Based Camp - The Data： Phones & Screens Improve Kids' Mental Health

00:00:00.000 Hello, everyone. This is Simone Collins with Malcolm Collins. I'm taking over the stream

00:00:03.480 today because I have found that actually you are a bad parent if you deny your child a phone

00:00:10.080 in screens and that the good parents will do it because guess what? Kids are better off

00:00:14.280 when they have social media access, when they have phones and tablets and video games and

00:00:19.640 define better off. We're talking about studies here. They have less nihilism and better

00:00:26.400 self-esteem. They spend more time with their friends. They spend more time playing sports.

00:00:30.740 They are just freaking better off with the screens. And all these people, Jonathan Haidt,

00:00:37.380 who insist that the screens are the end are wrong. Although we will go through their arguments and

00:00:43.800 talk through some of the nuance. But first I want to get to this study because I'm so excited about

00:00:48.600 it. It's very vindicating because we are famous for being profiled by the Guardian and criticized

00:00:54.660 by everyone on social media, not only for beating our children, but for having them walking around

00:00:59.920 the house with iPads chained to their necks. I need to clarify, barely beating our children.

00:01:08.740 It was, it was a light slap. That was a mild beating. Oh my God.

00:01:15.760 Sock a bopper. Sock a bopper. You can sock all day and bop all night. So first, like huge, huge thanks to

00:01:23.000 Reason Magazine, which covered this article really well. And what they're covering is a new, as of

00:01:29.200 April, 2025 study called, Kids with smartphones are less depressed, anxious, and bullied than peers

00:01:35.420 without them. So first, huge hat tip to Reason Magazine for covering this research, which was done

00:01:41.540 by a bunch of researchers at the University of South Florida. This was published in April. So this just

00:01:47.540 came out and these researchers investigated smartphone ownership among 11 to 13 year olds.

00:01:53.200 So these are extremely vulnerable children who are not at all grown up and mature enough to handle

00:02:00.640 social media. And they're checking out how they did. So, okay. They did survey them, but they surveyed

00:02:06.160 a good sample size. They surveyed 1,510 kids from Florida, age 11 to 13. And basically on almost every

00:02:14.320 metric, measuring well-being, smartphone-owning kids showed better results. So here are some

00:02:20.620 examples. You're not surprised at all. 11 to 13. So this isn't like older kids. This isn't like

00:02:25.100 teens. No. This is 11 to 13. This is just as puberty is setting in. So I would actually argue that

00:02:31.700 these are some of the most vulnerable years. I don't know how this period was for you, but it was tough

00:02:35.100 for me. Maybe not for you. I don't know. Well, I can't imagine if I didn't have a smartphone.

00:02:41.660 I mean, I didn't have a smartphone. You didn't have a smartphone. I didn't have whatever was cool.

00:02:44.780 I didn't have a smartphone and it was tough. Okay. Not having like AIM during that period,

00:02:49.040 being one of the outcasts. Oh my gosh. Actually, AIM really was like one of my few sources of comfort.

00:02:53.800 And I think this is part of it and we're going to get into it. So kids with smartphones.

00:02:56.980 Do you remember all those sounds from AIM that like, ding. And the door opening.

00:03:01.780 Like a friend would come in and you'd be like. Yeah, that dopamine rush when you hear the door

00:03:06.840 opening and maybe that person you have a crush on has just logged on. Oh my God. Did you have

00:03:12.460 crushes on people back then? 100%. His username was Warped Stygian and he ended up dating one of my

00:03:22.600 best friends at the time. So that was a little awkward. Oh! Yeah. Did you think he'd like talk

00:03:28.560 to you? Did he ever talk to you on AIM? Oh, like way late into the night. He was clearly like,

00:03:35.180 it was emotional cheating going on at the very least if they two were dating at that same time.

00:03:40.040 Those were like my first, my first late night chats, which I think for like any, any young person,

00:03:45.980 even today that, you know, the, the, the, the venue has changed, but the, the thrill of the

00:03:52.500 conversation has not. Well, okay. So hold on. What did he end up doing with his life?

00:03:58.880 Yeah. I have no idea. A little check before the end of this. I don't even remember what his name

00:04:05.520 was. He didn't have a very easy life. Like he lived at the poverty line, had a single mother.

00:04:10.540 So, you know, I hope he's doing well. I wish him well as, as I wish well, the never, never wish

00:04:18.300 somebody who didn't date you. Well, Simone, you need to wish the fury upon them. 0.99

00:04:24.960 Well, I wish both of them. Well, I can look up my, my friend. I think she had a kid actually

00:04:29.880 pretty young. So good for her. Right. Like, right. Yeah. Yeah. Doing the pernatal thing. Right. 1.00

00:04:34.120 Yeah. Right. And again, those just show like income does not correlate with one in the AIM

00:04:39.100 world who, who lived at that. They know that door opening. It is always like, is it my crush?

00:04:44.240 Like, are we going to talk? Are we going to, are we going to, it's like, ding. And it's like,

00:04:48.660 oh my God, it's my crush. Yeah. Oh my God. Like, what are we doing? So exciting. Oh yeah. That,

00:04:54.500 that killed me. I'm so glad we both had AIM days. And again, like for us, even at that age,

00:04:59.740 and I would say chat rooms at our age were way more dangerous. So we, gosh, it was in the early

00:05:09.120 naughties, like around 2001, I guess, when we're doing this chat rooms at the time, when, when we

00:05:15.180 were first going online, one of the first things that people would ask you and an anonymous chat

00:05:20.200 room, which is pretty much what all of them were at the time online was ASL. Do you remember that?

00:05:24.340 ASL. Age, sex location. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, wait, what? That sounds like a great thing. 0.81

00:05:29.600 Like age, sex location. I'm going to find you. Well, you know, actually it's a way, way back in 0.89

00:05:34.820 the day, way before the internet, there were some, some comic books that kids would get subscriptions

00:05:39.540 to. And at the end of them, many of them would, would be little published profiles of kids with

00:05:45.380 their name and address and picture. So I don't know, man. Like, come on, hang out with me, bro.

00:05:52.820 Predators had it so easy back then. I don't know. I'm not talking about predators now.

00:05:57.100 You can't misadvertise themselves in comic books.

00:06:01.720 It's just, it's just amazing. Okay.

00:06:03.440 Indy, go play with it. 1.00

00:06:05.600 Look, look, look.

00:06:08.160 Okay. Let's see if, let's see if she can occupy herself. 1.00

00:06:11.060 Tried to set up a puzzle game for her.

00:06:12.880 But anyway, let's get back to this study conducted by these wonderful, brave researchers

00:06:18.980 at the university of South Florida. Again, this is Florida teens, 11 to 13 and Florida

00:06:24.980 teens. So these aren't like mentally stable teens. Let's mind you.

00:06:28.500 I do want to kind of caveat this of like, okay, but this is Florida. Like for real,

00:06:32.920 what else are you going to do? You can't go outside. It's too hot. So I don't know.

00:06:38.320 Like, and they do the next step. I should say that these researchers want to take is they

00:06:41.720 want to take this study nationwide. And I am very keen to see their follow-on research

00:06:45.800 because Florida is a very strange place. Everyone's heard of Florida, man, right? Like it is not

00:06:51.740 a normal place for healthy people in our argument. We lived there, we lived there and we got out.

00:07:00.240 But anyway, the, so the, the, the research found the survey found that kids with smartphones,

00:07:05.060 tablets, social media usage, and video game play, we're all more likely to spend more in-person time

00:07:10.900 with friends. So kids with smartphones, for example, spend an average of three days a week

00:07:15.500 playing with friends. Whereas the kids without them spend an average of two days a week with

00:07:19.000 friends. What? How is this possible? Oh, you cut the kid's tongue off. They have less friends.

00:07:25.600 I know. How are they going to coordinate if they're not on their freaking smartphone? 0.97

00:07:28.580 How are they going to know where the kids are hanging out if they're not on? I know. I'm just 0.71

00:07:32.720 saying. I am shaming parents. I am shaming parents who don't give your kids social media.

00:07:38.380 For real. Yeah. Also, so 80% of smartphone owners plus 82% of tablet owners reported feeling good

00:07:45.160 about themselves. Okay. This is in light of the whole Facebook leak and Instagram's making girls 0.80

00:07:50.400 feel terrible. No, I'm sorry. Between 80 and 82% of basically screen owners report feeling good

00:07:56.520 about themselves versus 69% without smartphones and 71% without tablets. These are significant

00:08:03.500 differences. People without the screens feel worse about themselves. I can't even believe it. This

00:08:10.620 is wild. It's so validating. This is like the parents who deny their kids alcohol. Yeah. So let's

00:08:16.900 also get to denialism. All right. So 26% of smartphone free kids. So these are the lower screen kids

00:08:23.480 agreed with the statement. Life often feels meaningless. So more than a quarter. Okay.

00:08:29.100 Are like falling in nihilism versus 18% of smartphone users. So more like one out of five.

00:08:34.400 All right. Like so much less. I know. And it's honestly like some of the surprises me. I'm like,

00:08:39.240 I don't know. Like there is a lot of nihilism on the internet right now. And no, no, no. I don't

00:08:43.060 think that's what it is. I think people are misunderstanding broader culture for internet. As I've said,

00:08:48.540 often, often, often within my friend circles, the ones who were most online and online first have had

00:08:54.480 the most persistent resistance to the mental health crisis caused by the internet. Yeah. Well,

00:08:59.640 the internet is a place where you allow your joie de vivre to flourish. It is where your

00:09:05.340 enthusiasm is flourished. Like we see how our kids use social media now and they use it to explore

00:09:10.920 things that they love and then deepen their own enjoyment of those things. IRL. For example,

00:09:18.480 Octavian got really in to toy soldier videos on YouTube. And like, literally there's this one dad

00:09:24.520 who just puts a GoPro on his head and then plays with toy soldiers and his kids. And it's sweet.

00:09:29.820 It's so sweet.

00:09:30.860 And now I don't need to play with him.

00:09:34.800 You do still play with him. But then like, now he like has all these new scenarios of gameplay.

00:09:39.800 And he's like, I want to do this with my toy soldiers and that with my toy soldiers. And it's

00:09:43.360 the same with X-Shot Guns. It's the same with Minecraft. And it's where they like, this, this is

00:09:48.400 where you get that spark and it's where you deepen it. And it's, it's, I think, you know, when you play

00:09:53.740 in isolation without that additional inspiration, yeah, I think you're going to get more of that,

00:09:58.640 you know, sadness. Okay. So also here's a really big one, right? Cause everyone talks about cyber

00:10:02.400 bullying, right? Oh, everyone's so stressed out with cyber bullying. I would cyber bully the person

00:10:06.380 who's not online. I'm going to tell you that the person.

00:10:07.900 Well, no, and that's, that's the thing though. Okay. So 32% of smartphone free kids. So like almost

00:10:13.700 a third reported that someone had spread rumors or lies about them online compared to 18% of those

00:10:21.700 with phones. So you're totally right. When you're not there to clap back, when you're not there to defend

00:10:26.160 yourself, you get bullied and you still are being cyber bullied. It's not like they're not aware of

00:10:31.120 that. And of course, actually they're probably maybe more of them are bullied. No, these kids,

00:10:35.840 because here's the thing, there's a little pussy kids. And I remember these kids when I was growing 1.00

00:10:38.720 up, they're the kids whose parents are like, oh, you can't engage with modern media. Oh, you can't

00:10:42.140 watch, you know, Disney. Oh, you can't watch whatever. Like you can't read Harry Potter. Like, of course

00:10:47.420 these kids are getting bullied. Like what are you even thinking? And it's okay. Like it's okay for your

00:10:55.260 kids to be bullied. You want to put them in an environment where they can be bullied and they

00:10:58.180 can get stronger for it, but you want them to have a way to offend themselves. Like you don't want

00:11:02.240 them to be bullied because you've clipped their wings. Yeah. No. And there's also this whole genre,

00:11:06.860 actually. It's a small one, but on social media where parents are like really proud of how they've

00:11:11.700 taught their kids to bully back, which is great. And then they like, like try to like sit around and

00:11:17.620 wait for their kids to get insulted, to see what they say. Like one guy recorded his, his kid,

00:11:22.600 like at a little baseball diamond and some other kid was like, your dick is the size of a tic-tac. 1.00

00:11:28.040 And the kid's like, yeah, that's why your mom's breath smells so good. Like you don't admit that. 1.00

00:11:34.960 If you don't sharpen your child, you got to prepare them. That is a good one, by the way. I love that

00:11:40.740 the kid came up with that. Oh, my kid came up with that off the spot. I'd be so proud. I'd share that

00:11:45.880 online. But you don't, you don't develop that. If you do not play in rough and tumble environments

00:11:51.160 online, you can't sharpen yourself. You, where do you get those ideas? If you're just sitting there

00:11:55.800 thinking and that, you know, there's been a lot of research done. You actually opened my eyes to this

00:11:59.900 on what did people do before they were smartphones? Cause everyone's like, oh, so disgusting. People

00:12:04.280 can't just wait in line at the store without staring at their phones. People can't just sit and wait for

00:12:08.440 a plane without staring at their phones. People are so baller for raw dogging a flight. Okay. What are

00:12:12.900 they doing? They're just sitting there. All right. Maybe they're imagining something like they're not

00:12:17.340 learning anything new. They're not getting exposed to ideas. Actually, you're wrong about this. There's

00:12:21.700 some great old pictures of this, of what were people doing before smartphones. Okay. Everyone

00:12:25.960 is looking at a newspaper or book. Well, yeah. I mean, yeah. When you could, and when you didn't have

00:12:30.380 one. Yeah. Oh yeah. Just staring into space. That's certainly better for you. Yeah. Like, oh,

00:12:35.900 let's have our kids do that. Because I mean, most like, and people are, oh, like these kids,

00:12:41.160 little toddlers who are given iPads. Well, they can't read. You can be like, read a book. No. Okay.

00:12:47.240 And we'll, we'll get to that more too, because this sort of comes into the criticisms of social

00:12:51.820 media. But I also want to point out that heavy social media users in this Florida kid survey

00:12:58.280 were more likely than lighter social media users to report exercising or playing sports at least

00:13:04.420 once a day. So 50% of the heavy social media users. Well, of course they got to look buff.

00:13:10.500 Actually. Yeah. Versus 31%. So the lighter social media users.

00:13:14.060 I, um, I remember, I have a vivid memory as a, as a young boy, um, like exercising a lot in a gym

00:13:20.680 and then like checking my biceps in the mirror to like make sure I looked good. And like, the thing

00:13:26.100 is, is they never really changed that much. Like, no wonder how much effort I put in. Nothing ever,

00:13:31.640 like that you'd get a bit more tone. Careful, Malcolm. All those lift bro people are going to come

00:13:36.220 match. Oh yeah. But like, and look, I've got members of my family who are fairly buff. Like,

00:13:43.420 I know if I actually put in the effort, but like, I feel like I put in enough effort a second. I put

00:13:48.120 in like 30, 45 minutes a day. Like that's a lot. Well, I think it's also underrated how much

00:13:53.980 practical, or I guess you could say applied weightlifting we do because we are constantly

00:13:59.880 hauling around our children. What I mean by this is, is like, even if I put in a lot,

00:14:05.260 I remember how scrawny I still looked in the mirror, right? Like it wasn't like, oh, okay. I

00:14:10.580 look, I remember being happy for the slightest bit of definition. Here's the thing. So just like

00:14:16.400 women seem to think these days based on what they see on social media are just trends that like 1.00

00:14:22.700 contouring is necessary. And a lot of women claim that it's for male audiences. No, that kind of 0.99

00:14:29.200 makeup. No, no, no, no, absolutely. And I, and I also put weightlifting, men think somehow like,

00:14:35.300 and again, this is, I think that, you know, they, they just make these assumptions when they're

00:14:39.520 trying to just sew it, that weightlifting makes them sexier to women. No, this is a man to man 0.99

00:14:45.340 signaling thing, just like makeup in it beyond the very basics is a woman to woman signaling thing, 0.99

00:14:51.500 period. And, and, and, and the point I'm making here is that when I did all of this,

00:14:56.240 no girl had even kissed me. No girl had shown any interest in me. No girl, this is not.

00:15:01.800 Yeah, this was before. Yeah. Right. Your, your breakthrough was when you discovered that leaning

00:15:06.020 into your nerd persona. Okay. No, I was like, oh, the nerd persona is what they like. That's it.

00:15:12.400 That's it. Anyway, anyway, let's get it. So I will say, you know, cause obviously some of this stuff

00:15:17.380 is just, it seems impossibly good. I feel like Florida has some, something to do with it. Maybe we

00:15:21.640 might have more moderated results when they go nationwide. We'll see, but there were some

00:15:26.220 negative things. And I think the negative things are super straightforward and kind of no duh. So

00:15:31.300 the one, the one thing they found was obviously if kids slept with their phones, they got less sleep.

00:15:37.360 Like, thank you, captain obvious. That makes perfect sense. Yeah. You probably shouldn't sleep

00:15:41.980 with your phone. Like adults shouldn't sleep. No one should sleep with their phones. They also found

00:15:45.880 that you can look, the problem with sleeping with your phone is you don't want to risk it getting

00:15:51.140 pregnant. That was a, that was a dad joke. That was a dad joke. They also found that heavy gamers

00:15:58.420 and social media users reported more sleep problems. So, so children who often post to social

00:16:03.660 media platforms were found in this research to be twice as likely as those who never or rarely post

00:16:10.020 to report moderate or severe symptoms of depression, 54 versus 25%, moderate or severe symptoms of anxiety,

00:16:17.780 50 to 24% were having sleep issues. But they also point out that this is a correlatory and not

00:16:24.120 causational thing. Of course, we're just looking at correlations. And I think that people who have

00:16:29.040 other problems in life will do things excessively, like typically excessive anything. If it's not like

00:16:35.840 a sign of, of just an addictive personality is often a sign of, you know, trying to bury your, 0.99

00:16:41.060 your depression and anxiety that were already there because your life sucks. And you and I were just 0.76

00:16:46.000 talking today about how the school system, the legacy and industrial school system are just

00:16:50.920 so bad that even you, the renegade and I, the perfect girl who followed all the rules

00:16:57.940 were both completely miserable at school. And it was the depression that we felt, which was in,

00:17:04.720 in, I think both of our cases, clinical, right? I think you, you were diagnosed as depression.

00:17:08.840 Well, yeah, but I don't believe in clinical.

00:17:10.620 Well, but anyway, it was measured as clinical depression was entirely situational. Mine at

00:17:15.240 least went away as soon as I got out of school. So yeah, no, I, yeah, I, I, all of you, this is

00:17:21.200 the thing. I actually used to grind my teeth severely, right? Like it would cause me major

00:17:24.980 issues and I had to wear a night guard. Yeah, he used to wear those like, like,

00:17:28.420 you know, when I stopped wearing my night guard is when I started dating Simone. So romantic.

00:17:33.940 And I've ever needed to wear it since. And you know, somebody could be like,

00:17:37.600 were you really that less stress? Like apparently sleep me couldn't deal with life back then. I

00:17:43.580 just ground my teeth and ground my teeth every night. And then I met Simone and I started sleeping

00:17:50.380 with, and this was early in our relationship too. Not like after we had like, I'd say first,

00:17:54.960 like five months of our relationship. And I was just like, I can't, I don't need to wear this

00:17:59.040 anymore. And, and I never needed to wear it again. And I remember before that I didn't wear it one

00:18:03.660 night and I broke one of my teeth. Oh, that's awful. And that's why I wore it so fastidiously

00:18:09.800 after that. Cause I was so freaked out about it happening again. Yeah. That's, that is terrifying.

00:18:13.820 It's breaking a tooth. I can't, oh, I can't even anyway. So also they found that frequent social

00:18:19.100 media posters were more likely to report sleep issues and symptoms of depression and anxiety.

00:18:24.140 But again, I think anyone who does something in excess may, that may be a symptom of some other

00:18:28.660 underlying issues. So I'm not giving that too much credence. Finally, I wanted to point out

00:18:33.580 just some interesting findings that are like neither here nor there from the research that it was just

00:18:38.700 like, huh? Like, okay. Tell me. There were significant shifts in app usage depending on household

00:18:46.600 income. So can you guess what was used most amongst the, the kids in households with an annual

00:18:53.100 income of $50,000 or less? Hold on. TikTok? No. No. YouTube? YouTube was one of them. The other

00:19:05.160 one you're not going to guess is Roblox. But I kind of, I kind of dig it. I think I get a very low

00:19:10.040 class feel from Roblox. Roblox does feel low. I don't know what it is. It feels very, well, it feels

00:19:15.780 very, it's like the minions of children. You know, it's like very, I don't want to say cruise ship

00:19:22.420 human because actually cruise ships are very expensive, but I want, it's, it is like, it's

00:19:26.680 not, it's not the intellectuals world, if I may. Yes. All right. Minecraft is more of an intellectuals

00:19:33.460 world. There are other, there are other games. So, um, so can you imagine what, what kids used

00:19:39.340 most from higher income households? No idea. Think about your mother. What, what platforms was she 1.00

00:19:46.080 really big on? She was on Insta? Mm-hmm. And TikTok. TikTok? Really? So I'm like, oh my gosh,

00:19:53.960 wow. The, the Winnell platforms. Those are the ones that my, like, cousins and stuff all use. Like,

00:19:59.920 the young ones? Yeah. And they're all, like, super freaking, you know, like, all the photos of them

00:20:04.180 were like, this is me in Cannes. This is me in Italy. This is me in, in the house in Maine. You know,

00:20:11.840 like, they're all, they're so, like, I, what I'm so concerned about is that I can't remember the name

00:20:20.900 for this, like, short-term profession of hot girls on Instagram who during college just get invited to 0.99

00:20:29.380 really expensive clubs by club promoters to basically be, like, sexy women at tables with, 1.00

00:20:37.140 like, really wealthy guys buying bottle service. But, like, I feel like they're, they don't realize

00:20:41.940 that they're trying to audition for that, but they are, by trying to do what's trendy, subconsciously

00:20:47.320 auditioning for that. And I'm just about to start college. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

00:20:51.380 stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Although, like, I also read this, this great blog post by a young

00:20:59.080 woman who just interviewed a bunch of her friends who actually did that. And they're like, yeah, I mean,

00:21:02.240 it was fine. Like, I didn't get addicted to the drugs. Like, it was just fun. And then, like,

00:21:06.980 it was over. So, I don't know. It's interesting that it's so different from, this is a few people

00:21:11.440 in my family that have taken this other route, which is, like, the, well, in my generation,

00:21:15.120 it was, like, the goth route, right? Like, in this generation, what is it? You know, like,

00:21:20.100 in a generation before, it's, like, that brony route. In this generation, what is it? It's the,

00:21:24.360 it's the center right route. Like, no, genuinely, I think being a center right,

00:21:28.560 like, gen alpha person is about equivalent to, like, being a goth or punk gen alpha person in

00:21:33.460 our generation. Yeah. So, there's another, there's another social class slash income related

00:21:39.220 finding that I thought was interesting. They found that kids from higher income households were also

00:21:43.320 significantly more likely to post publicly on social media. So, 77% of kids from the highest income

00:21:50.860 households posted publicly versus 56% among kids from the lowest income households. So, now,

00:21:58.100 every time I, like, click to a colleague or friend's private social media feed, I'm gonna

00:22:03.520 be, like, hello, class. Hello, class. I mean, I know it's, we have lots of wealthy friends who

00:22:12.320 decide to go private, and you're, like, my privacy. No, I hate that. We always go, like, oh, my privacy

00:22:18.440 is so important to me. Whatever they're talking about, we're, like, we're, like, you guys suck. 1.00

00:22:22.300 Like, it's so lame. And another thing, this isn't, I mean, it's partially related to income, 0.98

00:22:29.040 and it's partially related to gender. They found a large percentage of kids overall agreed with the

00:22:34.400 sentiment life often feels meaningless, with agreement significantly higher among boys,

00:22:40.240 which surprised me, because Jonathan Haidt's whole thing is, like, girls are getting hit harder,

00:22:44.060 whereas 23% of boys versus 13% of girls. Is Jonathan Haidt full of a big bag of poop? 0.99

00:22:51.220 Not exactly. We're gonna get into that. But, like, 23% of boys reported feeling this versus 16% of 0.99

00:22:56.920 girls. And then among kids from higher income households, more of them were feeling this

00:23:03.180 nihilism. 31% in high income households. Maybe 115. Like, the higher income kids are all, like,

00:23:08.960 mentally messed up right now. Yeah. And that's why, like, spoonies are all, like,

00:23:12.180 upper middle class girls. White girls. Oh, yeah. Of course they are. Yeah. And then only, 1.00

00:23:16.180 so, only 10% of the kids in households making 10K or, sorry, 50K or below as household income

00:23:22.700 reported this, this, that they identified with the sentiment life often feels meaningless,

00:23:27.380 which I just, like. Which shows, you know, people are gonna see all this, and they're gonna be like,

00:23:31.220 oh, the rich kids are online more. That's why you see the mental health more among the people who are

00:23:36.220 online more. And what we're pointing out here is, no, actually, you have a counter trend to that.

00:23:41.400 It really is being online more and having access to these online environments increases your mental

00:23:48.180 health at this age within this current cultural context. Well, there are confounding factors. I

00:23:52.220 think what this is more parsing out is that, girl, what this is pointing out is being wealthy

00:24:00.980 can associate you, I think, with some cultures that are more toxic. And that being closer to the 1.00

00:24:10.720 lower income range may separate you more from what I would consider to be the urban monoculture.

00:24:16.820 I think the urban monoculture is inherently a culture of wealth and privilege. And I just see

00:24:22.180 that as more as, like, evidence that lower income distances you from the urban monoculture and also

00:24:27.160 reduces your feelings of nihilism. So, in terms of just, in general, the researchers take away advice

00:24:34.260 to people, which I think is super solid. Because screens are great, but they're not perfect. They

00:24:39.860 say, one, it's actually fine to let kids as young as 11 have smartphones. Fantastic.

00:24:46.500 But you should- No, that's fine. Protect it.

00:24:51.140 No, AI. We're saying, I mean, we personally would say below that age is great, but they

00:24:56.040 only serve as kids as 11 or 13. This is what I say about kids. I think it's really dangerous to

00:25:00.260 allow kids to have friends who are AI. Dangerous? No, it's good to have friends who are AI. We don't

00:25:07.140 want real friends. Who are not AIs. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think giving your kids real-

00:25:13.460 Humans will reject them. Humans are gross. Humans can grate them. AIs do none of that. 1.00

00:25:20.340 Yeah, AIs don't. Well, but when they do, it's in the way you want, you know?

00:25:27.040 God. Okay, anyway, continue, continue. Go into this, yeah.

00:25:31.440 But so, like, yes, phone's good, but don't let your kids sleep with your phones, which is great.

00:25:37.820 They also, they discourage having young children post publicly on social platforms.

00:25:44.300 I disagree with this, and we've talked about this in other episodes, but we think that one of the

00:25:48.960 only ways that you are going to survive in the post-AI economy is to have a strong online reputation

00:25:56.340 and to be really known for something and to be able to make custom products and provide custom

00:26:02.320 experiences that other people aren't known for doing, because that's the only way either from

00:26:07.940 wealthy people living in their rolled gardens or your local community is going to know to

00:26:14.000 buy services or products from you. I disagree with him on that, but I don't disagree with him on the,

00:26:19.940 on the safe thing. And what we do, of course, is like, we're really careful about making sure that

00:26:23.560 there's, you know, screen access is, is limited. It's, it's, it's very time-gated. And I think that,

00:26:28.980 that's a good thing. I mean, we're building new AI products for our kids right now that allow them

00:26:33.900 to just like talk to an AI that will constantly draw them back to educational topics. And so we'll

00:26:39.200 see when that's built and that can be available to you guys. And I don't understand why we're the

00:26:43.740 only ones making this stuff. Like, is everyone else retarded? You know, I, so what we see among 0.99

00:26:51.640 our friend group, which is, you know, highly educated, wealthy elites is a screen bad, screen 1.00

00:27:02.780 bad, screen bad, because they're, they're losers. They're losers. That's why. And this is a level 1.00

00:27:08.980 of, of wealthy beyond what they consider wealthy in this study, right? Like, yeah, because they

00:27:15.940 consider wealthy making over $150,000. These are people who generally make like a million plus a

00:27:22.640 year. Yeah. They have like unlimited L to MD sunscreen sitting around their house. It's insane.

00:27:28.420 L to MD sunscreen. Oh yeah. I remember we went to a person and you're like, this is insane. Why are you?

00:27:33.400 I feel like I'm looking at gold bricks sitting on a shelf. Yeah. I don't know. Like my, my indicators of

00:27:39.060 wealth are a little bit different. Just like, I think you and I think like true wealth is never

00:27:42.960 thinking twice about ordering guac at a restaurant, but I don't know if we ever reached some level of

00:27:47.080 wealth where we. Well, no, because we are so like, whenever we make more money, we always just spend

00:27:52.200 it on like our companies and stuff. It just goes away. Yeah. But whatever. That's, that's all good.

00:27:58.400 So I also want to get into though, like why, why are all these wealthy elite people like phone bad?

00:28:06.360 And I partially. What data are they looking at? What data are they? And I think mostly they're

00:28:13.420 sitting and listening to Jonathan Haidt and been like, yes, yes. Because he is the author of the

00:28:20.440 book, the anxious, anxious generation. So like he had recently this huge push to talk about what he

00:28:27.420 describes as the great rewiring of childhood in which play-based childhood is being supplanted by a

00:28:33.540 phone-based childhood. So among other things, you know, to decline. Oh my God. Hold on. I actually

00:28:38.300 want to take a step back from this and yell at him. So our kids, if they go outside and they play

00:28:44.780 in the Creek without us monitoring them, and we need to be monitoring all of them at once, which is

00:28:48.680 like, you can't do that for that long. And this is what I used to do as a kid at their age. I just go

00:28:52.140 play outside. I go play with the dogs and local dogs. I go dig up things. I'd make little dams.

00:28:57.800 They'll have CPS called on them. I'll have the cops called on me. Yeah. I put my kids on Minecraft.

00:29:02.060 That's exactly what they're doing. My little boy shows me what he's doing on Minecraft. It's like,

00:29:07.700 oh, look, I found out if you give the dog a bone, he likes you more. It's like, oh, look,

00:29:11.860 I found out that when you pour water on lava, it like makes stone. Oh, look, they are exploring and

00:29:17.420 engaging with the environment. And if you deny a kid, both playing outside and Minecraft,

00:29:22.680 you've denied them the entire experience, but continue. Yeah. No, I mean, yes, but we're,

00:29:28.280 you know, we'll go deeper on this, but yeah, he argues that there's been a decline in time spent

00:29:32.520 with friends since 2010. But again, this research shows that the kids with smartphones spend more

00:29:37.380 time with kids. Keep going. He also argues that girls are more affected by social media due to

00:29:43.220 social comparison and cyber bullying while black boys are more impacted by, and here we go again,

00:29:49.140 gaming and pornography leading to social withdrawal. Hold on, let me take a few notes here. The girls 1.00

00:29:57.160 being more impacted, we actually saw this in another episode. I don't know if it'll run before

00:30:01.420 this one or not, but what we found in that episode is that social media affected your mental health

00:30:07.740 much more dramatically if you were progressive than if you were conservative. Yeah, yeah. And that

00:30:12.800 really shows just how much of this is urban monoculture. It's, it's cultural and the urban

00:30:17.420 monoculture is a culture that, that makes mental health problems faster. No, no, no. The point I'm

00:30:23.360 making is, is this is why girls are more negatively affected by it. Not because girls are intrinsic. 1.00

00:30:27.800 Because it's their political leanings. Their political leanings are more leftist and that's why

00:30:32.600 they're more negatively affected by it. In terms of the gaming and pornography thing, a lot of what

00:30:38.280 people say about like how, so for example, if you go to a prison and you, and you look at the

00:30:42.380 rapists versus the non-grapists, okay? Grapists typically started engaging with pornography at a

00:30:48.720 much later age than the non-grapists. Yeah. Like, that's why in our marriage contract, this is actually 1.00

00:30:54.080 one of the first things that was, was in our marriage contract was, are we going to restrict

00:30:59.580 our children's access to erotic material? And there was never any conflict. It's just like, no,

00:31:04.880 obviously not. Obviously not. I don't want them to grow up to be PDA files and rapists because

00:31:10.340 like we knew this intuitively, even just when like negotiating points. Yeah. Sorry. It's just

00:31:15.680 like really clear. I understand that like some people are like, Ooh, but my intuition, well,

00:31:21.000 your intuition is wrong. Okay. This is something that has been studied extensively and restricting

00:31:28.580 access increases the rate of being interested in children, being interested in great, being

00:31:33.560 interested in like, Oh my God, it's so horrifying in, in, in like the Czech Republic, when they 1.00

00:31:38.880 made it legal again, I want to say it was the Czech Republic, right? The, the amount of child 1.00

00:31:43.360 assault dropped by 50%. And this result has been seen multiple times across multiple countries

00:31:49.120 being anti-porn is being pro child grape in the, in this, and you can be like, well, aesthetically

00:31:56.420 I'm against both. That's a bit like being like, well, you know, I'm, I'm anti-nuclear and pro

00:32:01.000 environment. It's like, okay. Like that may work was your base, but realistically that proves

00:32:06.400 you don't actually care about either. Yeah. Yeah. It's performative. And that, that really

00:32:11.080 bothers us. So I think, you know, a lot of this comes down to people misattributing problems

00:32:19.880 of modern culture and over-regulation of parenting to social media and screen use when really that's

00:32:28.940 not at all. So some of the studies, for example, that height highlights one is from 2020 called

00:32:34.700 underestimating digital media harm published in the journal nature, human behavior. So very

00:32:39.500 respectable journal. The finding basically the study was that they wanted to critique earlier

00:32:44.860 research like 2019 research that downplayed social media's impact, arguing that social media

00:32:49.740 use, especially among girls show stronger correlations with depression and anxiety when

00:32:54.820 controlling only for demographic variables. They countered claims that effects are as trivial

00:33:00.100 as quote unquote, eating potatoes. When apparently that's kind of what turned out to be true. And I

00:33:05.380 think the problem is with this correlation, not causation. They, they saw that people who used a lot

00:33:11.460 of social media, you know, experienced problems, but also like people who masturbate too much, people who

00:33:16.740 eat too much, people who exercise too much, who do anything too much, probably have other problems.

00:33:22.500 And it's just really annoying to me that that was cited. So he also cites another 2020 study

00:33:27.300 called commentary screens, teens, and psychological wellbeing published in frontiers in psychology.

00:33:32.660 Again, a very respected journal. This study analyzes time use diary studies, and they found that heavy

00:33:38.420 screen use correlates with reduced wellbeing, particularly for girls. But again, if there's a girl 0.96

00:33:43.300 who's spending five plus hours on her phone every day, something's probably wrong. Like she's alone.

00:33:49.300 She's isolated. She doesn't have other things to do. She doesn't have friends. That means she doesn't 0.86

00:33:53.540 have a community. That means she doesn't have, oh my God, siblings.

00:33:57.380 Yeah. Would you not be shocked that she has problems? Yeah. Like obviously if you have five 0.99

00:34:02.100 hours to do that, you're being deprived of something. They also, so Height also in his book

00:34:08.100 and work in general cites a lot, the British millennium cohort study, which found that among 19,000

00:34:14.180 children born between 2000 and 2002, girls spending over five hours a day on social media were three

00:34:19.540 times more likely to be depressed than non-users. And the correlation was weaker for boys. But again,

00:34:24.820 like this is just what we said, this is another one of those issues. And then he also referred to

00:34:28.660 the 2021 Facebook leak. I think this is a little bit more damning because basically internal meta

00:34:35.220 research showed that Instagram harms teen girls' mental health, particularly their body image.

00:34:39.860 And yeah, they continued to- Oh, body image. What?

00:34:43.700 Well, and that's the, I mean, I just really don't know that. Like, I think it's very hard

00:34:48.820 to be a teen girl and not have some form of body dysmorphia. Like I had body dysmorphia and you know,

00:34:56.340 if like a therapist or some psychologist were to analyze me, they would probably think it's from

00:35:01.220 the manga I read and they'd be like, oh, it's the manga that's causing it. No, I was going through puberty.

00:35:06.020 I had body dysmorphia because I hated my body and it's very normal. Like I just-

00:35:11.380 Today they'd say, it's because you're trans.

00:35:13.540 Yeah. Well, yeah, that too. But here they're just, you know,

00:35:16.100 You need to be sterilized chemically. That's the only solution.

00:35:19.060 Like girls just, I mean, you know, 0.97

00:35:22.980 there are always ideals that girls are going to turn to somewhere and there's going to be problems. 1.00

00:35:27.700 And, and just, you know, like I, I just, yeah, it's, I get it. I do think that Instagram can even

00:35:34.420 make me sometimes feel like I need to hold myself to a higher standard. I don't think that's really

00:35:38.020 a bad thing. And I don't think Instagram makes my life worse. So then he also looked at some key

00:35:43.460 research center research that found that half of teens reported feeling addicted to their phones.

00:35:48.820 And nearly 100% of US teens were on smartphones with half reporting that they were constantly,

00:35:53.700 quote unquote, constantly on their smartphones. I think that this is one of those things where

00:35:58.020 like you can go back in time and find writers decrying the overuse of books and periodicals.

00:36:05.380 And then for people who don't know this, the ways that people are freaking out about this stuff today,

00:36:10.900 they used to freak out about books. They'd be like, oh,

00:36:13.300 and radio and phones and television. Yeah. But, but, but books is, I think the thing where

00:36:18.020 everyone today is going to be like, okay, that was clearly stupid. What was interesting about the 0.98

00:36:22.580 book freak out is that they said it disproportionately affected women. Well, you can even kind of see this

00:36:29.300 in this, in the trope of Belle and Beauty and the Beast being so stuck in her books. And it was like,

00:36:34.740 this girl has a problem. She wants to get rid of her books. And then she goes to the beast's house and

00:36:40.980 he has like the equivalent of like, I don't know. It's like a social media house.

00:36:44.820 It is a social media house. She's like, oh, he's got a library. It's like, oh, he's got a

00:36:48.900 smartphone. I don't, I don't even know. It's just like, oh, he is like the best internet. I,

00:36:54.900 it's just so strange. And then he, he also looked at international data on mental health trends,

00:37:00.820 pointing out that anxiety increased 134% of depression, 106% among us youth from 2010,

00:37:07.300 2018 with Gen Z born post 1995 hit hardest with the 139% increase. He also cited similar trends in

00:37:15.460 the UK now. Yeah, totally. But it's not the screens. It's the culture. It's progressivism.

00:37:21.860 And we've shown when you are online a ton and you are a conservative, it doesn't negatively affect

00:37:28.100 your mental health. If you're online a ton and you are progressive, it does. No wonder it is

00:37:32.660 negatively affecting girls more. He didn't control for that. So this guy sounds like a bit of a

00:37:41.060 no, he's great. I mean, he's very smart. And I mean, and I think, you know,

00:37:44.900 we're a little bit, we're being a little bit too mean here because he does have the subtle,

00:37:49.860 like he argues that like, you need to have kids interact with each other and play outside.

00:37:55.060 And what I love about this new research is it's like, yes, and these things go together.

00:38:00.660 The kids who have the phones also exercise more, play with their friends more, have better

00:38:07.220 self-esteem, have lower nihilism. No, no, no, no. What gives me is that he didn't run this study.

00:38:11.620 He could have run this study and he didn't because it wouldn't have agreed to.

00:38:15.860 Yeah. For like to, to confirm. All of his stuff was always correlational and he could have just

00:38:20.740 said, okay, let's separate these two groups. I mean, I, I didn't admittedly look for research

00:38:27.940 that looked for causation that like had some kind of double line study where some kids were deprived

00:38:33.220 of social. I don't know. This whole thing, I don't like, I don't like it. I don't like these anti-tech

00:38:37.620 people. I will say, you know, there was actually though, I, I want, I just want to point out that some,

00:38:42.340 some schools like had concerted, let's remove all screens programs that really curtailed

00:38:49.540 students' social media use and it didn't help them. And there was one school that did AI tutoring

00:38:54.260 for kids and it bumped them into the top 1% of students in the state. Right. And then also like

00:38:58.780 studies have shown that AI therapists perform better than real therapists for people. So like we were

00:39:07.440 totally right. We were totally right to chain iPads around. Simone, we will replace you and I'm okay

00:39:14.480 with that. You know, you're, you're, you're, we will raise stronger, more sturdy children and time. You

00:39:23.600 can look at our children when they grow up, you know, you can, you can use it. Oh, don't look at your

00:39:27.760 kids. They all ended up messed up. Maybe, but if they didn't, then we were right and you were wrong.

00:39:33.680 I mean, yeah, but I, so here's, here's what I think happened. I think height,

00:39:40.080 if we were talking with him and he'd be like, yeah, Hey, like I recognize this,

00:39:43.280 the argument I'm making is that parents need to let their kids play outside more.

00:39:47.200 The problem of course, is that parents clap back with like, yes. And we're not allowed to,

00:39:51.440 we will get arrested. We can't let our kids. And so this is just a really difficult situation.

00:39:57.920 It just bothers me that a huge signaler in parenting communities is we don't do screens.

00:40:04.400 I don't allow my children to be on screens. And they're setting up their kids for,

00:40:10.000 I think a lot of harm because one here we're seeing that kids are more socially isolated,

00:40:16.960 more nihilistic. Oh, come on. The reason this guy has these kids is he only has two kids.

00:40:21.600 Yeah. Of course he doesn't just let kids play outside in the current, like legal climate. Like,

00:40:30.560 well, one thing I want to say too, though, is that I think there are some exceptions. So I know some

00:40:34.400 parents who do have strict no screen policies, but they also exist within like extremely tight-knit

00:40:41.040 religious communities. And so their kids are like constantly interacting with people and

00:40:45.760 themselves. I think that's fine if you're in like an extreme. Yeah. But like most kids

00:40:50.320 are, you know, a single child or they have one sibling and often like more than often than not,

00:40:57.120 I've seen like pretty big age gaps with siblings these days too, which is like,

00:41:00.240 that means you don't really have a close friend. You just kind of have a competitor for attention

00:41:03.440 that annoys you and you can't really relate to, which is extra difficult and sad. That seems like

00:41:07.120 the worst type of sibling to have. There's one that has like an age gap where you guys just can't

00:41:11.680 play together and really relate, which is why we try to have boy, boy, girl, girls side by side.

00:41:16.560 So they can at least have like one super close friend that they can really, really strongly relate

00:41:21.600 to that's of the same gender. So they can go through those things together. But yeah, it's like,

00:41:25.920 I'm okay with holier than thou parents being like, I don't do screens when their kids have all these

00:41:32.560 other things to do in strong religious communities, but that's just not the norm in the United States and

00:41:36.640 in many parts of Europe. So all of our like, and again, all those wealthy, well-educated parents

00:41:42.320 that we're thinking of, they don't do that. They're not like that. These are the people with

00:41:46.960 two kids max. And these kids are like, I just can't imagine like the frustration they're going

00:41:54.640 through. And I feel really bad, but hopefully this research will get to them. Reason mag is pretty well

00:41:59.600 read among these types of people. Right. So like, hopefully it'll get to them.

00:42:03.120 Wow. Maybe. I don't know. Anyway, here's a fun thing from today is, is yesterday you did an

00:42:08.800 interview with ABC. Yeah, it was the oddest thing. So yeah, this is, this is, you know, ABC it's owned

00:42:14.160 by Disney. They, they wanted to do a segment on the, the executive orders we submitted and the Trump

00:42:21.440 administration considering cronadolist policy. And they're like, Hey, you know, we, we want to,

00:42:26.480 we want to run this in the morning and it's going to go on our new segment and like, but we have to

00:42:31.840 record tonight. And I'm like, why? Like, I don't get it. Like, how do we do this? They're like,

00:42:37.680 just like, can you come on at eight? And so I do. And I joined this zoom call and I met by

00:42:43.840 a really nice young man. Like he was just so sweet and so patient and so kind, but like on the call

00:42:49.600 was him. And I could see him sitting alone in a giant, like ABC studio, like classic, like newsroom

00:42:55.600 for an old legacy news publication. No one else there, just empty desks. Cause he was doing the

00:43:00.720 night shift where it looks like what they do is they just prepare all of the segments for the

00:43:06.720 morning news show, which starts at 4 a.m. And then I think what happens is the newscasters

00:43:14.080 pretend to interview people. Like I haven't actually seen this segment.

00:43:17.520 No, but I love this. They're like, why is news dying? Where's the authenticity? Oh,

00:43:21.840 I'll tell you where the authenticity is. It's right here. You mother, mother, mother.

00:43:26.480 Well, because what seems to have happened is what, what he did is, is there was also like,

00:43:30.880 I guess a producer on the phone too. Cause he was like talking with someone else the whole time of

00:43:35.040 being like, Oh, that is dystopia that he'd like. Yeah. I'm like, I couldn't see or hear this producer,

00:43:41.360 but the producer was telling him what to do. And then he'd ask me a question and I would give my answer.

00:43:45.280 And he asked another question. And what seems to happen is he recorded a bunch of answers.

00:43:48.720 And what I think was going to happen was it been like the reporter that next morning

00:43:52.560 would act as though she's asking me the questions. And then I would show up as the talking head

00:43:57.760 with that. And yeah, like to your point, if that's what happened and I want to see this segment,

00:44:04.080 that's not, you know, that's not authentic media. That's not, I think that's not what people are here

00:44:09.040 for. They want to see real live conversations. And of course, to be fair, other media outlets

00:44:14.240 had us on live. CNN's situation room had us on live today with Indy screaming and everything.

00:44:19.440 And then who is it that was here this afternoon? What was it? This was, this was a, oh, something

00:44:25.680 things or something like that. What was it? They didn't reach out to me. So I have no idea who they

00:44:30.880 are. Some big news. Okay. I'll look it up. It's in my, it's in my notes here. It's some big news station.

00:44:37.760 But they actually came out and interviewed. And so I guess, I guess some, some legacy media is like

00:44:42.960 really doing original reporting, but others like, even when they get original sources and you still

00:44:48.160 have to give credit to anyone who actually gives us a chance to comment and talk. But it was just

00:44:52.560 such a weird process of like, wait, so I'm speaking with a young associate working for Disney and then

00:45:01.360 his like mysterious producer who's only talking to him. Inside edition, by the way, that's what it

00:45:05.840 was. Inside edition. Okay. Well, they were, they were great, very professional. And then again,

00:45:09.040 like this kid working for Disney also was great. It was just really weird the way it was done.

00:45:15.600 And just like recording me doing some like talking head things. And then I guess they're splicing it

00:45:20.240 into their news show, making it look more authentic and live without it actually being live, which I

00:45:24.240 get, like, it is easier, especially when it's early in the morning, most people aren't going to wake up

00:45:27.520 at 4am and do a live interview. So, you know, but it was still, it was a, I always wonder when I

00:45:33.600 watch the news, like how these things are going. And it's interesting to see the different ways

00:45:37.920 they play out. Like when we were on CNN today, joining the call was really weird because normally

00:45:42.320 on shows and podcasts, you join a zoom call and you can see everyone. Whereas with CNN,

00:45:46.560 like they have this, they're, they're special proprietary link to join. And you're just looking

00:45:51.200 at this gray screen with some instructions on it. And then you just, yeah, that was like,

00:45:55.840 I almost felt like unprofessional and insulting. I was like, what are you guys doing?

00:45:59.360 Well, I think they didn't, they don't want people to be distracted by their faces.

00:46:03.040 That's not what it is. They just don't care. They don't care about anything feeling authentic.

00:46:06.640 They don't care about anything touching the, the, I don't know. I mean, I, I remember,

00:46:10.160 so I used to listen to NPR, like throughout my entire, it was like the wallpaper of my childhood,

00:46:14.240 the audio wallpaper of my childhood. And, um, big issue that happened with people calling in

00:46:19.680 is they kept having to say like, turn off your radio, turn off your radio,

00:46:23.300 because they would be listening to themselves as they talked on the radio and then getting

00:46:26.660 distracted and just being like, Oh my God, I'm on the radio. And I think maybe there's

00:46:30.500 like this thing with, you know, back, sweetheart. I don't, I don't think it was just that because

00:46:36.740 you couldn't hear it as a listener, even when it was live. So all I'm saying, all I'm saying is

00:46:46.020 I, I just find this, this contrast between new and old media to be really interesting. And I love

00:46:50.660 that the Trump administration has added to the fringes.

00:46:55.060 Oh yeah. They did a great job with the press corps. It's amazing.

00:46:57.860 Yeah. So what they've done for those who don't know is, is in, in the white house press briefing

00:47:02.580 room, there traditionally has been this audience of chairs that is all dedicated to legacy media

00:47:07.620 companies. Like only the privileged in the establishment get to be there. Now they're allowing

00:47:13.940 standing room only space at the fringes where they have a rotational group of new media

00:47:21.060 reporters. And this is people, podcasters, sub stack writers, YouTubers, TikTokers sit and actually

00:47:29.300 ask questions. And they field about 25% of their questions from this fringe group, which is a really

00:47:35.140 big deal. And I mean, the legacy media hates it because they used to have, you know, all the question

00:47:40.260 time, all of the respect. But I think that the Trump administration, and I'm sure future

00:47:44.100 administrations will do this too, is recognizes that the audiences are not necessarily watching

00:47:52.020 a lot of these legacy news channels. And I mean, I, we see this, like you, you see some,

00:47:57.460 some legacy news channels get like millions of views. Yes. But then like, there are some that like,

00:48:01.860 I am, I would be surprised if they got 3000 views for a new segment.

00:48:04.820 I know. I agree. I know. I actually think that most only get about 3000 views for a new segment.

00:48:11.620 Yeah. So interesting times, very interesting times, but yeah, I'm, I'm just so thrilled. I feel

00:48:17.060 so vindicated that like, okay, again, social media, it's not about sheltering. It's about annotation.

00:48:23.300 It is about showing how to use it productively. It is about, I agree. If it's not about sheltering,

00:48:29.060 it's about beating. You need to lightly beat your child. Well, with, with, with the iPad, 0.99

00:48:34.740 with, with the device, with the device. That's why you have those protective screens. So you don't

00:48:39.460 break them accidentally. People are afraid of like, no, no, no, no, no, no. I need,

00:48:47.380 I need an AI that can bot my kid when they're making mistakes.

00:48:50.740 You're so sweet, by the way, Simone, what are we doing for dinner tonight? What's the story? What's

00:48:56.740 the story? We are doing more pineapple curry for you. I can try to do fly, sorry, fried plantains for

00:49:05.780 the first time. I'm a little nervous. We try, try, you cannot mess it up too much. And worst case scenario,

00:49:12.020 just microwave some rice. Yeah. See, that's the thing. Yeah. What I do is I, I make coconut lime

00:49:16.900 rice for Malcolm in big batches. And then I freeze it in single serve packets in the freezer.

00:49:22.340 You need to pay like six bucks for coconut lime, right? As like, instead of like the,

00:49:26.420 the $2 rice at like restaurants and you're like making it for free, but not for free. I mean,

00:49:31.780 you put in all this effort and love. Well, you, I mean, we're, we're still paying for the coconut

00:49:36.660 and for limes and it does cost barely nothing. Like, yeah. What, what is a Trader Joe's can of coconut milk?

00:49:43.700 Like what you are missing is that if you go to like an Indian or Japanese restaurant,

00:49:50.180 like the coconut lime rice or the coconut or lime rice costs like $6 and the other rice costs like

00:49:56.900 $1.50. No, it's true. Yeah. The, the upcharge is insane for, for that stuff really gets my goat,

00:50:04.900 but like they've never been able to make curry as good as your tropical curry, which I know what else

00:50:11.060 is insane in terms of upcharges though, is garlic naan versus butter naan. Like, are you kidding me?

00:50:17.700 It's literally just slapping garlic on top. Yeah. Like I know you have a lot of minced garlic sitting

00:50:23.220 back there. I know you do. What, why are you charging me 30% more? Sometimes even 50% more. Like

00:50:32.420 typically you'll see. Yeah. If, if, if plain naan is $3 and garlic naan is $5, right? It's insane.

00:50:40.500 It makes no sense if you understand how they're made. It's bad. It's price discrimination right

00:50:46.340 there. I love you, Simone, for learning how to make all these dishes. You didn't when we got married,

00:50:52.660 you are the perfect wife. You are a heavenly beast. Oh. And I mean that in the, in the, in the most 0.99

00:51:00.500 at a rational possible way. Well, I live to serve. And I mean that in the most submissive and breathable

00:51:08.100 way. That's so cringe. Ah, instant regret, instant regret. Your mic fell out again. That is, that is,

00:51:16.740 that is what every guy wants. I'll tell you what. Okay. Well. Submissive and breathable wise. And every

00:51:21.860 woman doesn't want that. I've seen, I've read 50 shades of gray. Okay. I've read these. I don't

00:51:29.460 think did they, in, in the series, do they, I don't think they ever have kids. Do they? I mean,

00:51:33.780 no, but I've seen the progressives who go out there cosplaying as like, you know,

00:51:39.140 Yeah, you should watch our episode on that if you haven't seen it. Yeah, it's funny. They don't,

00:51:44.740 they don't cosplay as the Marthas. They don't cosplay as like the, the, the wives. 1.00

00:51:51.780 The actually oppressed people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah, because actually the handmaids have a,

00:51:56.740 a fairly privileged role, you know, they get to get food. They're like, bring me high power. Yeah,

00:52:01.300 they're like, why do they, why do they dress up with, with the sexual fetish ones in this,

00:52:05.940 You know why. We all know why. It's a little questionable. Yeah. People who think that we're

00:52:16.500 perverted, just read the Pragmatist Guide to Sexuality. You will discover how we actually feel

00:52:20.260 about sex. I think people think that we're like really into it because we talk about it.

00:52:26.580 When we talk about it the same way, your mic's unplugged again.

00:52:29.780 No, no, no. I don't think there's anybody who's like, oh,

00:52:35.620 they're actually like really. And I think that that's why we're able to talk about it because

00:52:39.220 people know that like, you're not into it. And so it's not like, no, no. Like people,

00:52:43.300 people DM me and they're like, oh, I bet you're into this. I'm like, oh, I bet you like, no,

00:52:49.860 we, we did. No, no, no, no.

00:52:54.740 Creating themselves into us, I think is what it is often.

00:52:57.380 Yeah. No, I mean, I think that, and that happens a lot.

00:53:01.780 Like when, when you relate to someone, you think they're smart, you're also going to assume that

00:53:05.620 they live like you do, enjoy what you do and agree with most of your things.

00:53:09.700 Which is okay. Cause we are smart.

00:53:12.580 Anyway, I love you to Desdemone.

00:53:15.860 I cannot wait to dig into that curry tonight.

00:53:18.420 What if you get these plantains? Wow. You're going to unlock a whole new level.

00:53:21.380 I don't know. I'm nervous. We'll, we'll see.

00:53:25.220 Slice and frost.

00:53:26.020 What's wrong with like butter? You know, like.

00:53:29.380 All you're doing is putting them in boiling oil.

00:53:32.340 Butter.

00:53:33.540 Or butter.

00:53:34.180 No, I think butter's better. Anyway, I will go. Goodbye.

00:53:40.340 Okay, Octavian, what do you want to say to the people?

00:53:42.660 I'm a people, I'm a soon, I'm a that's, I'm a, I love my army man right over there.

00:53:50.660 He loves his army men.

00:53:51.700 Yeah, right, because they're fun. And my okay Google, because it's, because it's so fun.

00:53:58.180 It shows you army men videos?

00:53:59.540 Yeah.

00:54:00.260 Titan, what do you want to say?

00:54:01.380 I, I just, yes, very good morning. I just, yes.

00:54:07.540 That's it? Andy, what do you want to say?

00:54:11.380 Oh, he, he just, he's, he's trying to learn how to talk.

00:54:14.980 Oh, she's still working on it?

00:54:16.100 Yeah.

00:54:16.740 All right. I love you guys all very much.

00:54:18.260 Well, at least one years old now.

00:54:20.500 She is.

00:54:21.220 Yeah, so I already got some wisdom.

00:54:23.860 What, what, what, how to do?

00:54:25.060 So she can play with my army man as my wrist when he becomes five years old. 0.70

00:54:31.380 Like, I'm five years old.

00:54:34.580 And I love you.

00:54:35.380 And I love you too, Titan.

00:54:36.660 And I love you too, Andy.

00:54:37.140 And I love you too.

00:54:38.180 Can I see the picture I just made?

00:54:38.900 And I love you too.

00:54:39.940 I want to see, can I, I want to see the picture I just made with Cindy and me and Titan.

00:54:45.060 Okay.

00:54:45.940 Let's watch.

00:54:46.200 India, Mom!

Based Camp - May 08, 2025

The Data： Phones & Screens Improve Kids' Mental Health

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