Social media can change children’s brains

The habit of checking social media as a teenager has been linked to oversensitivity to peer feedback and likely to permanent changes in the brain’s reward and motivation centers. set, neuroscientists at the University of North Carolina (USA) suggested in a study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

When frequent users classified as “habitual” by the researchers (meaning they checked their social media accounts 15 or more times per day) played a feedback simulation game in the form of friends’ comments, they are increasingly sensitive to that feedback. Brain scans showed increased activity in areas involved in reward processing, attention, regulation, and control. And the researchers observed that these seem to contribute to positive feedback loops, further increasing their sensitivity to peer approval.

Adolescents who reported that they checked social media at least once a day showed a corresponding decrease in activity in these areas, indicating that they cared less about feedback from their peers or were able to self-monitor. greater control over coercive behaviors.

(Photo: First Post)

While it is acknowledged that it cannot be said from the limited data collected whether use of social media makes adolescents more interested in feedback from friends or a pre-existing concern about peer evaluation makes them they were more likely to check their own accounts, the researchers made clear they doubted the former’s conclusion.

“The fact that adolescents have the habit of checking shows these rather dramatic changes in the way the brain responds. This can have long-term consequences into adulthood, setting the stage for development. brain development over time,” study co-author Eva Telzer told The New York Times.

Eva Telzer argues that the hypersensitivity shown in habitual social media users is neither good nor bad, but merely an adaptation to living in an increasingly interconnected world.