Addictive Algorithms: Riley Colford on Social Media Detox, Mental Health, and the Policy Fight for Our Attention

with Riley Colford,

If you’ve ever opened your phone “for a second” and lost 45 minutes, this episode is for you. JT sits down with Riley Colford, a University of Delaware public policy student days away from graduating, to hear about a capstone project that hits straight at the intersection of habits, addiction, and agency.

Riley walks through what they found researching addictive social media design (think casino mechanics: infinite scroll, no stopping cues), what happened when they all did a one-week detox, and why it revealed something deeper than “bad discipline.” They also dig into the messy reality of policy: what the government can and can’t do, the First Amendment limits, and why advocacy and awareness may be the most realistic next step. This is a rare conversation that’s both personal and systems-level, and it’ll make you look at your screen time differently.