News JVTech Science warns teens’ brains are at risk from social media
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A new study revisits the issue of adolescents and social networks, with another rather negative conclusion: adolescents’ brains, especially the part associated with rewards and punishments, would become agitated.
An American study on the effect of social networks on young adolescents
Let’s start with a little door opener: Access to social networks is surprisingly easy for young people, and increasingly earlier in life. You may be exposed to any type of content, but especially social interactions that do not correspond to reality. And the earlier in life they experience it, the more likely it is that their fledgling brain will be affected by those experiences.
A research team from the University of North Carolina in the USA decided to test this by performing it a study in The Field. The problem the team is trying to answer is: Is the frequency with which teenagers consult three social platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat) associated with changes in brain development during adolescence?
The issue is of utmost importance as young teens are currently exposed to a large number of social interactions over the internet, during a time when the brain is very sensitive to social feedback.
Maria T. Maza and her team got together to clarify the issue 169 young teenagers from rural North Carolina between the ages of 11 and 12. Half of them have made it a habit to consult social networks regularly, while the other half have adopted the opposite behavior. The study took place over a period of 3 years where children regularly had their brains scanned by MRI.
study results
What then? After three years of study The results show that:
In this group of 169 young people, between the ages of 11 and 12, participants who regularly consulted social networks showed a course of neural development in specific regions of their brain that affected, among other things, motivation and the cognitive control network in response to expected social Rewards and punishments, unlike those who do not regularly consult social networks.
Therefore, this study might suggest that Social media use can be linked to these brain changeswhich may require psychological adjustments.
Social networks that affect behavior are not blockbusters. But What this study doesn’t take into account is TikTok, and what this app has collected. Almost all platforms now offer advanced algorithms to offer us fast and personalized content that will leave us in suspense and more and more thirsty for new photos and videos. The question is how this new approach to social networking will affect our brains, starting with that of the youngest.
