Excessive smartphone use and
health issues in adolescents and young adults may include psychiatric,
cognitive, and emotional issues, brain changes, and physical problems. Teens brain who check social media more than 15
times per day become more sensitive to social feedback.
By using brain scans called
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers from the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sought to reveal if frequent checking of
social media impacted functional brain development in young people; And the
result said habitually refreshing and
checking social media may be associated with changes in brain sensitivity to
social rewards and punishments; those online likes and engagement from others.
“We know that adolescence is one
of the most important periods for brain development — it's going through more
changes in reorganization second only to that we see in early infancy,” said
study author Eva Telzer, a professor in UNC-Chapel Hill’s psychology and
neuroscience department and a corresponding author.
The research published in JAMAPediatrics, also shows that checking social media repeatedly among young teens ages 12 to 13 may be associated with changes in how their brains develop over a three-year period.
Social media sites (Facebook,
Instagram and Snapchat) are associated with changes in functional brain
development in these early adolescents, about age 12. Most adolescents begin
using technology and social media at one of the most important periods for
brain development during our lifetime.
“It’s a really dramatic period of
brain development, in particular in these brain regions that respond to social
rewards.”- Eva said.
According to Mitch Prinstein, who co-authored and also
serves as the chief science officer for the American Psychological Association
- “Our research demonstrates that checking behaviors on social media could have
long-standing and important consequences for adolescents’ neural development,
which is critical for parents and policy-makers to consider when understanding
the benefits and potential harms associated with teen technology use.”
How the
research was done,
For the three-year study,
Telzer's team recruited 169 sixth- and seventh-graders from three public middle
schools in rural North Carolina. Participants were racially diverse and
included both boys and girls.
The participants reported how
often they checked the three social media platforms, varying from less than once
a day to more than 20 times. The researchers used this information to make a
scale.
Then participants underwent fMRI
brain scans. During these scans, they would see a cue that social feedback
would be a reward, a punishment or neutral. They then had to quickly push a
button when a target appeared. The teens would then get a social reward or
punishment.
“We can take pictures of their
brain and see which brain regions are activated when they see these social
rewards and which brain regions are changing over those three years in response
to anticipating that peer feedback,” Telzer said.
Participants who at age 12 were
checking social media upwards of 15 times a day showed “differences in the way
that their brains develop over the following three years,” Telzer said. “And
it's in specific brain regions that are detecting the salience of the
environment, responding to those social rewards.” Salience refers to which
elements people are most drawn to and will focus their attention on.
Telzer said this suggests that
teens who grow up constantly checking their social media are becoming hypersensitive
to peer feedback.
Other research has found that
some adolescents are on their cellphones almost constantly, checking their
social media at least hourly.
In a Chapel Hill article, Kara
Fox, the study’s co-author and doctoral student in psychology said, “These
social inputs are frequent, inconsistent, and often rewarding, making them
especially powerful reinforcers that can condition users to check social media
repeatedly.”
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