The data is sobering: more teens feel worse on social, and more parents are deeply worried. We’re feeling it too. So we decided to get honest about what constant feeds are doing to our minds, our families, and our definition of success—and how we can take our brains back. With health and wellness coach (and mom of two) Hallie Laracy, we trace the shift from closed-door news to 24/7 urgency and finally to algorithms that personalize our anxieties. We talk about phones as pocket computers, how “infinite scroll” reshapes attention, and why the right word might not be destruction but manipulation—small nudges that tilt behavior until mood, motivation, and self-worth bend in quiet ways.

We share real stories: a teen’s innocent search turning into a harmful rabbit hole; a business owner’s feed pushing hustle and status until year-end depression creeps in; and the surprising relief of camping with internet available but deliberately unused. Then we get practical. Hallie walks through boundaries that held up under pressure—no devices in bedrooms, delayed phones, and even a single shared “house phone” kids borrow when needed. We unpack tools adults can use too: deleting one app for a week, moving icons off the home screen, cutting notifications, charging phones outside the bedroom, and replacing doomscrolling with simple anchors like walks, journaling, or family game nights.

Along the way, we challenge the myth that you must be online to succeed and offer a saner metric: success as being surrounded by love. That mindset lowers the temperature on comparison, strengthens real relationships, and supports a calmer nervous system. If you’ve been looking for a clear, compassionate plan to protect attention, rebuild presence, and help kids grow real-world skills, this conversation gives you evidence, language, and steps you can use tonight.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s struggling with screens, and leave a quick review so more people can hear it. Your support helps us stop manipulation—and build unshakable brains.

Note: This podcast episode is sponsored by Dr. Rewire's Brain DNA test. Learn more at Unshakablebrain.ai. If you're a practitioner and you're interested in adding this at-home lab test to your toolkit, go to Unshakablebrain.ai/expert.

I, Dr. Kylie, no longer work with clients in any endeavor. If you'd like more support for your health, I recommend working with the physicians at the EllieMD telemedicine platform. To get started, go to https://elliemd.com/?bp=drkylie. For health and wellness experts looking to provide this resource to your clients, get started at https://elliemd.com/join-us/?bp=drkylie.

Thank you for joining the Unshakable Brain community. Dr. Kylie