.

35:08

In fact, it's their standard business

35:10

tactic. In Silicon Valley, startups have

35:12

largely based their apps on a

35:14

pretty simple behavioral model. Motivation,

35:17

trigger, ability. Also

35:19

known as FOG's behavioral model.

35:21

The idea is simple. Human

35:23

beings act when those three

35:25

forces, motivation, trigger, ability, converge.

35:27

Social media has a massive

35:30

influence on consumer spending habits.

35:32

Something both businesses and the

35:34

social media companies themselves know

35:36

and prioritize. In 2022, 76% of

35:40

US adults reported buying things online

35:43

with their smartphones. So

35:45

this is all directly tied to

35:47

their profits. Companies do better if

35:49

we're addicted to our phones. They

35:51

do better if we are not

35:53

able to discern real news from

35:55

fake news. And of course, kids

35:57

are one of the biggest marketing

35:59

targets. Kids will buy... most

36:02

things. Nearly every WWE action figure

36:04

is just a guy in his

36:06

underwear, and kids buy them. And

36:09

so it makes sense, to

36:11

corporations, to take this addictive little

36:13

monster and go after kids. It's

36:16

not a bug, it's not a feature, it's

36:18

the core purpose of the system in the

36:20

first place. A system that is right in

36:23

your pocket! A new study is shining the

36:25

light on the amount of time teens spend

36:27

on their cell phones and social media every

36:29

day. The average teen gets more than 200

36:32

notifications on their phone in 24 hours. Now,

36:35

this is kind of another one of

36:37

those overblown headlines. The study itself claims

36:39

that most of the notifications come from

36:42

Snapchat and Discord, and that most teens

36:44

are able to discern which apps are

36:46

sending them needless or unimportant notifications designed

36:48

to draw them in. In

36:50

other words, a lot of these

36:52

notifications are probably communications between teens

36:54

more than they are advertisements. But,

36:57

recognizing that difference... still

37:00

a fucking pain, isn't it? Not

37:02

just for teens, but everyone who has a phone.

37:05

You probably already know that there's an anxiety

37:07

around texting that most people feel. The

37:10

idea that we're always available

37:12

24-7 is extremely distressing and

37:14

feels unnatural. And while that's

37:16

true for tablets and laptops,

37:18

it's of course exacerbated by

37:20

smartphones. They are the primary culprits

37:22

here, a little window to the outside world

37:24

that we are tethered to as both a

37:26

curse and a lifeline. And this

37:28

is probably the biggest case against

37:31

smartphones. Not that they're making us

37:33

more antisocial, but actually... too

37:35

social? Addictively and compulsively

37:38

social? Or at least, stressfully plugged into the

37:40

world? I mean, if you want to call

37:42

the internet a social experience, which for some

37:44

it might be, but not others. And

37:47

as we've said before, this all stems from

37:49

the basic idea that the internet is kind

37:51

of the first technology that goes both ways.

37:54

It gives us content, and we give back

37:56

into it. We post, and like, and click,

37:58

and give it speed. in a

38:00

million ways that it craves. It's like

38:02

the ultimate Tamagotchi, or that ball in

38:05

Lord of the Rings for wizard perverts.

38:07

A window into the delightful and tragic

38:10

and angering and adorable. Our work and

38:12

school, our peers and family, horrific news

38:14

and video footage of that horrific news.

38:16

We can wake up, pick it up,

38:18

and if we're not careful, we immediately

38:21

see pictures of dead people. Then we

38:23

stroll for a moment and see a

38:25

meme about a movie. Then we scroll

38:27

again and it's a cute dog. Then

38:29

we scroll again and it's another

38:31

dead person. And it's

38:33

always there, in our pockets, dinging at

38:36

us. It's probably one, if not the,

38:38

most significant advancements in the last forever

38:40

many years and it's moving too fast

38:42

for us to handle and we have absolutely

38:44

no idea what it's going to do to

38:46

us in the long term. And

38:48

so we absolutely want to make sure

38:51

that teenagers and kids, the people whose

38:53

brains are still forming, have a healthy

38:55

relationship with this object. And

38:58

yes, I recognize that a lot of

39:00

this is similar to television, an object

39:02

that also advanced the access we had

39:05

to the world, that also shows horrific

39:07

images and news and so this probably

39:09

isn't some kind of tech apocalypse, it's

39:11

very likely that a portion of the

39:14

concern today is possibly overblown and embarrassing

39:16

in hindsight. But still some

39:18

basic regulations we can enact, right? Just

39:20

because gambling isn't statistically the most harmful

39:22

thing doesn't mean we let kids do

39:25

it. And so we obviously need to

39:27

regulate this to some extent. But of

39:29

course, which regulations do we do? Do

39:31

we ban phones for kids, enact an

39:33

age limit, do a hunger game or

39:35

perhaps even a battle royale? I'll tell

39:37

you what, you know what? Let's

39:40

do our last and best ad and then

39:42

when we come back we will solve the

39:44

phones, once and for all. Hey

39:48

there, are you naked? Perhaps a bear ate your

39:50

clothes or you stripped them off because they were

39:52

covered in gasoline before accidentally rolling down a hill

39:54

into the park and letting police station. Well you

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should check out our merch store at shop. Some

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more news.com. At

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more time! I'll

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do it. Shop.somemorenews.com! Goodbye!

40:41

Sweet daddy sauce! Here we are! We

40:43

are back! My phone is dinging a lot,

40:45

but I'm choosing to ignore it! No phones!

40:47

We're solving phones! And we're talking about how

40:49

we should regulate them so they perhaps are

40:51

less harmful to all of us and especially

40:54

our spawn! And the thing

40:56

about regulations around technology moral panics is

40:58

that they've almost always been directed at

41:00

banning the thing in question. As

41:02

I said at the top, this is starting

41:05

in America, specifically with Florida banning social media

41:07

for kids under 14. This

41:09

is inevitably going to happen in other

41:12

states. And there's even some talk of

41:14

lawmakers banning teen smartphone use altogether. And

41:17

while I get the frustration of kids being on

41:19

their phones in class, banning them is

41:21

entirely missing the point. For

41:23

starters, we should obviously regulate the

41:25

companies themselves. I mean, come on,

41:27

they constantly steal our data while

41:30

making their product as addicting as

41:32

possible. There's currently no federal law

41:34

dealing with this, although legislation has

41:36

been recently proposed, so thumbs up!

41:38

But for now, we are reliant

41:40

on the companies to regulate themselves.

41:43

The FTC actually proposed sweeping changes aiming

41:45

to shift the burden from parents and

41:48

teachers and instead to the apps themselves

41:50

and the companies that make them. Europe

41:53

has seen some success with calls for

41:55

industries to self-regulate, and people have

41:57

been pushing for that in America as well. Although,

42:00

I wouldn't trust them

42:02

to self-regulate personally, you know? Because of

42:05

who they are, like, does

42:07

Elon Musk seem like he can

42:09

self-regulate? Or that Surf Mime guy?

42:11

Come on! It seems like the

42:14

core issue is that smartphones and

42:16

apps are inherently designed to be

42:18

addictive. And we need to either

42:20

gut those addictive properties, or enact an age

42:22

limit like we do with casinos, I guess.

42:24

I mean, obviously we should just have regulations

42:26

forcing them to not be addictive, but what

42:30

are those regulations? How do we

42:32

enforce them? Who enforces them? Joe

42:34

Biden? Another old dude? This guy?

42:37

Mr. Chud, does TikTok access the home

42:39

Wi-Fi network? Only

42:43

if the user tends on the Wi-Fi. I'm

42:45

sorry, I may not understand the question. So

42:47

if I have TikTok app on my phone

42:49

and my phone is on my home Wi-Fi

42:51

network, does TikTok access that network? Extremely

42:54

embarrassing. See, the thing about tackling this

42:56

other problem is that we have a

42:58

much larger and sillier problem we first

43:00

have to address, which is that the

43:03

government is completely ill-equipped to regulate technology,

43:05

let alone understand it. As

43:07

we said, it's moving so freaking fast.

43:09

And what we really need, before anything

43:12

else, is a new federal department specifically

43:14

created to regulate the internet and protect

43:16

users. Or maybe technology in general, like

43:18

this proposal for a federal department of

43:20

science and technology. Add internet

43:23

in there. Federal department of internet,

43:25

science and technology. Call it FIST!

43:27

We need fisters to fist these companies

43:30

and fist all the other companies and

43:32

technology that will pop up. And we

43:34

need to be fisted fast. Because right

43:36

now, the only big regulations we're making

43:39

aren't the ones that will work. In

43:41

Florida, TikTok is now banned on

43:44

school Wi-Fi networks and school district-owned

43:46

devices. Yesterday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis

43:48

signed the ban into law. Students

43:51

will also be required to sit

43:53

through instruction on the harmful effects

43:55

of social media on their mental

43:58

health. So, for the record, these are the things we need to do. DeSantis

44:00

is just mad at TikTok specifically and

44:02

doesn't give a shit about social media.

44:04

But again, there's no doubt that social

44:06

media is harmful and addicting, just

44:08

like we know that drugs can be harmful

44:11

and addicting. But... Do

44:13

you remember what anti-drug classes were like as a

44:15

kid? Did they deter you

44:18

from doing drugs? You're on

44:20

drugs right now, aren't you? Aren't you?

44:22

Don't lie to me. Don't- you can't lie to

44:24

me. I can smell it on you and I

44:26

can tell everyone around you right now can

44:29

tell. They know. But

44:32

yeah, statistically, those classes did not

44:34

deter you. The larger problem

44:37

with a sweeping ban, aside from it

44:39

not working, is that it doesn't actually

44:41

fix the underlying problem. The thing we

44:43

sort of began with, which is the idea that

44:45

kids are more depressed and lonely than they were

44:47

20 years ago. And by

44:49

focusing on smartphones, and only smartphones,

44:52

as this huge threat, we're grossly

44:54

missing the point. Because going

44:56

back to the causes of a

44:58

non-substance addiction, it's often caused by

45:00

something else, right? Like

45:03

depression or trauma. Yet we suddenly

45:05

forget this when talking about smartphones.

45:07

I'm guessing because it's way easier

45:09

to blame a single physical thing

45:11

than actually exploring a larger problem.

45:13

Kind of reminds me of the D&D panic,

45:15

where a bunch of outcasts played a game

45:17

to feel better, and adults decided that the

45:19

game was satanic and also why they were

45:22

outcasts. That panic didn't solve

45:24

anything, and gave us nothing. Besides Tom

45:26

Hanks, I guess. Phones are

45:28

a symptom of something, not the cause.

45:31

So what is the cause? The

45:34

devil? Come on,

45:36

title monkey, I just finished with the...

45:38

Okay, so now I'd like to mention,

45:40

for no particular reason, that one of

45:42

the current pushbacks for banning smartphones is

45:44

from parents who want to make sure

45:46

that they can talk to their kids

45:48

in case of a school shooting. In

45:51

fact, one of the major reasons kids use

45:53

their phone in class is because their parents

45:55

want to monitor them at school. Now, for

45:58

the record, data indicates that it's actually... more

46:00

dangerous for kids to have phones during

46:02

shooting. But this is of

46:04

course missing the broader observation, which we

46:07

already alluded to, several times,

46:09

that perhaps kids are feeling depressed

46:11

and lonely and anxious because the

46:14

physical world has gotten worse for

46:16

them. See, one of the things

46:18

the media seems to not do when talking about this

46:20

problem is to actually ask teens,

46:23

what's bumming them out? It's

46:26

weird how this conversation around phones seems

46:28

to exclude them. The polls that

46:30

do ask this question found that

46:32

teens are mainly stressed about social

46:34

and academic pressures, bullying, and drugs

46:36

and alcohol, fairly standard stuff. But

46:39

that's on top of concerns about

46:41

gun violence, social injustice, and climate

46:44

change. And you may notice that

46:46

those are all things that got very big around

46:48

the early 2000s, the

46:50

same time this rise in depression started.

46:53

While guns are uniquely American, climate

46:55

change is not. Or

46:57

is social unrest or economic issues or

47:00

political division. And yeah, you

47:02

could argue that the internet and smartphones are

47:04

the reasons kids are so tuned into those

47:06

problems, but banning smartphones doesn't

47:08

take those problems away. It's more

47:10

like shooting the messenger, albeit

47:13

a very efficient and omnipresent messenger

47:15

designed to make you addicted to

47:17

it. And so the thing about

47:19

enacting bans or telling them to get off

47:21

their phones as if that's the solution is,

47:24

well, what other choice

47:26

do they actually have? What is the alternative

47:28

to being on their phone? Hundreds

47:31

of malls have closed over

47:33

the last several years because

47:35

people's shopping habits have changed.

47:39

We talked about this in our Metaverse episode. Kids

47:42

are social. Naturally so. Hell, people

47:44

are social. The idea that smartphones

47:46

are making them antisocial is silly

47:48

when they primarily use their smartphones

47:50

to interact with each other. So

47:53

if more kids are feeling depressed

47:55

and lonely, it's not because they've

47:57

suddenly changed into these antisocial creatures.

48:00

defying the entire history of human

48:02

behavior, it's far more likely that they

48:04

have nowhere to go to socialize. I

48:06

mean, going back to those suicide rates,

48:09

one of the most obvious bits of

48:11

evidence is that those rates are higher

48:13

everywhere that's more isolated, while cities

48:16

and anywhere with activity had the lowest

48:18

rates. We did a whole episode

48:20

about the lack of walkable cities in

48:22

America. You know what state is particularly bad

48:24

for that? Florida. The

48:27

place banning TikTok. You couple

48:29

that with the death of the mall and the

48:31

threat of mass shootings and... Where

48:34

do you go? Where can you exist outdoors

48:36

for free? I guessed the park, but then

48:38

the mass shootings thing again. And also, did

48:40

teens ever go to parks to do

48:42

anything besides get high? Kids need

48:44

things to do. They need a

48:47

space to interact in. An arcade, a public

48:49

pool, a rec center, that one weird

48:51

older guy's house. But we stopped making

48:53

these things. And we did it right around

48:55

the time that kids got depressed and

48:57

smartphones got popular. Look at

48:59

this graph again of teen loneliness starting in 2003 and

49:01

then spiking in 2012. Now

49:05

look at this graph of mall closures

49:07

in America reaching its peak exactly in

49:09

2012. And of course,

49:12

all of this got so much

49:14

worse during COVID, which acted as

49:16

the final death blow to the

49:18

concept of public spaces. The problem

49:20

isn't the phones, it's that the

49:22

phones replaced literally everything else. Everything!

49:25

It's where we shock, talk, debate, date,

49:27

watch videos of cool guys talking news.

49:29

And so if you're a kid or

49:32

just a person, of course you're addicted

49:34

to your phone. Of course

49:36

you don't want it taken from you even

49:38

in the classroom. It's the only fucking thing

49:41

you have. So if you want

49:43

kids or people in general to get off

49:45

their phones, the main way to fix

49:47

that is to give them a

49:49

reason to do so. They will react to

49:51

that. In fact, here's a

49:53

study showing that most teens will

49:55

have a healthy relationship with technology

49:57

if the adults around them... They

50:01

are a product of their environment. And

50:04

right now, phones are the only

50:06

environment. It's like we're in a worse version of

50:08

The Matrix. So, The

50:10

Matrix Resurrection? Wow. Monkey,

50:13

zing, shots fired. In

50:15

bullet time. And for the record,

50:17

social media is not all bad. Some

50:19

research shows that some uses of social

50:21

media are linked with positive outcomes for

50:23

youth mental health. For instance, teens

50:25

can interact with a broader and more

50:27

diverse peer group online. This can

50:29

be especially meaningful for kids with

50:32

marginalized identities, helping them find community

50:34

even if it isn't available IRL.

50:36

While there's obviously a ton of bigotry

50:39

and racism online, especially in a post-X

50:41

world, researchers have found that social media

50:43

can be a really helpful connection for

50:45

young black and brown people looking for

50:47

mutual support. The same goes for queer

50:50

and trans youth who may find meaningful

50:52

connection online with a peer group. And

50:54

again, the basic function of the smartphone,

50:56

to connect people to the largest repository

50:59

of information ever conceived of on the

51:01

planet, isn't an inherently bad one.

51:04

Information is awesome, and the democratization of

51:06

information is even more awesome. That's why

51:08

we all donate hundreds of dollars to

51:10

Wikipedia every time I ask for it,

51:12

right? Right? Right?

51:15

So no, it's not the smartphones. It's the

51:17

fact that our country and most of the

51:19

world has systematically torn down all the ways

51:21

it was pleasant to be outside and replace

51:23

it all with a digital version on the

51:26

internet, which is on our smartphone.

51:29

Wait, so, wait, is it the smartphones? So

51:32

it is a smartphone, but not in the way

51:34

you assume. Hey,

51:38

Kay. Hey, little buddy, listen,

51:40

I've been thinking about it,

51:43

and I'm okay with the plot hole and the

51:45

butterfly effect. I am way

51:47

more bothered with Minority Report

51:49

where the villain frames Tom

51:52

Cruise using a paradoxical self-fulfilling

51:54

prophecy. Please. I

51:56

don't know, man. I'm honestly not sure how to react

51:58

to these phone calls. Anyway, I've been buried

52:01

alive, aww, so I'm gonna need you

52:03

to get in your shitty car and

52:05

buy a shovel and drive up here.

52:08

I mean, I'm assuming you don't have a shovel. I'm counting

52:10

for weak arms. Sound

52:12

good? I mean, no time to answer,

52:14

I'm losing oxygen. Bye, see you

52:17

soon! Warmbo

52:22

sent me a link to a semen

52:25

retention blog. I think in

52:28

terms of me and

52:30

the people I know, I'm gonna

52:33

say that phones are bad. Yeah,

52:37

he has a no for phones! Good

52:40

answer, Cody! No for phones. I

52:54

really wanna see if I got any

52:56

likes! Ohhhh! Yeah!

53:05

I got a couple of likes! Okay,

53:11

yes to phones! It's

53:37

called some more news where the podcasts are. We've

53:41

got a merch

53:45

store! We've got merch

53:47

store! We've got some merch! I

53:52

miss him so much! Oh my god, oh I haven't

53:55

looked at a picture of him since he left. Fuck!

53:58

Oh emotions suck, they're so cool. complicated. Oh, I

54:00

miss you buddy. Okay, well be

54:03

sure to like and

54:05

subscribe, I think. Yeah!