Scientists Find Something Strange in Brain Scans of Kids Hooked on Social Media

A new study suggests that social media use may affect the developing brains of adolescents.

In one of the first studies of its kind, researchers from the University of North Carolina found that checking social feeds can change the way early adolescents process social rewards and punishments.

The paper found significant changes to the amygdala in the brains of 169 people from a rural North Carolina middle school.

Those brain changes seemed to be associated with sensitivity towards social conditions, with the subjects who checked social media more than 15 times a day becoming increasingly reactive to social rewards and punishments, while their counterparts experienced the opposite trend.

At the start of the study, the middleschoolers self- reported how often they checked social media. The brains of young people were scanned once a year after they played a video game that tested how quickly they could identify happy or angry faces.

The subjects who reported high social media usage seemed to show less sensitivity towards social rewards, such as smiles, words of praise, and a good reputation, when compared to the subjects who did not use social media. The subjects with higher usage were less sensitive to social punishment.

Those who only check social media once a day or less had high sensitivity for rewards and punishments. They had a heightened fear of being liked by their peers.

Over the three years of the study, the Carolina researchers found that the high social media usage group's sensitivity towards social rewards and punishment increased over time, while their less-habitual- users' sensitivity decreased.

The kids who used social media more seemed to become more anxious about social situations as they got older, while their peers who used it less seemed to become less so.

One of the UNC researchers involved in the study told the New York Times that they shouldn't use the study to make sweeping conclusions.

Eva Telzer, an associate professor of neuroscience and psychology who co-authored the paper, told the paper that they can't make a claim that social media is changing the brain.

Telzer said that the study showed that teens who check their social media frequently show dramatic changes in the way their brains are responding, which could have long-term consequences.

There could be some positive conclusions to be drawn from the research, according to the school's press release.

It could also reflect a possible adaptive behavior that will allow teens to navigate an increasingly digital world because of increased sensitivity to social feedback.

Regardless of what conclusions readers draw themselves, one thing is certain: social media is changing us.

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