Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. for the Colson Center on Johnstone Street. In recent years, the evidence against smartphones for children and teenagers has only grown. There's a clear correlation between the use of digital technologies and things like mental illness, anxiety, identity confusion, loneliness, and depression.
so much so, in fact, that many schools have begun to ban phones. and I would suggest all of them should.
Now, the biggest holdouts, however, according to the heads of schools and the educators that I talk with. Aren't the students, it's the parents, many of whom are either fearful of not being able to contact their student in an emergency or who feel as if the cat's already out of the bag when it comes to smartphones in their homes. In her new book, The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones, Claire Morell, fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, demonstrates that it is indeed possible. Possible to get back ahead of smartphones within our homes. Recently, Morell was a guest on a recent bonus episode of the Breakpoint podcast with Maria Bear.
Here's what she had to say. The brain research really shows that even a small amount of time on social media, smartphones, any type of really interactive screen is highly addictive to the brain. That the brain actually goes into this dopamine deficit state as soon as they get off. And so no time limit is ever enough because as soon as they leave the app or leave the screen, their brain does not return to a normal baseline. It actually dips below baseline to create this craving for you to repeat that behavior and do it again.
And so the brain imaging studies of heavy users of social media resemble those of those who have been addicted to highly addictive drugs. And so the structural changes happening at the brain level are the same. And then another kind of convincing piece of research was a doctor named Victoria Dunkley was seeing kids coming into her practice. With kind of what you were describing, these mood issues, having trouble focusing, attention spans, just a lot of behavioral issues, just emotional dysregulation, mood swings, just irritability tantrums. And she found that just taking away the screens reduced, in a lot of cases, the symptoms entirely, like eliminated them.
Because parents were coming in saying that they thought their kid had ADHD or autism because of these behavioral changes, things they were seeing in their kids. And what she found is that it was actually induced by electronic screens. And so doing a screen detox for 30 days really eliminated the symptoms. In a lot of cases, the kid didn't have autism or ADHD. It was like a screen-induced response.
And she says it's even from like regular use of screens, like 30 minutes a day. If it's an interactive screen like smartphones, social media, video games, it puts the kids' developing nervous system into this fight or flight mode. And that Accumulates over their time and just that chronic stress, and they're in like this kind of stress response, and the body's not expending that energy. Like their cortisol and their adrenaline are so high that it really dysregulates their mood and their behavior. And again, she was saying she was seeing that even from just kids with regular use of screens, not like excessive screen time.
And so it just convinced me that the design of these technologies are so addictive and they create this really strong response on a child's developing brain and nervous system that they aren't safe in any amount. And so, especially for Christian parents, I would say, like, even if you're like, we're not letting them watch any bad content, we've made sure the content is really safe, you still need to be concerned that the design of the technology itself is harmful to your child's development, their health and well-being, their brain, their nervous system, even in small amounts. And so, that's why I argue for a total exit and show parents how to do it. That was Claire Morrell, fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and author of a terrific and must-read new book, The Tech Exit, A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones. Listen to this entire bonus episode of the Breakpoint Podcast.
by searching for Breakpoint wherever you download Podcast. According to author and researcher Jonathan Haidt, nearly one-third of parents regret giving their child a smartphone or access to social media when they did. But only 1% say they wish they had provided those things sooner.
So take the tech exit. Your kids might not thank you now, but They probably will later on. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast. And for more resources to live like a Christian today, go to breakpoint.org.
