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 large experiment. Successive studies flesh out the implications of a stream of virtual interactions starting in childhood.
A new study by neuroscientists at the University of North Carolina tries something new, conducting successive brain scans of middleschoolers between the ages of 12 and 15.
The researchers found that children who checked their social media feeds at a young age were more sensitive to social rewards over time. Teenagers with less engagement in social media went in a different direction.
One of the first attempts to capture changes to brain function correlated with social media use has been published.
The study has limitations. The brain differences could be related to the fact that adolescence is a period of expanding social relationships.
Eva H. Telzer is an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
She said, "teens who are habitually checking their social media are showing dramatic changes in the way their brains are responding, which could potentially have long-term consequences as they get older."
A group of 169 students in the sixth and seventh grades from a rural North Carolina middle school were split into groups based on how often they checked their social media accounts.
Students showed different patterns of behavior when they were young. Habitual users checked their feeds at least 15 times a day, moderate users checked between one and 14 times, and non-habitual users checked less than once a day.
The subjects received full brain scans three times as they played a computerized game that delivered rewards and punishment in the form of smiles or scowls.
The frequent checkers showed an increase in the activity of three brain areas: reward-processing circuits, brain regions that determine salience, and the prefrontal cortex, which helps in decision making.
Teens who spend more time on social media are becoming hypersensitive to feedback from their peers.
The brain changes are only their trajectory. It's not clear if the changes are beneficial or harmful. If social needs are not met, social sensitivity can lead to social anxiety and depression.
The researchers warned against drawing conclusions from the findings.
The way you use it at one point in your life can affect the way your brain develops, but we don't know if it's good or bad. Many other variables could have contributed to the changes.
He wondered if people would start getting more social interaction if they joined a hockey team or volleyball team. He said that it could be that the researchers are picking up on the development of extroversion.
He described the paper as a very sophisticated piece of work that contributes to research that shows that people's sensitivity to social media varies from person to person.
He said that people with a neurological state are more likely to check frequently. We shouldn't think that social media is the same for everyone.
The central experiences of adolescence have been re mapped by social media.
Almost all American teenagers use social media, with 97 percent going online every day, and 46 percent reporting that they are online almost constantly, according to the research center. Research shows that black and Latino adolescents spend more time on social media than whites.
Children's mental health has been documented by researchers. Some studies show a link between use of social media and depression and anxiety. The study found that lesbian, gay and bisexual teenagers were exposed to hate speech on social media.
According to experts who reviewed the study, it was not possible to know how social media use changed over time or if other factors affect brain development.
A specialist in adolescent brain development at the University of California Los Angeles who was not involved in the study said it was difficult to discern how specific differences in brain development were to social media checking.
Pfeifer said that all experience accumulates and is reflected in the brain.
She suggested that you put it in this context. The brain will be changed by a lot of other experiences adolescents have. We don't want to get into a moral panic about the idea that social media is changing adolescents' brains
The rising sensitivity to social feedback is neither good nor bad according to Dr. Telzer.
She said that it helps them connect to others and get rewards from the things that are common in their social world.
She said that this is the new norm. Understanding how the new digital world is affecting teens is crucial. It's possible that it's associated with changes in the brain. We don't know what the long-term implications are.
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