Habitual checking of social media could be affecting neural development in adolescents’ brains, leaving them sensitive to the social feedback of the tangible world, according to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study.
Published on Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics, the study (pdf) explored what the long-term effects could be for adolescents who frequently check their social media
Relying on magnetic resonance imaging and self-reporting, the study followed the social media use of 178 12- to 13-year-old participants in three North Carolina public schools over two years.
The adolescents were evaluated on their use of Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.
“In the span of a generation, social media has dramatically changed the landscape of adolescent development, providing unprecedented opportunities for social interactions around the clock,” the study says. “Social media provides a constant and unpredictable stream of social inputs to adolescents during a critical development period when the brain becomes especially sensitive to social rewards and punishments.”…