Should habitual use of social media in adolescents be cause for concern in terms of their brain development?
This was the question researchers sought to answer recently when they conducted a series of functional MRI scans on 169 sixth and seventh graders who were active on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. The study took place over a three year period, and by the end of it, researchers had uncovered evidence suggesting that frequent social media use does, in fact, affect the function of the adolescent brain.
“These results suggest that habitual checking of social media in early adolescence may be longitudinally associated with changes in neural sensitivity to anticipation of social rewards and punishments, which could have implications for psychological adjustment,” study co-author Eva Telzer, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues explained.
The research team noted that adolescents’ brains are in a critical developmental phase and are especially vulnerable to social feedback during this time. With social media, that feedback, whether positive or negative, is accessible 24/7 and can be problematic when teens obsessively check their social accounts.
Some adolescents involved in the study reported checking their social media accounts more than 20 times per day, while others checked theirs much less frequently, sometimes just once a day. Experts considered this when analyzing the participants’ fMRI results.
During their scans, participants were given a Social Incentive Delay task. Researchers analyzed the participants reaction times to the task alongside what was visualized on their imaging while the task was being completed.
The participants who habitually checked their social media throughout the day (15 or more times) were found to have decreased neural sensitivity to social anticipation in the left amygdala, right amygdala, right anterior insula (AI) and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). During social anticipation, that same group displayed longitudinal increases in those same areas of the brain. These changes were not seen in the teens who did not check their accounts often.
The authors explained that the areas of the brain that were most affected are regions that detect the salience of an environment, which could explain why participants who habitually checked their social media appeared to be more sensitive to peer feedback in comparison to those who did not check their accounts often.
In terms of what this means for the future—whether habitual social media use breeds compulsive and additive behavior, or if it perhaps positively encourages users’ abilities to adapt to their digital environment—the research team suggested that it remains to be seen.
“Further research examining long-term associations between social media use, adolescent neural development, and psychological adjustment is needed to understand the effects of a ubiquitous influence on development for today’s adolescents,” the authors concluded.
The findings are available in JAMA Pediatrics.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She joined Innovate Healthcare in 2021 and has since put her unique expertise to use in her editorial role with Health Imaging.