The JAMA study said the kids who habitually checked social media showed a distinct neurodevelopment trajectory within various regions of the brain. What does that mean?
It means social media platforms are impacting a child’s brain development in a very specific way. These platforms give adolescents the opportunity for increased social interaction at a time when their brains are especially sensitive to social feedback, particularly reward feedback. Over the course of three years, the researchers looked at the brain activity of teens who habitually checked social media against those who didn’t and found changes in the areas of the brain associated with social rewards and punishments.
It’s too early to say if social media was the only cause of these changes, but it does suggest that more studies are needed to better understand brain development in the age of social media.
We don’t have enough information to know the long-term ramifications to brain health as yet, since this is the first generation where social media has been prevalent since birth. We need more studies to see how these changes translate to a person’s overall ability to navigate things like personal and professional relationships later in life.
Is it necessarily a bad thing to have more sensitivity to social cues? Maybe it will make someone more emotionally adept. These changes in brain development don’t necessarily have to be negative.
I don’t think it’s exactly an addiction, but it could spiral into an elevated need for frequent stimulation to prompt a “dopamine dump” or release. Dopamine plays a role in how people experience pleasure, so kids could spend their time looking for that next reward from social media instead of experiencing the joys in real life.
Studies suggest social media affects the content of memories, the recollection of memories, and the capacity of memory.
Millions of people use social media to record and share their experiences, but new research shows that using social apps to document an experience may actually diminish your memory of the moments you sought to preserve.
Researchers believe social media is affecting our transactive memory— the way our brain divides information and decides where to store it. With the advent of social media and smartphones, we know where to find information or proof about the event, but we don’t keep as many details about the experience stored internally in our memory.
Social media is made to be addictive. Each like or positive comment presents a little hit of dopamine to our brain, thus creating reward pathways in the brain causing you to desire likes, retweets, etc.
However, the absence of likes and comments can leave us feeling empty, sad, anxious or depressed because our brain isn’t getting that hit of dopamine.
Research shows regular social media users, especially those under 30, often find themselves comparing their lives to those they see online, questioning their self-worth and overanalyzing their relationships and importance to those in their social circle based on social media.
Self-comparison and feeling left out aren’t concepts specific to social media, most social media apps allow the process to happen much faster, and much more often than real life social interactions. Studies have shown interactions people experience online, whether positive or negative, can start to shape user’s behavior in their real world experiences, according to a study from the Relationships and Technology Lab at the University of Kansas. For example, people may feel additional pressure to present their ideal-self, and go out of their way to take photos just for social media usage. Growing evidence indicates this kind of exaggerated self-representation perpetuates the cycle of comparison and often leads to feelings of inadequacy and sadness.
If you’re feeling overstimulated or overwhelmed after too much screen time, try a few of these quick tips:
Limit your screen time on social apps: Allow yourself only 35-45 of social media time a day and designate a specific time of day to use the apps.
Control your phone: Turn your phone off when you’re working on a project, or delete social media apps from your phone so you aren’t tempted to pick up your phone and scroll during the day.
Relax your mind: Instead of reaching for your tablet or phone to scroll through a social app, take a 15-minute walk around the block or practice meditation in a quiet area of your home, away from any electronics.
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