Australia’s social media ban for under 16’s comes into effect today - a neuroscientist reacts

Spending less time on social media means doing more of what's good for your brain. So Australia's social media ban comes into effect today. And regardless of how you feel about the ban itself, as a neuroscientist, I can tell you it'll do a lot of good things for the brain. There's a lot for the brain to gain from spending less time on social media for all of us, but especially the brains of young people. So when you're on social media, you're probably not engaging with people face to face. You're also probably sitting down inside. you're probably also staying up late. And that's a bit of a problem because socializing face to face, exercise, and sleep and spending time outdoors are all critical levers of having a good healthy brain. And really, the less of those things we have, the less resilient we are, and the more likely we are to have poor mental health develop neurogenerative diseases like dementia. So exercise is one of the most powerful ways to promote good brain health. Um even reduce your risk of depression, anxiety, any brain disa disease really. Socializing face to face is one of the best ways to promote health and happiness especially later in life. And it makes you more resilient to stress and to pain as well. It also helps you build real empathy and it helps you learn from your mistakes and basically you learn this blueprint of how to navigate the world and how to be a good person. You know, if face tof face connection with people is a bit like a nutritious meal for the brain in terms of all the neurochemicals that get released, then texting online is sort of the equivalent of eating a jelly bean. So, your brain might get a bit of dopamine, but you don't really get that protective cocktail of all those neurochemicals. We also know that spending more time outdoors and in nature is a really powerful way to improve our circadian rhythm and our metabolism and really reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol. And if you're not staying up late and staring at screens, that probably means you're going to have better sleep as well. And sleep is one of the pillars of really good brain health. So spending less time on social media means doing more of what's best for our brain. Now, I'll make a little bit of a series breaking all of this down, but first, I've got a plane to catch.