00:00so your engagement with technology
00:02doesn't just have to do with laziness or
00:04discipline or you sucking at life it has
00:06to do with a lot of like the state of
00:08your mind your internal emotional state
00:10your fatigue State all those kinds of
00:13so I wasted five to six hours watching
00:15YouTube and now I don't want to do
00:19so I've I have some homework that I
00:21needed to do over the weekend but
00:22instead of utilizing my time to do stuff
00:24I just blew five hours watching YouTube
00:25and now I hate myself and I don't feel
00:27like I deserve anything or anyone
00:30I've tried to be productive several
00:32times and now that has failed I don't
00:33want to do anything anymore I want to be
00:35perfect like everybody else when it
00:36comes to their lives but I find that
00:38hard and I want to cry when I can't do
00:40anything that other people can do
00:42I hate my life because I'm worth nothing
00:45and I feel like I'm incapable of
00:46everything that is presented to me I
00:48want to get rid of this thing of not
00:50being productive and all that this
00:52happens frequently as well and I'm
00:53hopeless about it I hate life
01:04instead of doing what we need to do
01:07we end up watching lots of YouTube or
01:11something else right play video games
01:13spend time on Reddit like whatever
01:14whatever pick your poison
01:17the truth of the matter is though
01:18sometimes it's like we have stuff that
01:20we want to accomplish
01:22and YouTube kind of gets in the way
01:26and then what happens is when we like
01:30slip up right by like five hours of
01:37and then we don't feel like we deserve
01:40we want to be perfect but we're the very
01:42opposite of perfect our mind becomes
01:44very very black and white it's like I
01:46can't believe I wasted a whole day
01:51I want to get rid of this thing I'm
01:52tired of not being productive anymore I
01:54want to be productive again help me be
02:00so what do we do in this situation
02:03so I was kind of reading this my first
02:07well I wonder what's going on in
02:10so I didn't really know I was like okay
02:12what is watching five hours of YouTube
02:14do to your brain so I know like
02:17long-term effects of chronic technology
02:20usage social media usage video games
02:22things like that but at the five hour
02:25mark what's going on in someone's brain
02:26so the first thing that I did is I asked
02:28that question and the answer is that I I
02:31saw were actually terrifying so the
02:33first thing that we're going to do is
02:34just like do a quick dip into
02:40so there's some PA we're going to talk
02:43about oh yeah so let's start with this
02:45so there is this field called
02:50consumer Neuroscience which terrifies me
02:55because what this means is that there's
02:57like a group of people out there who are
02:59studying the brain using things like
03:02psychometrics functional neuroimaging
03:05and behavioral data to figure out
03:08how to get you to like buy stuff and
03:14okay so the impact of motivation to
03:17watch YouTube subjective Nora's
03:18behavioral control information success
03:20model to watching YouTube engagement
03:25now this is important
03:27measuring dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
03:31signals predict the success of
03:33merchandising elements at the point of
03:44brain activity forecasts video
03:46engagement in an internet attention
03:48market so here's something that
03:54is now known as the internet attention
03:57market and there's a lot of research out
04:07how to like take this internet attention
04:09market and like engage people with it
04:16now this is what's really interesting so
04:17the key thing that I kind of took away
04:19from this that I thought was a little
04:21is a lot of research on the anterior
04:23insula so let's try to understand the
04:25Neuroscience real quick
04:27so here's what I I thought of when I
04:29looked at this I was like okay I can
04:31understand that people get distracted
04:33and they don't want to you know
04:35start doing homework it's boring so you
04:37open up YouTube because you feel a
04:39little bit distracted but then what I
04:41got kind of curious about is why do we
04:42waste five hours on YouTube because it's
04:45not even fun after the first hour what's
04:50and that's when I sort of discovered
04:51that there's all all kinds of
04:52interesting stuff and one of the key
04:54pieces of Neuroscience here is the
04:56anterior insula and the anterior insula
05:02heavily involved with like
05:06um it's also involved with the orgasm
05:08which is kind of interesting
05:11it in involves like it involves a lot of
05:14like awareness and like a lot of our
05:17Consciousness comes from the anterior
05:19insula so when we're kind of thinking
05:22okay like what do I want to do when
05:24we're like regulating ourselves when we
05:26think a particular way about ourselves
05:27like a lot of this like emotional
05:29awareness of what we're doing and like
05:31being conscious is the anterior insula
05:34and what we know from all this
05:35commercial Neuroscience is that
05:38buying things online and spending more
05:41time on the Internet is inversely
05:44correlated with anterior insular
05:48so what that sort of means is that the
05:50more aware I am the less likely I am to
05:54engage in with YouTube for five hours at
05:58and actually what tends to happen is as
06:00we use technology what this internet
06:02attention Market is doing
06:04is finding ways to make us less aware
06:08and what do I mean by finding ways to
06:10make us less aware so when I watch a
06:14so right now like I'm aware of my
06:16surroundings what I need to do today my
06:18mind is tracking all kinds of stuff
06:21when I watch a video the engagement
06:23level of that video is in how much it
06:29right so my you know poison of the month
06:31this this month is watching these like
06:35survival catching foraging eating
06:39cooking things with fires
06:42right it's like some dude who's like out
06:44in the wilderness who's like making
06:45fires and catching things and and
06:47hunting for food and stuff like that and
06:49it's like that's like when I watch that
06:51video for 30 minutes like I completely
06:52forget about everything else that's
06:55in my anterior insula shuts down and
06:58there's data that shows that the less
06:59active your interior insula is the more
07:02likely you are to engage in this
07:05internet attention Marketplace the more
07:07likely you are to watch YouTube for hour
07:08four five six seven eight nine ten
07:12so this is like the first thing that
07:14you've got to understand is that if
07:16you're in this situation and you're
07:19for being so lazy instead of being so
07:22motivated like I don't think you really
07:24realize how outgunned you really are
07:29did you get a little distracted sure
07:31but there's a whole emerging field of
07:34consumer Neuroscience which people are
07:37publishing papers about and having
07:39conferences on and things like that
07:41where people are like literally learning
07:43like like this is terrifying I'm going
07:45to just show you all this again
07:53I don't know if y'all so
07:58Neuro Imaging to figure out
08:03engage people with point of point of
08:11right it's kind of weird
08:13like there's so much stuff going on here
08:15that's super terrifying
08:18so now let's try to understand a little
08:19bit about okay if I wanna like let's go
08:21back to the issue at hand which is I
08:24need to do homework and I can't because
08:25I got distracted on YouTube for five
08:27hours so we're gonna break this apart
08:29into a couple of things the first thing
08:31is why do we start watching something or
08:35start engaging with technology the
08:37second thing is why do we persist in
08:39engaging with technology the third thing
08:41is what does long-term engagement with
08:43technology do to our brain and our
08:45motivation and our self-esteem and how
08:47do we pull everything how do we kind of
08:49tie everything together at the end okay
08:51so first thing why do we start using
08:53very very very well understood I feel
08:56incredibly confident in what I'm about
08:59when I'm trying to do homework I don't
09:02want to do the homework but chances
09:04whether I do the homework or don't do
09:06the homework actually depends on my
09:07internal emotional state
09:09the more confident in myself I feel the
09:14the less uh the the more
09:18I care about myself and the more
09:21positive emotions I feel the more likely
09:24I am to do the homework
09:26how do we know this well we know that
09:28when we reach for technology what it
09:30tends to do is suppress our negative
09:35and so generally speaking the worse we
09:37feel about ourselves the more likely we
09:39are to use technology the more fatigued
09:42we are the more likely we are to use
09:44technology this is part of the reason
09:47especially like a lot of these financial
09:49decisions are getting worse so if you
09:51look at people who are like buying
09:52crypto or Wall Street bets or even like
09:54online gambling sites the reason these
09:57all three of these things are so
10:00successful from a provider standpoint
10:01we're not talking about the purchaser
10:03we're talking about like the exchange or
10:07you know like like day trade uh sorry
10:09retail trading like Robin Hood or like
10:10all these things are so successful
10:13because they allow you to make decisions
10:15when you're fatigued
10:17so it used to be that markets were open
10:19only at a particular time
10:22so if you wanted to make a trade you had
10:24to open it like you had to like go
10:26through some some hoops as well as there
10:28was a particular time that you had to
10:30make trades so you couldn't be like
10:32drunk at 3am in the morning and spend a
10:35hundred thousand dollars by buying some
10:39but what we've discovered is that as our
10:41brains become more dysregulated and as
10:43we can make purchases in the wee hours
10:46of the morning when we're drunk when
10:48we're High when we're tired whatever
10:50it leads us to make bad purchases and
10:52people are profiting off of this
10:55so your engagement with technology
10:57doesn't just have to do with laziness or
10:59discipline or you sucking at life it has
11:01to do with a lot of like the state of
11:03your mind your internal emotional state
11:05your fatigue State all those kinds of
11:08that's why we start using and what our
11:10brain has figured out is I feel bad
11:12about myself let me engage in this
11:14technology which will self-soothe and
11:17shut down my negative emotional
11:20then what happens that's how we start
11:22using technology then what happens like
11:25why do we end up using technology for
11:26five hours so as technology becomes more
11:29engaging we start to see suppression of
11:32the anterior insular cortex which is our
11:36so then we don't realize that one hour
11:38became two became three became four
11:41and I love this personally in the
11:44turn-based strategy games right so if
11:46you guys play turn-based strategy game
11:47you'll understand this very well one
11:49more term one more turn one more turn
11:51I'm going to load up a game of civ4 fall
11:54from Heaven at 5 pm on a Friday and I'm
11:57going to come back to awareness Saturday
12:03right that's what technology does we
12:05lose that insular cortex stuff
12:08then what happens is we blame ourselves
12:10because now it's like oh my god I've
12:12stayed up all night I'm so undisciplined
12:15and then what happens is we start to
12:21like look at this language incapable of
12:26I want to be perfect I've tried to be
12:31and so all of that negative emotion
12:36and when all that negative emotion comes
12:42that in turn leads to things like
12:44procrastination because it's hard to
12:46focus on homework when internally you're
12:49filled with self-loathing
12:51right like that kind of makes sense
12:53right the more self-loathing I feel the
12:55harder it is to do homework
12:58and then we call this thing
12:59procrastination but what we know is that
13:02a lot of procrastination has to do with
13:04incorrect emotional processing and
13:07incorrect emotional awareness
13:09we just call it procrastination because
13:10we're not even aware of what we feel on
13:14and at the end of the cycle we feel so
13:16bad about ourselves that we're teeing
13:18ourselves up for failure next time
13:22so once I feel really terrible about
13:23myself do I sit there and process up my
13:26emotions talk to my friends go see a
13:28therapist work with a coach do I like
13:30like actually like take this kind of
13:31situation and and like really work
13:33through it and undo all the emotional
13:36damage of course not
13:37I make a post on the internet
13:40people give me like Solutions they're
13:42like hey use this task management system
13:43which can be useful don't get me wrong
13:45but none of that emotional stuff gets
13:49and if none of that emotional stuff gets
13:51addressed you can use whatever task
13:52management systems you want to if you
13:53wake up in the morning and you feel like
13:55you're a waste of a human being it's
13:56going to get really hard to be motivated
14:01right because what kind of stuff
14:04inspiration motivates people excitement
14:06motivates people confidence motivates
14:09but at the end of this whole cycle we're
14:11beating ourselves up we have a bunch of
14:13negative emotion and the whole cycle
14:18so what do you do in this kind of
14:19situation so a couple of simple things
14:21the first is recognize your black and
14:25so if you're thinking in All or Nothing
14:27statements if you're saying
14:29you know I'm I'm a complete waste of
14:32space other people are perfect I can't
14:34succeed in anything I do
14:36black and white thinking is a sign of
14:39emotional activity in the amygdala in
14:41the hippocampus it means that you're
14:44emotionally charged and you're not
14:46thinking logically it means you're
14:47thinking emotionally
14:49right so if you think about people who
14:51use a lot of black and white language
14:52they're very emotional thinkers they
14:54think they're logical but they're really
14:56not logical right because like the truth
14:58of the matter is the world is a nuanced
15:00place and very few things are black and
15:03like it's just not how reality is
15:06there is an a religion that is better
15:08than all the other religions or a
15:09religion that is worse than all the
15:12maybe that's a charge statement that's
15:14going to get invoke a lot of black and
15:16white thinking and engage emotions if
15:18you responded to that and now you feel
15:19emotions you'll kind of see what I'm
15:21right but people who talk that way tend
15:23to be very black and white thinkers and
15:25if you challenge them on that they will
15:29they'll use logic sure but like behind
15:32the logic is a bunch of emotion
15:35and so you've got to decompress that
15:39so notice the black and white thinking
15:41and then start to ask yourself okay how
15:42did I start to feel so bad about myself
15:46start to notice a little bit about when
15:48I'm sitting down to do homework how do I
15:51and this is the key thing if you're if
15:53you're one of these people I can
15:54guarantee you what you're going to say
15:56in that moment is who cares how I feel
16:03who cares what I feel and it's by making
16:06that statement you lose emotional
16:08awareness because now you're not
16:09exploring it you're actively devaluing
16:11it and when you actively devalue it and
16:14when you actively suppress it and ignore
16:16it then it starts to manifest in other
16:18ways like procrastination lack of
16:20motivation spending five hours watching
16:23because negative emotions have to be
16:27they will deal with you and keep dealing
16:29with you until you deal with them
16:34so you've got to become more emotionally
16:35aware become aware of your black and
16:37white thinking start to ask yourself
16:38questions like how do I feel about doing
16:41homework today do I want to do it do I
16:45why don't I want to do it well I need to
16:47do it who cares what I want well like I
16:50care what you want right what you want
16:52should be important to you and oddly
16:54enough by acknowledging what you want or
16:59and giving that value you actually make
17:02it easier to do the task
17:07I'll give you all a simple example
17:19I'll just give you all kind of an
17:20example so I I was out a couple weekends
17:24and one of them wanted to eat something
17:27that wasn't available
17:28okay so they're like Dad I want this
17:32and then I've got two options I can say
17:35I don't care what you want you're gonna
17:37eat what we give you
17:40right you have to eat what we have what
17:42we've got like we've only got one thing
17:44we can't get it so like I don't really
17:45it doesn't matter what you want you've
17:46got to eat what we give you or I can say
17:49hey I understand what you want I'm sorry
17:52I can't give it to you
17:54I'll do my best to get it for you next
17:57but I didn't know that you wanted that
17:58earlier and I'd really appreciate it if
18:02and I'm going to do my level best to get
18:04it for you next time
18:08which one do you think leads to like
18:12in both cases the kid may end up eating
18:14it but in one case they're going to eat
18:16way better than the other
18:22does that kind of make sense so we have
18:24to acknowledge like and this is where
18:27you know we make sacrifices because we
18:30have to make sacrifices but it's really
18:31nice to acknowledge the sacrifice
18:34and be honest about it right
18:36it's really nice to say hey like I'm
18:38sorry that you have to do this
18:43I really appreciate that you're doing it
18:49like that's going to lead to better
18:50stuff down the road but that's not how
18:51we talk to ourselves
18:58when you need to do something over the
18:59weekend you're going to end up
19:00procrastinating until the last minute
19:06so unfortunately it's really common to
19:08like get ourselves distracted
19:10with technology usage it turns out
19:12there's a lot going on in the brain
19:14it starts with why we start to use a
19:16technology which tends to be the most
19:19common reason is like emotional
19:22and not having to face our emotions then
19:24we get sucked into it and we blame
19:26ourselves for watching it for five hours
19:29when we don't even acknowledge that
19:32ton of like people who are doing
19:34consumer Neuroscience to keep you there
19:37there are people with phds and MDS and
19:40economists and all kinds of stuff
19:41working to keep you on that website for
19:43five hours because there's an attention
19:45Marketplace and what is being bought or
19:48sold in the attention Marketplace you
19:54and then we blame ourselves
19:56and with a complete lack of compassion
19:58and a lot of black and white thinking
20:00and self-blame we set ourselves up for
20:03failure tomorrow because then tomorrow
20:04if I'm a POS who wastes all my time
20:07watching YouTube and I'm filled with
20:09self-loathing how am I ever going to be
20:11inspired to actually like do my homework
20:15never gonna happen it's going to be a a
20:19every single time every single time you
20:21bring yourself to do your homework it's
20:23like you're dragging cattle
20:30and then since it takes so much effort
20:32for you to even do homework for a little
20:34while you're mentally fatigued mentally
20:36exhausted and then what do you think you
20:39technology because now you're fatigued
20:44and so it's super super challenging
20:46unfortunately increasingly common and
20:49why is it increasingly common is it
20:51because people are becoming lazier and
20:53more disciplined on the whole no
20:56it is because there is an attention
20:57Marketplace which people are getting
21:00very Savvy to in learning how to
21:01manipulate and they realize that if you
21:04spend six hours on YouTube instead of
21:07or twitch instead of tick tock
21:11one of those platforms gets money and
21:15and all the platforms want money
21:20give you the content that you want to I
21:22don't think necessarily the platform's
21:24are nefarious by the way
21:26I think a lot of times the platforms are
21:28out there trying to like do good
21:29they're like hey we're just entertainers
21:31right we're not worried about that kind
21:33of stuff but as this stuff is evolving
21:35it's starting to get out of control and
21:37sometimes we end up being the victims
21:39and that's where you can rage at the
21:41platforms all you want to I don't know
21:43how effective that's going to be this is
21:44where ultimately I think you've got to
21:46understand what's going on in my mind
21:48and what can I do about it
21:51so hopefully that helps if you're
21:53struggling with productivity and end up
21:55you know using a technology platform for
21:57like six hours and procrastinating
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