New Study Links Teen Boys' ADHD Symptoms To Addictive Social Media Use (msn.com) 57
A new study by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco "adds to growing research linking increased social media use to detrimental effects on attention, memory and cognition," reports the Washington Post:
The study followed more than 11,000 U.S. adolescents over a period of five years, with participants first asked about their own social media use at the average age of 12, and surveyed annually through the average age of 16. Researchers found that increases in addictive social media use were followed by rising ADHD one year later — particularly among boys who reported rising addictive social media use at ages 14 and 15. This association was not found consistently in reverse, meaning that ADHD symptoms did not appear to precede higher levels of addictive social media use... "When an individual adolescent's addictive social media use score increased from one year to the next, that same adolescent tended to show an increase in ADHD symptoms in the following year...." [said Jason Nagata, lead author of the study and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco]. He urged parents to consider: "Can their kids stop if they want to? Is social media interfering with their schoolwork? Is it impairing their social relationships? Are there addiction-like symptoms, like withdrawal and relapse?"
Approximately 7 million American children between the ages of 3 and 17 have received an ADHD diagnosis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and boys are diagnosed with ADHD at about twice the rate of girls. The study did not find a clear link between addictive social media use and ADHD among girls, Nagata said. "Some studies do suggest that teenage boys in particular may be more sensitive to immediate reward and sensation-seeking in adolescence," he said. And social media platforms are designed to provide exactly that: "It encourages frequent task-switching, and there's this constant stream of stimulation that might make it harder for adolescents to maintain and sustain attention that is needed for schoolwork and daily life," he said. "The design features of social media offer the constant reinforcement of impulsivity — it offers immediate gratification and novelty and it encourages multitasking, which can then override working memory and executive control." Experts have long noted that this kind of digital exposure is particularly significant during critical stages of mental, social-emotional and cognitive development...
[I]t's especially important for parents themselves to demonstrate a healthier relationship with screens and social media. "One of our previous findings was that parental screen use is a very strong predictor of kids' screen use," Nagata said.
Approximately 7 million American children between the ages of 3 and 17 have received an ADHD diagnosis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and boys are diagnosed with ADHD at about twice the rate of girls. The study did not find a clear link between addictive social media use and ADHD among girls, Nagata said. "Some studies do suggest that teenage boys in particular may be more sensitive to immediate reward and sensation-seeking in adolescence," he said. And social media platforms are designed to provide exactly that: "It encourages frequent task-switching, and there's this constant stream of stimulation that might make it harder for adolescents to maintain and sustain attention that is needed for schoolwork and daily life," he said. "The design features of social media offer the constant reinforcement of impulsivity — it offers immediate gratification and novelty and it encourages multitasking, which can then override working memory and executive control." Experts have long noted that this kind of digital exposure is particularly significant during critical stages of mental, social-emotional and cognitive development...
[I]t's especially important for parents themselves to demonstrate a healthier relationship with screens and social media. "One of our previous findings was that parental screen use is a very strong predictor of kids' screen use," Nagata said.
What about long hours of gaming? (Score:4, Interesting)
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You're probably applied a wrong link there, because the one thing people with ADHD are definitely not known for is doing the one unchanging task for as long as possible.
On the other hand autists are well known to experience long duration obsessive behaviour.
Re: What about long hours of gaming? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: What about long hours of gaming? (Score:5, Informative)
Some ADHD can exhibit hyper focus, some lack of focus in most things, some have a nearly infinitely shifting focus. Bad cases forget to eat, go to the loo and or sleep...the specifics are more individual than some script that any person with ADHD behaves in mostly the same way.
Learning to curb and mitigate the impulsiveness does help andt that's mostly the opposite of what attention algorithms do. Constantly feeding impulses to already impulsive individuals results in even less control and discipline.
Crack to an addictive personality if you will.
Re: What about long hours of gaming? (Score:5, Insightful)
"It's an intention disorder, not an attention disorder". People with ADHD struggle with executive function. Their problem isn't that they can't focus, it's that they don't get to pick what they focus on.
Re: What about long hours of gaming? (Score:2)
Re: What about long hours of gaming? (Score:4, Insightful)
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they're still different conditions although they can and do co-occur and overlap, both are forms of neurodivergence. autism though has a clear (albeit not quick) diagnose, while adhd is hit and miss and has become a catch-all of sorts, possibly masking other problems like deficient parental attention and education. to put it bluntly: it's easier to just drug the kid and be done with it. which ofc will not solve the problem, just push it forward. i can see how unchecked social media addiction is a self-reinf
Re: What about long hours of gaming? (Score:2)
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yes, the drugs are part of diagnose process. if it is any consolation, although psychological attention is free in spain it is resource constrained (sadly particularly in crowded or lower income areas) meaning longer wait times and spaced out sessions, which often means seeking private therapy anyway.
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You've reached the opposite conclusion than is logical from the post you replied to. No, you can't force a child with ADHD to focus on something they don't find interesting. Their brain literally does not work that way. It's the same as trying to punish a paralyzed child into walking.
Note that with adults (who have had a chance to develop atte
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If it's one thing my time on this planet has taught me it's that human beings will do anything to avoid the difficult work of tackling complex underlining causes.
Start treatment early? (Score:2)
Perhaps they can use the social media use as an indication of later developing ADHD, and start treatment earlier. /s
No, start prevention earlier. (Score:2)
Cause or effect? (Score:2)
Doesn't matter which is which, since the "treatment" to rein in the disabling extremes of ADHD would still include limiting social media.
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Both. It's best thought of as a positive feedback loop.
No shit, Sherlock! (Score:5, Interesting)
Disclaimer: ADHD candidate here.
I could write an entire set of essays on what we currently know about ADHD here but it basically boils down to this:
ADHDlers have a hightened sensitivity towards their value for people around them. So we go about our day constantly scanning for dopamine spikes or true connection. I need my medication the least when I'm in love with a cute lady (and she is with me). Given that through evolution men are more disposable than women the sense of self-worth is challenged way more often in boys and men that it is with women. Especially in a time where robots are doing more and more of the heavy lifting and masculinity is considered "toxic". Hence excessive male escapism, especially with male teens and those with perpetual creative impulses (aka ADHD types). If we didn't have this sort of escapism, fascism would've long since taken over way harder than it's doing right now.
I'm either dancing, moving around, escaping at one of my computer devices or doing some (somewhat) exotic activity thing like kitesurfing, paragliding, motorbike riding, scating, bikepacking, etc. This is SOP for an ADHD man like me.
The whole trick is not to feel guilt or toxic shame when you do escapism. You're actually doing very little damage to anybody else, it's cheap and it's a perfect fit for a society that has an abundance of stimulation just an internet connection away. Overcoming that involves actively working on your attachment style, abandonment terror and any shame-based identity that many people have. Once that happens, going out, roaming the countryside or travelling the world suddenly becomes way more interesting. Which is precisely for what the ADHD disposition brings some advantages along.
That ADHDlers are more prone to this or it's mental fallback alternative called escapism than people with a stronger frontal lobe should be obvious.
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You're skipping the giant forty billion pound pink elephant in the room: Boys are staggeringly overdiagnosed by a toxic and abusive school system as a way to justify drugging them into compliance. Give kids recess and reasonable expectations for work (and homework) and you'll see diagnosis rates plummet.
That's not an ADHD problem. (Score:2, Interesting)
You're correctly describing a phenomenon. However, that has nothing to do with ADHD and everything to do with gyno-centric social dynamics that - by sheer evo-psych - looks for ways to exploit men. This is how cultures grow and develop. There's quite a bit of research on that [roybaumeister.com] (neatly sidelined by contemporary mainstream femnoise).
Bottom line: The problem you describe is a fundamental one that exists for ADHD males as it does for "regular" males. It's only that ADHD males are perhaps more sensitive to these
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They might drop by a little, but honestly not by much. Boys are mildly overdiagnosed for the reasons you give (but few places still medicate), girls are however massively underdiagnosed.
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All a female has to do for hundreds of hits of dopamine is post a photo of herself online, or make a dating app profile, and *thousands* of males will peacock for her. Inversely, this dopamine seeking works out better for the female, the younger they are, when diagnosis is most important. God help them if they make an OF the day they turn 18, and they've been pedobaiting for years before that to grow their tiktorks and in
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I never got myself into the whole "masculinity" obsession, even back in the 70s and 80s. The result of this was a discovery that computers launched me head-first through far fewer windows and pelted me with far fewer rocks. So, yeah, I was definitely seen as disposable though my childhood and teen years by pretty much everyone. (It's one reason anyone looking back at those as "golden years" is unlikely to win me over.)
Escapism is pretty much all I had at the time, and these days remains pretty much all I ha
Masculinity (Score:4, Interesting)
I never got myself into the whole "masculinity" obsession, even back in the 70s and 80s.
There is and was no wider obscession with masculinity. This is what so many people - women and men - get wrong about masculinity. There is very little in masculinity - even less that with femininity - that is _objectively_ masculine. Most of what constitutes masculinity is in the eye of the beholder. There are guys who think reckless driving, drinking and soccer are "masculine". I for one don't see it.
The narrative also is that men can't express their feelings. Which is complete and utter non-sense. The vast majority of significant art and poetry is done by men. Romanticism was invented by men. We are the romantic sex trying to be rational. And a significant part of being a man is tapping into the inner flame of poetry in whatever the man does and gaining an emotional resonance and depth that is independent of the whims of hetero-dynamic relationships. Escapism is a good fallback if society around you limits everything else. Which it tends to do.
Bottom line: You did the right thing. And masculinity-wise too.
The masculine thing to do ... (Score:2)
With respect to group stuff, the masculine thing to do is to consider what b
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And yet there are traits that are tendencially more often in men than in women: Aggressiveness, willingness to take risks, thinking either purely emotional or rational, cultivation of body strength. This is both the product of biology and culture. Men spent the last hundred-thousand years as hunter, warrior and worker and it feels consequential that your body and instincts would cater to that. Reckless driving and drinking might be arguably seen as expressions some of these traits but since they provide no
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Cool. I've never read a description before. It's always been an etherial label.
Reading what you've written, I'd probably put myself in the complete opposite box. Not impressed by nor desiring a lot of activities nor interactions. I hate parties for example. I like being alone and idle. Makes me feel calm.
I imagine I'd fit right in doing the Zen thing if I had any motivation for it. :)
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I'm certain everyone will apologize (Score:2)
Why only boys? (Score:2)
I wonder if the fact that male brains mature later than female brains has anything to do with the gender discrepancy in this study.
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It isn't. The under-diagnosis of girls is astronomical.
You are assuming ADHD is a new thing. No, it isn't. It is a survival thing. ADHD was critical in a very large percentage of the population for the bulk of the last 350,000 years. Without it, humanity would have gone extinct. It's merely not appropriate in a world in which neurotypicals make neurodiverse solutions a "bad thing".
Re: Why only boys? (Score:2)
It can make completing school or holding most jobs a difficult and frustrating thing. So it isn't simply because someone decided the label is negative. But it is that modern society does not adapt around ADHD, so people with it have to adapt around society. Often with no diagnoses and little help or guidance.
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Uh, no. As in, 100% of gatherers would be ADHD. IF they weren't, you'd be extinct within the year. 20% of the hunters would also be ADHD, because over-harvesting was also going to wipe out your food source. 100% of your explorers would be ADHD, 100% of your experimenters would be AuDHD.
ADHD was essential to survival. If you didn't want to die out, you stuck the neurotypical outside so that the wolves and other nasties actually hunting (tigers wouldn't be present) would get them. Neurotypicals were the main
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No, it's more likely that girls and women learned to mask symptoms early for survival reasons.
If you look at hunter-gatherer societies, ADHD is paramount to survival because it avoids over-harvesting. Too little ADHD produces cultures prone to driving plants and/or animals extinct. ADHD is a critical stop-gap that prevents this. Studies show ADHD gatherers will not only collect more, they will do so in ways that cause far less damage, resulting in a far better second harvest and far better sustainability.
In
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Thanks very much! I knew that ADHD is a survival trait, but all I had heard was that we ADD possessors contributed to survival because we were squirreled by "irrelevant" details in our environments which turned out to be very important. My understanding was that we were more likely to notice potential danger because we are more alert to what's novel and out-of-place.
Re-reading your post, it occurs to me that more ADHD during the Industrial Revolution and the Gilded Age might have curbed some of the excesses
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Here's a little more detail.
Researchers a few years back ran tests. ADHDers and neurotypicals were asked to harvest berries and edible plants.
Neurotypicals tended to over-harvest and damage bushes to the point where recovery would be slow if possible at all, and tended to pick areas clean, wiping out local populations of edible plants.
ADHDers tended to move relatively quickly from area to area, harvesting a decent amount from each area but not excessively. The quantities tended to be at the sort of level th
So social media prepares them for their future? (Score:3)
Bull-fucking-shit. (Score:3, Interesting)
ADHD has been around for longer than the last 40 years. It isn't social media, or video games that cause ADHD, it is just one way that us with ADHD have chased the dopamine. If these 2 didn't exist, we'd be chasing it some other way.
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Replace the word "addictive" with "obsessive" and the whole article actually makes sense.
People that have a predisposition for ADHD are easily drawn into obsessing over online political discourse. Particularly in the highly change social media setting.
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err, highly charged ...
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It isn't social media, or video games that cause ADHD
The only person who used the word "cause" is you. Maybe be less focused on rage-posting and put more effort into understanding what words mean.
Linked? Via "Post hoc, ergo propter hoc" (Score:2)
Linked? How, some corelation? What r2? More to the point, how is this possibly free from the "Post hoc, ergo propter hoc" fallacy (it came after so was caused by what came first)?
Most likely, both are symptoms from some underlying cause. Potentially with benefits like IQ.
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Yup, there's also the time factor.
There's an important study of boys at age six being diagnosed with ADHD.
At 6 yrs 1 month the odds are 50% higher than at 6 yrs 11 months.
Because they're both "age 6" but in boys that year is huge in development and all metrics are against the age-appropriate standard.
If you're on WoW or Roblox all your waking hours you will have retarded development vs. somebody who is in the world.
So you'll be more ADHD for a 15 yr old if you mostly miss age 14.
"Trust the experts" and shee
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Quite so. Measuring anything quickly changing requires relevant reference points. Using age might be convenient, but requires justification especially in something as bursty as human development.
Doing otherwise invites fishing for desired conclusions in a pool of data. Experts know they should not be trusted and need to prove up. Anyone who claims "Trust the Experts" does not understand expertise.
The cause and effect are reversed (Score:2)
People with ADHD use social media more
FTFY
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These things are not mutually exclusive.
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They reclassified a DIFFERENT group called "Asperger's Disorder" as being the top end of Autism because a few outward traits are shared. Mostly, I think it is because of funding and maybe some politics. The same year they did this (or maybe 2 years) a big study showed proof there is no genetic correlation for Autism and yet it showed there was one for Aspergers. No causal proof except that when you have 0 correlation that is proof it's not the cause. This was the strongest evidence the two are not the same
Symptoms are not a disease. (Score:2)
I like the fact they checked the reverse. Important part of any social experiment.
However, they did not mention any attempt to confirm the diagnosis of ADHD by administering medication. ADHD medication does not always work and many doctors believe that the cases of it not working indicate the patient did not in fact have ADHD, just some of the symptoms.
The symptoms of ADHD basically fall into two categories:
1) Stereotypical 'childish' behavior.
2) Poor social skills.
This is combined with the facts that abo
This is just biology (Score:2)