Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Ep 30 | Is internet addiction legit? | Guest: Leigh Richardson

Episode Date: February 15, 2019

Jeffy tries to figure out if the internet is addicted with guest Leigh Richardson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, so this is either good news or bad news for you big time investors out there. J.P. Morgan launching its own cryptocurrency. First major U.S. Bank to create its own cryptocurrency. I wonder why they didn't like Bitcoin. Wonder why they didn't like Bitcoin. Why Bitcoin was just so bad. Oh. Oh, maybe because they were making their own.

I still don't understand the whole Bitcoin. How can you create money out of it? nowhere. I freaking hate bankers, but I hate them. Hate them. Okay, so I wanted to actually vote on the best Geico commercials, because they had a big contest, and how great is that that Geico has a contest promoting their own commercials? I mean, it's a commercial about promoting their own commercials.

Tremendous. But the voting stopped the fifth of this month. So 5th of February 2019. So I didn't get to vote in. I kept putting it off and I kept forgetting. And so it's over. And there was a sweepstakes that you could enter to be in one of the commercials and that kind of thing. It was a whole big thing that they put on.

It was a great campaign. I'm just an idiot and never voted. But it would have taken forever to go through all the commercials and vote for which ones are the best ones. But the votes are in. The votes are now in, all right, for the top Geico commercials. And I don't know that I agree with them or not. You know, it's not bad. You know, the top five, the top five is the spy.

You know, if you're a mom, you call it the worst time. The squirrels, the two squirrels causing the car accident. The caveman at the airport. That's pretty good. And the caveman ones are, you know, kind of cool. Number two is Maxwell the pig. And then the number one Geico commercial voted on by, I don't know how many multi-billions of people online. Hump day!

Uh-oh. Guess what day it is? Guess what day it is? Huh? Anybody? Julie, hey, guess what day it is? Oh, come on, I know you can hear me. Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike.

What day is it, Mike? Leslie, guess what today is? It's hump day. What? Ronnie, how happier folks you save hundreds of dollars switching to Geico? I'd say happier than a camel on Wednesday. Hump day. Get happy.

Get Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more. There were some honorable mentions. And first of all. I have no idea why I love that stupid hump day commercial, but it does kind of deserve to be number one, because once you hear it or see it, you ended up walking around the house.

At least I am, hump day! So unless you have your family tell you to shut up with the hump day. The Honorable mentions, you know, the soap opera, reality show, Possum, the Geico interview, the collect call. Yeah, the collect call is kind of cute. That's kind of good.

But, you know, it's not as good as hump day. A couple of stories that fascinated me throughout the week here on Fat Pile Friday. A burglary suspect offered homeowners a couple hundred bucks not to call the police. The homeowners, the homeowners came home, found him inside the house. And he was, hey, how you doing? I know that's a strange minivan in the driveway and I didn't have time to throw stuff in it. But if I give you a couple hundred bucks, would you not call the police? And that'll be okay.

I know that your video game systems are in the car. And I didn't have time to take anything else. But, you know, don't worry about that. Just don't call the police. I mean, I'll give you a couple hundred bucks. No, they didn't take the deal, by the way. And another great story. And when you think that the world has gone crazy, this is a,

Another tremendous story in the world we live in today. It's a Tinder app for cows. It's called Tudder. A mix of dating app, Tinder, and utter. It lets farmers swipe right on the cattle they like the look of. They're then directed to a page on the Sell My Livestock website where they can browse more pictures and data about the animals before deciding whether to buy.

Fantastic. And for they can, you know, they also can use it to try to, you know, try to hook up. As with the human farmers, use the smartphones to choose whether they're looking for a male or female, swiping through photos. They put the data at their fingertips. I love it. Tudder. And it also, it eases the transport stress for animals that may rival traditional markets.

So they don't have to travel so much and be shown off. Fantastic. Tudder Swipe and right Oh look at that piece of meat Speaking of meat Speaking of meat No I'm talking about how people order their steaks

They're not going to be mooing I mean we're Thank you That's how we eat our meat I mean when you see a cow like that You think ooh That one looks like a good piece of meat Yum

I was going through the story talking about How Americans Order their steak and the steak orders by preparation method is based on data from orders at Longhorn Steakhouse. May 30th, 2016 through May 21st, 2017, so almost a full year of orders at Longhorn Steakhouse. 2.5% order rare. 22.5% order medium rare. 11.7% order well done, 25.8% order medium well,

and 37.5% order medium. Amazing. Now, Americans do not eat their steak rare, that's for sure. Very few people eat it rare. And I was looking at the cuts of where they get the order from, like prime rib is, you know, most. Most to rare to medium rare orders, short lawyers of porter houses, how many people order the specific stakes, how they get them cut.

Let's be honest. If you rare is not good, well done is not good. Anywhere, it's obvious, anywhere between medium rare and to the edge of medium, to almost medium well. is the way you eat your meat. So there's been so much talk the past, well, the past, you know, a few years for sure since we're getting into more and more years of people using the Internet and having the world at their fingertips in a box that they hold in their hand

and they can't do without, and I'm just as guilty as anyone else. But then we also have the, I see all the time where people say, hey, could you go a month without using your phone and live in this house for a month and never use your phone for a million dollars or $100,000 or whatever the case is? And I always think, yeah, I could because I believe the first couple days would be tough. First couple days would be tough because you're so used to using it for everything. And then after that you'd move on. Well, Lee Richardson from the Brain Performance Center is here.

And, you know, we're talking a little bit about internet addiction. And I want to delve into it a little bit because I have a kind of a, I don't know that I would call it an all-out addiction. I know that we have, there's several places around the world now that are calling it, you know, something we need to look into more. A disorder. They're not, it's not necessarily an addiction property yet, but it's close, right? I mean, we're thinking that it's pretty close. Lee Richardson from the Brain Performance Center. Are you all four, it's an addiction and we need to give it up?

Well, I am all for it's addiction, and I'll tell you why. I look at addiction as a brain disease. And addiction has really changed. You know, 10 years ago, we thought it was alcohol and drugs, and one out of 10 of us had a problem with it. But now addiction has turned around. Two out of 10 in this room, by the way. But anyway, go ahead.

Addiction is turned around and it's based on pleasurable activities. Whether that's online, gambling, sex, shopping, social media, video games, cell phone usage, all of that is pleasurable. And let me tell you what happens in the brain when that starts. You know, we do it. We start off, oh, this is fun. I like this. And then we keep doing it over and over and over. and the more we do it and the more intensely we do it,

those little nerve cells in the brain, they get confused, you know? And they start kicking out all that dopamine and dopamine. That's what we're addicted to. That's that really feel good. Oh, that's that feel good stuff. And the brain gets confused. It goes from, oh, I like this, I like this, to, you know what,

I want this, to I need this, I need this. I need this. And that's why I really do. I look at a screen time. I think cell phone addiction is one of the biggest problems we have. Okay. So when you say scream time, I think that, I think people confuse screen time with just having the phone with them. I mean, if I, if I have my, you know, obviously I have my, you know, my phone with me, darn it 24-7.

I mean, really, I mean, that's my alarm clock that's next to my bed every night. So, I mean, I try once in a while in a couple days a week not to look at it, you know, on the weekends, not to look at it the first thing. It's just there charging so that I, you know, have an idea of, I can, I don't have to look at this all the time. I'm in control. Yeah. Yes, thank you. But really, it's just over there calling me. You're going to look at me yet?

Where are you at? I'm over here. Come and look at me. But I really do think that given the opportunity to give it up, I don't think it would be. I don't think it would be as hard as what I perceive an addiction is to give up. Well, addiction is a really strong word. And, you know, addiction means that you're exerting some kind of influence and power over the brain. And let's think about that.

So you can't control the amount that you use it. You continue to use it even when you know there's negative consequences. Have you seen any YouTube? videos of dads taking away the video games from their kids? I have. I've seen a couple of those, and I don't know that I believe every one of those. I don't believe every one of anything. That's probably a good rule of thumb.

I have seen some of those, and I don't know that, you know, and I watch those, and I feel like that has a lot to do with the individual. I agree. More so than the, you know, the whole big picture of it. But, you know, my kids, I mean, I have a 16-year-old and an 11-year-old, and, you know, they, you know, for them, their stars aren't what my stars were on TV. Their stars are the YouTube stars. And so, I mean, I want to watch what they watch, so I watch it with them. But, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a, I just feel like it's a different time, though, it's all.

It's just not, instead of watching a television show. No, they watch TV. No, they do not. Not even. Right. I mean, I have a friend, her four-year-old. learned how to work a yo-yo watching YouTube. And he's good.

He's good. Right. Because there's no limit in his mind, right? He says, oh, I'm supposed to do, this is how it's supposed to work. Okay, I can do it. Absolutely. There's no limits. There's no walls.

I get that. But that makes you feel good. You know, the thing, like with video games, video games are challenging. And challenging for a lot of people, that's motivating. And you can see if yourself move up. Oh my gosh, I'm so much better today. That makes you feel good. You need that feel good.

You know, if you're 16, you come home from school, things haven't gone so well, you feel like you're on the outcast. You know, I'm just going to forget about that. I'm going to pick, whether it's video games or social media, social media, to me, is more deadly. Because if you post something and I didn't get anybody to like it, nobody commented on my dress, oh my gosh, it's ugly. It's horrible. I can't wear it. Okay. But you're right about the video games.

And we'll get on to social media here in a little bit. I think it's really two different. You're saying that it's the same thing. It doesn't matter. You want that instant feedback. You want to believe that what you posted people liked. And that's the argument behind people feeling like they have to commit suicide because they, nobody likes their post and they're being,

somebody is bullying them online, right? The bullying online. Well, you know, if you're bullied online, only 600 people saw it. And if it's just me and you, I can shrug it off. Right. And I have a hard time.

I like, if I'm being bullied online to use that terminology, I mean, I just shut it off. I don't care. I don't I'll turn the computer off who cares what Bill 22 says but you're a mature adult well maybe but let's let's go with the premise that you are a mature adult that's a tough one but we will that's fine well we you know that's easier for you to do if you think about it and I go back to the brain the brain's not fully developed until you're in your mid to late 20s

the last part of the brain to develop is your frontal lobes that's the part of your brain that's where your personality lives. That's where everything happens. So, you know, instead of you just, somebody says something and upsets you, you overreact. You don't go, eh, what does she know? You know, you don't think through it. You're just more impulsive because you don't have the strength of those frontal lobes to help you.

Might do that even if you have the strength of those frontal lobes. Well, that's debatable. So, all right, so let's walk down that line a little. bit. So in today's world, very difficult. It can be done. It can be done to raise your children without any kind of electronic devices. It can be done, but it's difficult. And it's difficult. I mean, you can limit it. You can keep it, you know, you can limit it to, hey, this is the time we use our internet. This is the time we use our electronics. Then we don't. or you can just kind of keep an eye on it, hope that it's okay.

Should we just pull them away? Should we just limit everything? And not even limited. Just pull it away. No, you're not going to use it. Well, you know, and you made a point earlier that video games are different than social media. I think they are. And they are.

In this respect, they are. Because with video games, I would give that a different answer. With social media, I think that we're looking. looking for that instant feedback and while we're trying to stay connected with people that we know and we're looking to see what they do. And I think that is much easier to limit. I think you can say. Now, the hard part is, is you, the parent has to model that behavior, you know, and you have to be able to put your phone down. But kids, they turn their homework in now at school over their phone. So saying we're not ever going to touch that phone is ridiculous.

But saying, you know, we're going to use that phone in an appropriate way, creating awareness. Do you know how long you're on your phone? And now phones, my Apple, my iPhone gives me all kinds of feedback. You've got so many hours of screen time. You've done this. Right. And I think challenging them and to be aware, you know, be in control about what that social media time means to you. Instead of doing that, hey, let's me and you. Let's go get it. Oh, I got to do something

with the kids. Yeah, you got to. But, you know, let's go get a Starbucks. Let's whatever it is your kids like. Right. You know, I think that with social media, you do have to limit it. And I think that it feels good because as much good that comes from social media, there's negative, too. Of course there is. I mean, of course there is. But that's not, that's not social media's fault. I mean, that's not Twitter's fault. No. That's the people using its fault. But it's made us a comparative society. Now we compare everything we do.

We sure do. To what we see on social media. Sure do. I mean, it's not what we see at 8 o'clock on NBC once a week is what we see every minute on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and all the other social media sites. That's for sure. So, all right, so let's differentiate. Now let's put social media side to go to video. games? Well, video games I have a different opinion on because think about video games. You know,

video games we do. We come home and I've worked all day. I'm tired. It's so easy to pick up that console and play. Just play a game. And it's very social. A lot of the games that you play, you play with other people. They're gaming communities. You see yourself get better at that game. Man, I can level up. How about that? You know? And, you know. And, you see yourself get better at that game. And, you see yourself get better at that game. And, you know, And it almost gives you a sense of confidence and a purpose. I'm a gamer. Right. So that is something that I don't feel like that you can say,

okay, let's just play that for three hours a day, you know, because it's harder. Your identity becomes more wrapped in that. And I think you have to stop and ask yourself, do I lie about how much time I spend gaming? Possible. And am I thinking even when I'm not playing? Am I planning the next time I'm going to play?

And, you know, am I isolating myself? Am I choosing not to go downstairs and eat dinner with my family because I'm too involved in my game? And if you're answering those questions with a yes, yes, and yes, you got a problem. And that's not a type of problem you can just try to put some limitations on. I think that's the type of problem, just like whether it's out. alcohol or drugs or cigarettes or other addictions, you got to put it down and walk away. It's very hard to do.

Very hard to do. When that's your satisfaction, you know, that's your escape. I always say, well, why do you game? Well, it makes me feel calm. Well, it's really hard. Same reason some people, why do you drink? It makes me feel calm. Right.

I mean, look, I smoked forever. I mean, I haven't smoked. for over a month now, okay. Congratulations. So just get off me. Leave me alone. That was because of my heart event. But that's another story.

But the, you know, it's very different. It wasn't different motivations. Yes, it was completely. But they are, you know, I know that they're bad. See, I don't know that. I think the difference is like I knew and I knew and I know all the time. Okay, these things, I don't need to be smoking these things. They're bad.

I know they're bad. they're bad, but they've been with me forever, and I'm just going to, you know, that's fine. One more, it'd be fine. I might be the person that lives to be 185 years old and still smoking. We see those stories. And they're out there. They are out there. They are out there.

Rare, but out there. And so, you know, you justify it, right? I mean, that's what we do is justify it. Oh, we all do. For no matter what it is. But what health damage. And that's where you come in at the Brain Performance Center, right? What health damage are we doing if I video game?

Well, I'll tell you this. Research has shown that those that demonstrate addictive behavior towards the Internet, they score much higher for anxiety and depression. So there's something, and I go back to what I said, you know, addiction is a brain disease. It's because some of us can sit down and have two glasses of wine and walk away. Yeah. And some of us can't. And some of us can pick that game, that console up and play for a couple of hours.

Be done. And be done. And some of us can't. Right. So I think that, you know, it's all about how your brain is wiring and firing. And how the dopamine, what's going on in your head, you know? Well, everything in moderation. I mean, I've lived my life with that motto.

Everything in moderation, which is not true at all. But we're supposed to, I mean, that sure does sound good. It sounds great. But so what from your end, if I say, you know what, my family, I think we're all addicted, I think my family is all addicted. And, you know, I do this. My wife does this, and this kid is this and this kid is that. Do we come to you and say help?

Well, there are a number of things that you can do. you know, if you want to approach it on the brain level, because the way that brain, everything you do you don't do, depends on how that brain's wiring and firing, how it's sharing information, and what the timing is. And what I do is I look at all that. And the good news is you can change that. And neurofeedback, which is one of the services that I do do, is being used at a lot of addiction facilities, neural feedback, neuromodulation, with some fair success. Really? And what does that show you? Well, that shows me that you can change the brain, whether it's addiction, anxiety, or depression. It's the dysregulation that is creating the problem. You create regulation in the brain, and you can manage the problem.

Now, you know, with addiction, are there some bad choices made along the way? Of course. I mean, I've made a bad choice already today. It just, it happens. I just asked if you could come here. And you said, yes, that's all I'm saying. If you're already calling it a bad choice, I mean, we can wrap this thing up. But, you know, we all make them. And it's just walking, getting in the car, I didn't get my coat today. And it's going to be 30 degrees.

Yeah, it's cool. You know, but yeah, there's bad choices. And that's where things like counseling, commitment, some people turn to their faith for strength. I mean, AA's built on, built on that. So I think that there's a number of ways that you can approach it. But in my opinion, commitment with addiction, that is an ugly beast. And you've got to be committed. And so if people want to get help or at least see if they need help, I mean, if you, if I'm asking myself, you know, I think I need help,

odds are you probably do, right? Absolutely. I mean, if I, if I think there's probably even to answer all your questions, yes. I mean, if I think, man, things aren't going the way they should for me, you know. I'm not functioning at the level I should. When was the last time I was happy? Why am I arguing with my husband all the time? Why am I screaming at my kids?

Right. So there's a problem. Yeah. And so what's the number one thing people should do? I think that people should reach out for help. and that can be to a counselor, that can be to a family member, although don't, you're putting that family member in a, in a difficult situation, but it can be a pastor. You know, somebody, it can be different organizations. You know, there's, if you're feeling suicidal, there's a suicide hotline.

And the wonderful thing about the internet is you can Google it. And if you need help, you can Google it and you can come up with a resource. So if I have internet addiction, and I think that I have a problem, you want me to Google it. Use the internet to help with my addiction. Well, that's your natural mode of operation. I'm all for that. I did that with cigarettes for a long time. Man, I really should quit these. I'm going to

buy another pack. Yeah, it didn't work. No, it did not. It did not work very well at all. Yeah. So if people want to contact you, how do they do that? They can find me online at, by Googling, the Brain Performance Center.com. That's here in DFW. That's in Dallas. It's right off the tow road at

Preston and Royal Lane. And they can call 817, 500, 4863, and request a complimentary consultation. And if I think that if I say to myself, I don't call, I'm not calling anybody, I have an internet addiction. Is there a website or something that I'll see people go to? Absolutely.

Go to my Facebook. Oh, better. Oh, social media. Go to my YouTube channel, the Brain Performance Center. Nice. And then, of course, the Brain Performance Center. dot com? Yes.

See how easy that is. All right. Lee Richardson, thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Thank you for having me. All right. Thanks for listening to Chewing the Fat and Fat Piled Friday. Nice to have you along for the ride.

Just letting you know that you need to subscribe to the podcast. You know, please. It would be so nice. Just subscribe to Chewing the Fat with yours, Truly, Jeff Fisher. You can rate and review and share it all as time goes by. You can rate it 20 stars. You can review it best podcast ever. You can share it with whoever you want to share it with, whenever you want to share it with.

But first and foremost, you need to subscribe to the podcast. And that's a very simple process. Wherever free podcasts are sold, you go there and you subscribe. And then when I put out a new post Monday through Friday, you'll get the boop. And you'll know that, oh my gosh, two of the fat is brand new. Now we've started sending it out at a different time, although it doesn't really matter, just when you get the alert, poop, that's what it's out.

But it is now being posted at 5.30 Central, 6.30 Eastern. So you have time to enjoy it, either finishing up your drive home or you're finally at home for the evening, and you can sit down and enjoy chewing the fat with Jeff Fisher. And I appreciate it very much. And then don't forget on Mondays, I do two podcasts.

I do chewing the fat, which you'll get later on in the afternoon, early evening. And then I do Talking Walking Dead, which you'll receive late morning on Mondays. And if you don't like Walking Dead, you don't need to listen. You do need to download it, and then you can delete it. But you don't need to listen. And then you just chewing the fat will come out later that day. And then some weeks I'm doing extra Saturdays. It's been, you know, I've got to do some interviews.

and I get some things started for your Saturdays, but there may be some extra stuff on the weekends coming as well. And we've got some new ideas and some new plans coming for, as we get further into this year. I was put a little hindrance on my heart event at the end of last year, the beginning of this year, that slowed some things down. I know. I know.

It's not your fault. It's fine. I appreciate it. But as we get into that, let's go over to the water cooler real quick before we get out of here on this Friday. All right? Oh my gosh. I don't care what day it is.

There is nothing like a cold Coke Zero. Sugar. Did you know yesterday, you know, Valentine's Day, the beautiful Valentine's Day, 50 million strawberries were sold. That is amazing. 50 million strawberries. I didn't have one.

I'm a little disappointed now. I didn't have one strawberry with chocolate on it. Is your wife is allergic? I am a little disappointed that I didn't have any strawberries. still have strawberries in the house. I thought you could die. No, that's honey. Oh, man, honey.

If I wanted to, if I wanted to, if I was not a nice guy, if I just came home and opened up a jar of honey, honey, could you come out here for a second? It could be over. But I don't do that because I'm a nice guy. Okay.

Yeah. Other headline now, the father of GPS, These people, what do they think they're going to use it for? The father of GPS, Brad Parkinson, expected his technology to help cars navigate and allow farmers to monitor crops. But Parkinson says he didn't expect companies to use the tech to track hundreds of millions of people. He's deeply troubled by it. Well, guess what?

Your apps, that's the way it works. Things move on. People evolved and we use things the way it is. It'll be okay. We still love the... the technology, Brad. Thank you. Now, the trucking industry facing shortage of over 50,000 drivers.

New unicorn, too simple, is racing to be the industry's self-driving solution. So they really are starting to really push on the self-driving trucks. We've got to have a truck driver day here on chewing the fat, send out some social media notices and post it so that I take some calls and talk to our truckers. I love truck drivers. I love them on the road. We've done it before when I filled in for Pat. trucker day and talked to them on the road and saw what's going on

and some of the new technology that they're being tracked with and how it's going. We've got to make that happen again because they make, if anything in the world makes America move, it's the truckers. And have you got the Daytona 500 this weekend? Yeah, baby. You ever been to the Daytona 500? It is, I mean, I'm not a big NASCAR guy. And, you know, the ratings for NASCAR has kind of been.

Pooh, pooh. down a little. But, you know, they're hoping to drum up a little business. They've got some of the big drivers left and they're done racing. You know, you go to NASCAR. They've got, you know, you show up in NASCAR, you get 150,000 people wrapped around a track watching drivers turn left all day. And that's what happens.

I mean, I could remember my dad was sitting in front of TV watching the NASCAR race. And, I mean, I can't. I just can't. I watch a lot of things. I watch a lot of things that go around in circles. I watch a lot of things that speed up and slow down. But I just, I don't know. I just can't seem to do the NASCAR.

Yeah. Sorry. Hey! Have a great weekend. Happy Friday.