Pod Save America - Offline with Jon Favreau (coming October 24/sneak peek)

Episode Date: October 17, 2021

Is the internet slowly breaking our brains, and what can we do about it? In the new weekly series Offline with Jon Favreau, the Pod Save America co-host sits down with newsmakers, political figures, celebrities, comedians, and writers to talk about how our hyperconnected world shapes the way we live, for better or worse. New episodes drop every Sunday starting October 24. To listen, follow here on the Pod Save America feed.

Tonight, the information superhighway, an online network called Internet. Millions of students use the Facebook.com to list not only their pictures and hobbies, but as a virtual community. And we are calling it iPhone. Raise your hand if you're on Myspace.com. Rick Rowling is the widest reaching Internet prank out there right now. Leave Bennett alone. Each year Americans spend over two trillion minutes on their cell phones. A direct link between screen time and mental health.

Conspiracy theorists are back at their keyboards banging out wild accusations. Who is this 4chan person or website? You're not going to win a Twitter war with the President of the United States. If you're a woman or if you're a minority, you're essentially a target. We're constantly bombarded with seemingly perfect images in our Instagram. What happened at the Capitol shows what some dismiss as just online boasting was actually a plan of urge. Well, this has all worked out well, hasn't it? Well, this has all worked out well, hasn't it? They never miss a fucking ship. You know that little notification that comes through on your phone on Sundays

that says you've spent X number of hours on your phone this week? What's yours at? Over four hours. Yours is over four hours? Oh, I will not share mine. I realize complaining about the internet isn't exactly new, and life was messy long before we all logged on. But lately, I've been feeling like we're seriously underestimating

the extent to which our extremely online existence is making it that much harder to solve the world's problems, or even maintain a barely functioning democracy. Every day, people online seem angrier and nastier, more distrustful and conspiratorial. Technology that was supposed to connect us has made us more alienated and polarized. And the last year and a half of mostly virtual human contact

hasn't exactly helped. Now, do I know exactly what to do about all this? Of course not. Remember? I think Twitter has broken my brain. It has permanently altered my brain chemistry. And that's why I wanted to do this show. Each week, I'll talk to smart, interesting people

about how our online reality is affecting different aspects of our offline world. Like Snapchat's Peter Hamby on what the internet's doing to journalism. The same incentives that, you know, motivate a fitness model on Instagram and a TikTok influencer often motivate journalists now.

Megan Rapinoe on how athletes grapple with social media. It's like, well, you have 2 million people or 20 million people telling you their fucking armchair assessment of your performance all the time. Or writer Gia Tolentino on how the internet shapes our sense of who we are and what we believe. The trap of the internet is that so much of it is built around sort of like individualizing affirmation. And I think that's the problem because we feel the surface level dopamine, but deep down and in the deadness in our eyes,

we feel the other part, you know? I'll also be sitting down with Monica Lewinsky to talk about online bullying, DeRay McKesson to talk about activism in the internet age, and a lot of other cool guests. Most of all, we'll be trying to figure out what we can do about all this, how we can live better in this hyper-connected world, and maybe inoculate ourselves from the worst of it. For most of us, logging off forever isn't an option. But one thing I've noticed is that when we step away from our screens, our interactions tend to be different. We're more attentive, empathetic, and open to the nuance of an opposing view or the value of a different life experience. We're actually listening to each other. So sit

back, unplug, and join us for what I hope will be a different kind of Sunday show. Welcome to Offline with Jon Favreau.