Social Media Use Is Linked To Brain Changes In Teens, Research Finds (nytimes.com) 31
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: The effect of social media use on children is a fraught area of research, as parents and policymakers try to ascertain the results of a vast experiment already in full swing. Successive studies have added pieces to the puzzle, fleshing out the implications of a nearly constant stream of virtual interactions beginning in childhood. A new study by neuroscientists at the University of North Carolina tries something new, conducting successive brain scans of middle schoolers between the ages of 12 and 15, a period of especially rapid brain development. The researchers found that children who habitually checked their social media feeds at around age 12 showed a distinct trajectory, with their sensitivity to social rewards from peers heightening over time. Teenagers with less engagement in social media followed the opposite path, with a declining interest in social rewards.
The study, published on Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics, is among the first attempts to capture changes to brain function correlated with social media use over a period of years. The study has important limitations, the authors acknowledge. Because adolescence is a period of expanding social relationships, the brain differences could reflect a natural pivot toward peers, which could be driving more frequent social media use. "We can't make causal claims that social media is changing the brain," said Eva H. Telzer, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and one of the authors of the study. But, she added, "teens who are habitually checking their social media are showing these pretty dramatic changes in the way their brains are responding, which could potentially have long-term consequences well into adulthood, sort of setting the stage for brain development over time." "They are showing that the way you use it at one point in your life does influence the way your brain develops, but we don't know by how much, or whether it's good or bad," said Jeff Hancock, the founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab, who was not involved in the study. He said that many other variables could have contributed to these changes.
"What if these people joined a new team -- a hockey team or a volleyball team -- so started getting a lot more social interaction?" he said. It could be, he added, that the researchers are "picking up on the development of extroversion, and extroverts are more likely to check their social media."
He described the paper as "a very sophisticated piece of work," contributing to research that has emerged recently showing that sensitivity to social media varies from person to person. "There are people who have a neurological state that means they are more likely to be attracted to checking frequently," he said. "We're not all the same, and we should stop thinking that social media is the same for everyone."
The study, published on Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics, is among the first attempts to capture changes to brain function correlated with social media use over a period of years. The study has important limitations, the authors acknowledge. Because adolescence is a period of expanding social relationships, the brain differences could reflect a natural pivot toward peers, which could be driving more frequent social media use. "We can't make causal claims that social media is changing the brain," said Eva H. Telzer, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and one of the authors of the study. But, she added, "teens who are habitually checking their social media are showing these pretty dramatic changes in the way their brains are responding, which could potentially have long-term consequences well into adulthood, sort of setting the stage for brain development over time." "They are showing that the way you use it at one point in your life does influence the way your brain develops, but we don't know by how much, or whether it's good or bad," said Jeff Hancock, the founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab, who was not involved in the study. He said that many other variables could have contributed to these changes.
"What if these people joined a new team -- a hockey team or a volleyball team -- so started getting a lot more social interaction?" he said. It could be, he added, that the researchers are "picking up on the development of extroversion, and extroverts are more likely to check their social media."
He described the paper as "a very sophisticated piece of work," contributing to research that has emerged recently showing that sensitivity to social media varies from person to person. "There are people who have a neurological state that means they are more likely to be attracted to checking frequently," he said. "We're not all the same, and we should stop thinking that social media is the same for everyone."
Headlines (Score:4, Informative)
Literally everything you remember causes your brain to change.
Here is what the study tested:
"Participants saw a cue that indicated whether the social feedback (adolescent faces with emotional expressions) would be a reward, punishment, or neutral; after a delay, a target appeared and students responded by pressing a button as quickly as possible"
From what I understand of the paper, the brain paths were triggered more quickly (measured using fMRI) in people who check social media more often. I didn't see what the margin of error here is.
Ooo, ooo! (Score:2)
we don't know by how much, or whether it's good or bad
Call on me, professor!
Re:Ooo, ooo! (Score:5, Insightful)
Its bad..we know its bad.
We have known its bad as long as we have been saying "If your friends jump of a bridge would you too?" and probably longer.
The one of the main struggles of adolescence is finding the balance between seeking the approval of others by going a long to get a long, and stopping to ask questions, do you own study/thinking, reject or accept the social values of others, etc.
Social media has two clear reward structures. You get a sense a being right and belonging if you are quick to join a righteous mob and pile on something. You get a dopamine hit being the center of attention if say/do something incendiary.
It rewards either extreme, and never encourages anyone to stop and consider the totality of the this situation. Never allows anyone to entertain the notion that multiple view points might have merit. Never encourages one to choose their battles but rather to go seek the nearest hill to die on.
Its clearly not the a good training ground for the adolescent mind at all. I think we have already seen a lot of the impacts of this in terms of the decline of public discourse from the start of the post war erra on due to schools getting bigger, and young people spending more time there. Adolescents model, its what they do, they should be exposed to and modeling responsible adults not other adolescents. Putting them in a build with 30:1 adolescents to adults all day has been a bad recipe for their development, and social media just takes that problem and magnifies it million times.
Re:Ooo, ooo! (Score:5, Interesting)
It also has a negative effect on adults.
It seems like more and more adults online communicate as if they were 15 years old.
If you try and have civilised discourse with someone you might only find out 3 messages into the conversation that the other party is 15 with no life experience and the insight of a potato. That's if you're lucky. Usually by the 3rd message the child is hurling insults and vitriol.
Unfortunately, those kinds of interactions have been normalised due to being exposed to them for several decades. Now, even intelligent adults act like petulant kids online. Unless you're in a specialised forum there is absolutely no point in trying to talk to another person in social media since it is almost certain they will throw a trantrum.
Re: (Score:3)
What you're describing I've been seeing from adults on the internet since well before most major social media. People just behave differently with each other online then they do in real life. The anonymity that one has communicating online means people don't fear social repercusions like they do in real life which is typically cited as the main cause https://www.kqed.org/education... [kqed.org].
Of course the modern culture war in all its stupidity turns the volume up on this stuff but that is true for real life intera
Re: Ooo, ooo! (Score:3)
people don't fear social repercusions like they do in real life
True back when anonymity was easily achievable. But not so much anymore. You will go through life with a tracking cookie attached to your on-line personna. Which will link you to your social credit score.
Things have changed quickly enough that many people have yet to understand the full impact of this. And are still behaving as if they are anonymous.
Re: (Score:2)
In a social context we're still very much anonymous which is really what is at play here. As I said before "people don't fear social repercussions" on the internet.
I cant imagine corporate tracking would change people's social interactions online one way or another as I don't think that's something most people really ever think about, hence its mass "acceptance". Maybe if it got significantly worse than it is now but most people dont seem to care with how things are today.
Re: (Score:3)
The big problem of social media is apparent in cyber-bullying: The demand for attention/approval never ends, there's never a time to stop, think and learn something different/better. It's a rat-race of popularity that parents happily give to people who extremely sensitive to the human pecking-order. Once again, 'knowing' your child, isn't as important as the parent's own selfishness.
Traditionally, once teenagers had a sense of responsibility, they left school, became apprentices at a job/trade and did ad
This is your brain (Score:3)
Any questions?
I said it long ago, social media (like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) is a cancer upon society. Inevitable perhaps, but a cancer none the less. We've got to learn how to deal with it, but it is demonstrably harmful to people and society.
Re: (Score:2)
This is your brain on Social Media.
Any questions?
yes, could you hold your horses for a bit?
We can't make causal claims that social media is changing the brain
we don't know by how much, or whether it's good or bad
this study proves absolutely nothing :-D
if you pay attention to the results they're even contradicting.
(it's still an interesting effort to keep track of, at the very least it might prompt better research in the future).
Re: (Score:3)
This is your brain on Social Media.
Any questions?
I said it long ago, social media (like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
...Slashdot...
) is a cancer upon society. Inevitable perhaps, but a cancer none the less. We've got to learn how to deal with it, but it is demonstrably harmful to people and society.
Well now (Score:5, Interesting)
The possibility of contracting lifelong "hypersensitivity" to the approval of one's peers appears to be the main takeaway from this study.
Years ago, before the like/dislike era, some wise old head postulated that most humans responded well to a few compliments a day or week. He called them "strokes" of the ego, if I recall correctly. Extremely popular humans, rock stars and such, very quickly evolved to require dozens or hundreds of strokes a day for self satisfaction.
We have advanced to where developing children are being conditioned to need more strokes than normal life can ever provide. The further downside is that in order to care about the likes, you have to be hurt by the dislikes.
Re: (Score:2)
We have advanced to where developing children are being conditioned to need more strokes than normal life can ever provide.
Seems like there oughta be a law against stroking children.
Re: (Score:2)
There ought to be. Love your sig.
Slash on.
Re: (Score:2)
The possibility of contracting lifelong "hypersensitivity" to the approval of one's peers appears to be the main takeaway from this study.
So, basically biochemically weaponized peer pressure. Pavlov's Teenagers.
Re: (Score:2)
The possibility of contracting lifelong "hypersensitivity" to the approval of one's peers appears to be the main takeaway from this study.
So, basically biochemically weaponized peer pressure. Pavlov's Teenagers.
As if peer pressure required an upgrade.
Peer pressure: the gas on the bonfire of youthful indiscretion.
Just say no :) (Score:5, Insightful)
I've taught my kids that it's rude to bury your face in a phone/tablet/computer while ignoring basic social interaction with your family and friends. The kids complained for a little bit, at first, but now they get it. We spend more time (gasp) talking, going outside, participating in sports, etc. A splash benefit is that their pictures and personal details are not splashed all over the interwebs.
I have friends who have taken a more laissez faire approach and have raised couch potatoes that don't look up from their devices during dinner to engage with family/guests and who spend much of their time indoors interacting with people virtually while gaining weight and losing confidence. They spend their time recirculating memes, and watching "influencers" do stupid shit on youtube.
The life you save may be your kid's.
Video games, rock music and comic books too! (Score:1)
Oh look, another fluff article involving fMRI. You can prove dead people have feelings too with fMRI.
Re: (Score:2)
And dead salmon [prefrontal.org] too.
That study famously won the 2012 Ig Nobel prize.
Yeah, well... (Score:1)
Anything that makes you stupid almost certainly does it by means of changes to the brain.
Extroverts use social media? (Score:1)
"extroverts are more likely to check their social media."
That doesn't pass the smell test
Re: (Score:3)
A big part of life is saying "we want the same things, we're a team." Extroverts are very good at that conversation and social media allows them to say it again and again. You're associating 'using a computer' with not having human contact, which is true (until cyber-sex suits are invented) for the most part but people who've spent a childhood using a keyboard, will happily use the keyboard as a substitute for human contact.
Re: Extroverts use social media? (Score:2)
I'm not associating using a computer with anything. It's the claims of the article that are doing that. I don't believe either extroverts or introverts would be better represented on social media.
Now, if you tell me bipolars are over-represented, I'd accept that's probably true.
Goddamit, NON-Paywall sources (Score:3)
FFS, it should be Slashdot policy to reject an article submission if one or more of the sources is behind a paywall.
NON-Paywalled source: UNC Chapel Hill link [unc.edu].
The study, published today in JAMA Pediatrics, reveals that adolescents’ brains may become more sensitive when anticipating social rewards and punishments over time with increased social media usage.
“The findings suggest that children who grow up checking social media more often are becoming hypersensitive to feedback from their peers,” said Eva Telzer, a professor in UNC-Chapel Hill’s psychology and neuroscience department and a corresponding author.
Researchers tracked 169 students recruited from public middle schools in rural North Carolina over three years. At the beginning of the study, participants reported how often they checked three popular social media platforms — Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Their answers ranged from less than once to more than 20 times a day. Participants underwent yearly brain imaging sessions while completing the social incentive delay task, which measures brain activity when anticipating social feedback from peers.
“While this increased sensitivity to social feedback may promote future compulsive social media use, it could also reflect a possible adaptive behavior that will allow teens to navigate an increasingly digital world,” says Maria Maza, a doctoral student in psychology and one of the study’s two lead authors.
People Worried About Competitive Sports?! (Score:2)
Science or Witchcraft? (Score:1)
Education is linked to brain changes as well-so? (Score:2)
Education -- any learning of new information creates changes in the brain. You can't live and expect no brain changes, or no learning is occurring.