I'm of a certain age where I heard that refrain regularly from my Dad as I settled in each summer afternoon to watch reruns of Gilligan's Island, The Brady Bunch, and The Partridge Family. It was the Golden Age of reruns.

But what was once hyperbole has turned into science, and the results are beyond alarming. The universal addiction to smartphones is actively ruining our brains — especially Generation Z — and at a pace that should absolutely freak everyone out.

The Financial Times recently published a devastating analysis of American personality changes using data from the Understanding America Study, and the findings should stop you cold.

In less than a decade, conscientiousness — the trait most closely linked to responsibility, follow-through, and self-control — has collapsed among young adults. For those aged 16 to 39, it's not a gradual erosion; it's a plunge from respectability into the low 30th percentile. Older adults (who aren't addicted to smartphones), meanwhile, remain essentially unchanged.

A graphic from the post recently went viral: