Teens who overuse social media and smartphones could deprive themselves of a life skill that’s essential for success, according to social psychologist and New York University professor Jonathan Haidt.

Those between the ages of 13 and 18 average eight hours and 39 minutes of screen time per day, according to a 2021 report from Common Sense Media. Moreover, the company’s 2023 “Constant Companion” report found that teens receive almost 240 notifications every day, and check their phones over 100 times.

The result: A generation of people who can’t concentrate, according to Haidt. And focus is an essential skill for success in life and at work, the social psychologist pointed out on a recent episode of The Oprah Podcast, where he spoke to a 17-year-old self-proclaimed social media addict.

“It is urgent that you restore your brain,” said Haidt, who earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and wrote the New York Times best-selling book, “The Anxious Generation.”

The smart move is to make improvements now: “If you [are on your phone up to 10 hours a day] until you’re 25, then the damage might be permanent,” he said. “By 25, the frontal cortex is kind of done changing. … At that point, it’s going to be much harder to get your attention back.”

Social media is “shattering” attention spans, he noted: “These things are designed to interrupt you.”

And an inability to concentrate can hinder you personally and professionally, according to Haidt. It becomes harder to maintain personal relationships, or even hold down a job, when you have trouble paying attention to anyone or anything beyond your phone. “Do you think any employer’s going to find it useful to hire someone who can’t focus on what they’re supposed to focus on?” he asked.

Haidt’s book, which connects social media and smartphone addiction directly to poor mental health among young people, has generated controversy. Some readers believe it overlooks other, equally significant causes of anxiety and unhappiness in younger people — genetics, brain chemical imbalances and trauma, to name a few.

However, research has shown that social development can suffer when kids and teens over-depend on devices rather than interacting in person.

And in 2023, then-U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory warning about the mental health risks brought on by social media and smartphones, citing studies showing that can lead to higher rates of anxiety and depression.

Haidt advised re-building your ability to focus by committing to using your phone less and suggested getting a small group of friends and family to join the challenge with you.

“If you can find three other family members, three friends to do this with,” you’ll have a better chance at breaking the habit so you can build focus, Haidt said. “I would recommend going cold turkey [from social apps] for a month, if you can.”

When you get the urge to grab your phone, consider making a swap: Instead, start reading, writing in a journal, completing a movie you started or going outside. Then finish that activity before moving on to something else, Haidt recommended.

Consider listening to music while you’re trying to finish chores or get work done, too: Though it may sound counterintuitive, music can help you concentrate, according to Srini Pillay, a Harvard psychiatrist, brain researcher and chief medical officer.

“There are many ways that music can impact the brain’s ability to focus,” he wrote for CNBC Make It in 2023. “One mechanism involves decreasing stress and cortisol, which allows the brain’s attention center to operate without interruption.”

Just steer clear of songs that might make you sad, or are so catchy they make it more difficult for you to stay on task. “In the brain, the focus centers are directly connected to the regions that process emotion, so any music that makes you more emotionally volatile could disrupt your concentration,” he wrote.

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While going to college tends to mean better pay, not all degrees guarantee high salaries — especially if you study liberal arts.

That’s according to a new analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which shows that graduates who major in education, social work or the arts tend to earn the lowest median incomes within five years of finishing school. The analysis includes only full-time workers with a bachelor’s degree and excludes those still enrolled in school.

The salary figures are based on 2023 data, the most recent available, and show early-career pay in these fields falls below the U.S. median wage of $48,060 for that year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While engineering majors can make upward of $80,000 early in their careers, many liberal arts and education majors earn closer to $40,000. The median salary of all majors examined was $50,000.

Here’s a look at the 10 majors linked to the lowest median salaries for full-time workers ages 22 to 27.

While learning a foreign language is a valuable skill, a degree in the subject doesn’t always lead to high-paying roles. That’s likely because language can be learned outside a formal education and many graduates tend to go into relatively low-paying fields, like education, translation or public service.

Liberal arts majors also tend to earn less than graduates in technical fields like engineering or math, largely because there’s less demand for their skills in higher-paying industries like technology and finance.

Unfortunately, many liberal arts majors don’t fare much better as they get older, especially those in education. Here’s a look at the 10 lowest-paying majors for full-time workers between ages 35 and 45.

Early childhood education majors earn the least of all mid-career graduates, with a median income of $49,000 — just $8,000 more than what they earned five years after graduation.

By contrast, engineering majors typically break into six figures by mid-career.

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Being a parent has become an increasingly harder job, especially as anxiety levels keep rising, even among the youngest kids.

As child and family therapists, over the years, we’ve worked with thousands of parents and children struggling with anxiety and stress. We get emails and calls from parents looking for guidance nearly every day.

When a child experiences worry that won’t go away, parents feel overwhelmed and lost. They desperately want to make it better but don’t know how. The first step is to understand what those worries are.

Here are the top six things kids worry about the most that many parents don’t even realize:

As kids grow up and begin figuring out who they are, they start to care about what their friends think. They want to fit in and feel liked.

When children are different from their peers, whether due to their appearance, interests, cultural background, race or any other aspect of their identity, they may worry or become the target of bullying or teasing.

Adding social media to the mix amplifies kids’ worries about social dynamics and negatively impacts their self-worth. Children will compare their lives to highlight reels of friends and complete strangers.

When kids use social media without any supervision, it ramps up their anxiety. They see other people’s lives online and might start feeling bad about their own, which makes them worry a lot more.

Moving to a new house or a new school can be both exciting and scary for kids. Even if the change is supposed to be a good thing, they might feel like they’re losing something before they can see the benefits.

For example, before they can enjoy having a new sibling, they might feel sad about no longer being the only child. And some changes are just plain tough, with little upside — like a parent moving out or a friend changing schools.

In families where academics and extracurriculars take priority from morning to night, there’s little room for relaxation. And when children don’t have unstructured time to recharge, they are at risk of developing chronic stress.

DON’T MISS: How to successfully change careers and be happier at work

Be sure to give your kids plenty of free playtime. It’s how they learn, process emotions and make sense of what’s happening around them.

Things don’t need to be the same all the time, but last-minute changes in their daily schedule will make kids nervous. Having a caregiver who is often late or says they will be there and then doesn’t show up may cause anxiety in a child, too.

In the same way, when a child receives conflicting signals from each of their grown-ups, or when rules and expectations change from day to day, children experience a sense of discomfort.

Trauma can leave a child feeling devastated, scared or hurt, and it’s tough for them to calm down because it triggers their body’s stress response. This makes them super alert and unable to relax, constantly worried about their safety.

Even small incidents can shake a child’s sense of safety. A dog bite, a car accident or seeing someone get hurt can deeply affect them. Later, they might see something that reminds them of the event and feel scared all over again.

There are many practical coping strategies for your child to manage intense emotions. The key is to teach ahead by introducing these skills during calm moments — well before stressful situations arise.

1. Naming emotions

Teach your kids to manage emotions by naming what they feel. Explain that worry likes to hide in the dark and fester, and that sharing it out loud with you or a trusted friend or sibling will help them feel better.

It even works when they say it in their heads: “I am so anxious about what my teacher thinks of me.”

2. Take a breath

Get into the habit of taking three deep breaths with your child before bed.

Have them put a hand on their tummy and feel the breath fill it up “like a belly balloon.” Trace their hand with each breath: up a finger, breathe in, and down a finger, breathe out, and repeat.

3. Teach affirming phrases

Lend your pearls of wisdom for tough moments. Encourage your child to say it to themselves: “Things are easier the second time around,” or “I can do it,” during moments of worry or before a big event.

Teach them to recite: “It only feels this way for now, but I know even the worst feelings will pass,” or “Just because I’m imagining something bad, it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.”

4. Schedule a ‘worry window’

If your kid has free-floating anxiety or feels overpowered by emotions that pop up only to derail them, try scheduling a 15-minute window later in the day for them to worry.

You can say, “I know you’re feeling worried. I have an idea that might help. When you get home, I’ll set a timer and you can think all about it, scream into your pillow, or talk it out with me until the timer goes off.”

Ashley Graber and Maria Evans are globally recognized parenting coaches, and child and family psychotherapists. Together, they run parenting groups that teach strategies and practical insights for better parenting. They’ve trained over 8,000 psychotherapists, psychologists, counselors and parent coaches to support children with anxiety. Ashley and Maria are also the co-authors of the new book ”Raising Calm Kids in a World of Worry: Tools to Ease Anxiety and Overwhelm.”

Want a new career that’s higher-paying, more flexible or fulfilling? Take CNBC’s new online course How to Change Careers and Be Happier at Work. Expert instructors will teach you strategies to network successfully, revamp your resume and confidently transition into your dream career. Start today and use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off $67 (+taxes and fees) through May 13, 2025.

Excerpted from “RAISING CALM KIDS IN A WORLD OF WORRY” by Ashley Graber & Maria Evans. Published by Penguin Life, an imprint of the Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC on February 11, 2025. Copyright © 2025 by Cozy Horse Limited.

Costco co-founder Jim Sinegal is retired … for the most part.

The 89-year-old former CEO of the beloved warehouse chain stepped down from his role in 2012. But Sinegal still goes to the office some Tuesdays, a nod to the work ethic and commitment he learned from his mentor, the late retail businessman and philanthropist Sol Price.

“I think to be successful, you’ve got to be pretty focused,” Sinegal said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published on April 16. He added that, “if you can find a mentor like I did, like Sol Price, it can make a significant difference in your life.”

For Sinegal, staying involved in his company is a no brainer. He dedicated a huge chunk of his life to retail, getting his start as a bagger at Price’s FedMart at age 18. Sinegal worked his way up to the C-suite before launching Costco alongside businessman and investor Jeff Brotman. There, he served as president and CEO for almost 30 years. 

Sinegal “always loved” working in the grocery industry and viewed his job as more of a hobby, he told The Wall Street Journal. As for work-life balance, staying busy in a role he loves, even after retirement, is the icing on the cake.

“I think there are three things that you have to worry about,” he said. “Worry about your livelihood, you gotta worry about your health and you gotta worry about your family. Anything else you do is a bonus, if you’re able to sneak it in there.”

Sinegal has offered similar advice to students and young entrepreneurs over the years. If you “find something you are really passionate about and you won’t have to work a day in your life,” he noted in a 2016 speech to Loyola Marymount University students. In addition to going into the office, Sinegal says he still tries to visit Costco stores regularly — not out of any feeling of obligation, but because he’s passionate about the company.

“Nobody is holding a gun to my head,” he said in 2016. “I do it because I love it, [and] if you can find something you love, it will be a great gift for you.”

Twenty-eight percent of retirees experience depression, which is higher than that of the overall older adult population, according to a 2020 study. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so important that workers be honest with themselves when considering what their last decades should look like, Harvard business administration professor and author Teresa M. Amabile wrote for CNBC Make It in November 2024.

“My research team at Harvard Business School and I spent a decade interviewing people to uncover the psychological, relational and life restructuring challenges of retiring — and how best to navigate them,” Amabile wrote. “We discovered that identity issues can loom large for people.”

Amabile recommends that younger employees ask themselves, “Would I be more likely to say that my work is what I do or my work is who I am?” If you realize your work is who you are, “that insight could help you consider to what extent your strong work identity holds you back from starting a possibly wonderful retirement life,” she wrote.

Afterward, write down the values and characteristics you have that you deem important. If you write down something like “hard worker,” for example, you can “bridge that identity gap” by finding another way to practice dedication, like gardening, going to the gym or becoming more active in your community.

“Consider who you are in your career life, which pieces of your working self you’ll be able to take with you, and which ones you want to leave behind,” wrote Amabile. “If you can do that honestly, you’re more likely to find a satisfying retirement on the other side.”

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There are certain lifestyle choices that can lower your risk of developing dementia, stroke and depression later in life, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

“At least 60% of stroke, 40% of dementia and 35% of late-life depression are attributable to modifiable risk factors,” the study found.

It turns out that people who’ve had a stroke before tend to develop depression or dementia, and the same is true in the reverse, Dr. Sanjula Singh, the lead author of the study, told The New York Times. Singh is also a principal investigator at the Brain Care Labs at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Here are the top three practices that experts found have the greatest effect on your chances of staving off these brain conditions.

1. Avoid high blood pressure: Having high blood pressure was the highest risk factor for developing depression, dementia and stroke. You can keep your levels low by cutting back on salt, getting more exercise and eating more potassium, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
2. Prioritize physical activity and social fitness: Engaging in moderate to vigorous physical activity can decrease your risk of having a stroke and developing dementia. And having great connections in your life was associated with better health outcomes in those areas as well. When you can combine your physical fitness with strengthening your social muscles like taking a walk with a close friend or gardening with your partner, it’s even better for your brain.
3. Follow healthy habits early: Some people may think they don’t need to take their health as seriously when they’re younger, but experts say starting healthy habits early is a much better approach. Adding practices like exercising and forming lifelong friendships to your list of priorities in middle age or younger can prevent, or delay, diseases like depression and dementia from developing sooner.

If you don’t know where to start, you can take a quiz to get your Brain Care Score, which is a system created at Mass General to measure how healthy your brain is. To receive your score, you answer questions about your lifestyle choices like your blood pressure levels, dietary habits and sleep quality.

Having a higher Brain Care Score is associated with having a lower risk of dementia, depression and stroke, according to a study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry. And even lower scores can get a boost by working on the areas of improvement that are suggested in your results, according to Dr. Jonathan Rosand, a professor of neurology at Harvard University who treats patients with head trauma, spinal cord injuries and strokes at Mass General.

“The key is to take the score as a guide and just use it for yourself to improve it, however you want to start improving it,” Rosand told CNBC Make It in December of 2024.

It’s important to consult with a physician if you notice any early signs or symptoms of depression, stroke or dementia. “It’s really helpful when you go to the doctor if you bring the score with you and you’ve already decided, ‘This is what I’d like to work on.’” And make sure to consult your own medical professional regarding your specific health needs.

Want a new career that’s higher-paying, more flexible or fulfilling? Take CNBC’s new online course How to Change Careers and Be Happier at Work. Expert instructors will teach you strategies to network successfully, revamp your resume and confidently transition into your dream career. Start today and use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off $67 (+taxes and fees) through May 13, 2025.

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