{"id":1980,"date":"2023-01-13T11:00:05","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T16:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/?p=1980"},"modified":"2023-03-16T16:03:17","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T20:03:17","slug":"new-study-finds-that-frequent-social-media-use-in-children-leads-to-major-brain-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2023\/01\/new-study-finds-that-frequent-social-media-use-in-children-leads-to-major-brain-changes.html","title":{"rendered":"New Study Finds That Frequent Social Media Use in Children Leads to Major Brain Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"teen
Pexels.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here\u2019s one more reason to limit your child\u2019s time in front of a screen. Social media could be reprogramming children\u2019s brains and making them hooked on \u201clikes,\u201d a new study from the University of North Carolina reveals.<\/p>\n

Experts say that apps such as Instagram or Snapchat could be making teenagers constantly check their phones to see if they have positive or negative reactions to their online posts.\u00a0Psychologists believe that the more young people check social media, the more sensitive they become to \u201csocial feedback\u201d in the form of likes and comments.<\/p>\n

Social feedback includes rewards and punishments such as thumbs up and down, tagging, reporting content or\u00a0star ratings.\u00a0According to researchers, this increasing anticipation and sensitivity to receiving these kinds of responses make it hard for adolescents to fight the urge to check their accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings suggest that checking behaviors on social media in early adolescence may tune the brain\u2019s sensitivity to potential social rewards and punishments,\u201d their\u00a0paper<\/a>, published in\u00a0JAMA Pediatrics,<\/em>\u00a0explains.\u00a0\u201cIndividuals with\u00a0habitual checking behaviors\u00a0showed initial hypoactivation but increasing sensitivity to potential social cues over time, those with non-habitual checking behaviors showed initial hyperactivation and decreasing sensitivity over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

During adolescence, the brain experiences \u201csignificant structural and functional reorganization changes,\u201d making it a crucial development period. \u201cNeural regions involved in motivational relevance and affective become hyperactive, orienting teens to rewarding stimuli in their environment, particularly from peers,\u201d the authors say.<\/p>\n

The researchers studied 169 students from three public middle schools in North Carolina over three years.\u00a0Each participant reported how often they checked the popular social media platforms\u00a0Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram<\/a>. Some admitted to doing so more than 20 times a day. They also participated in a Social Incentive Delay task where their brain responses were measured when they were anticipating receiving social rewards and avoiding social punishments.<\/p>\n

Previous research shows that 78 percent of 13 to 17-year-olds report\u00a0checking their devices\u00a0at least hourly daily, and 35 percent look at the top five networks \u201calmost constantly.\u201d In this study, the authors point out that students who look at social media at least 15 times daily were the most sensitive to social feedback. \u201cThe findings suggest that children who grow up checking social media more often are becoming hypersensitive to feedback from their peers,\u201d says Eva Telzer, a professor in UNC-Chapel Hill\u2019s psychology and neuroscience department and a corresponding author, in a\u00a0statement<\/a>. \u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media platforms provide adolescents with unprecedented opportunities for social interactions during a critical developmental period when the brain is especially sensitive to social feedback,\u201d the study concludes.\u00a0This longitudinal cohort study suggests that social media behaviors in early adolescence may be associated with changes in adolescents\u2019 neural development, specifically neural sensitivity to potential social feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther research examining long-term prospective associations between\u00a0social media use<\/a>, adolescent neural development, and psychological adjustment is needed to understand the effects of a ubiquitous influence on development for today\u2019s adolescents,\u201d they add. A National Institutes of Health grant and the Winston Family Foundation supported the study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s one more reason to limit your child\u2019s time in front of a screen. Social media could be reprogramming children\u2019s brains and making them hooked on \u201clikes,\u201d a new study from the University of North Carolina reveals. Experts say that apps such as Instagram or Snapchat could be making teenagers constantly check their phones to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":1989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[67,69,31],"tags":[159,52],"class_list":["post-1980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-childrens-health","category-study","category-teens","tag-addiction","tag-social-media"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Study Finds That Frequent Social Media Use in Children Leads to Major Brain Changes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new study from the University of North Carolina reveals that social media could be reprogramming children\u2019s brains.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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