[jamestimmins]

Jonathan Haidt recently made the point on Ezra Klein's podcast that while adults can take a break from phones and reset their attention/hormones in a couple of weeks, we don't know what impact similar addiction has on a developing mind. It's possible the addiction sets in much deeper.

I'm sympathetic to folks who grew up shaped by this. Not for nothing, but The Conversation also has a compelling start/end, but has a long, arguably slow, boring middle. So it's like being forced into withdrawal on hard mode.

[rjh29]

I think that's true. Alcohol addiction modifies the brain and it can take over a year to recover dopamine sensitivity, focus, mood, cognitive ability. It's called PAWS (post acute withdrawal syndrome). Given TikTok etc. has a similar profile of long usage over a long period, I'd also expect it to take a long time to fully recover from.