Does Social Media Change Children’s Brains? -Written By Cara Goodwin

They found that the children who checked social media more often showed brain responses suggesting that they were more responsive to social rewards. Although some media articles are taking this finding to suggest that checking social media makes teenagers “hypersensitive” to social feedback, it seems to make more sense that being more responsive to social rewards to begin with causes social media checking rather than social media checking making children more responsive to social rewards.

In addition, the researchers found that the teenagers who checked social media most frequently showed a pattern of increased brain responses to social rewards every year, while the teenagers who did not check social media frequently showed a pattern of decreased responses to social rewards every year. Yet, we don’t know if social media causes these changes over time. For example, it would be very possible that teenagers who engaged in more social interaction overall also engaged in more social media checking and that these teenagers due to more social experience became more responsive to social rewards over time.

The researchers also don’t have evidence of any negative impacts of these brain changes, such as increased social anxiety or being more responsive to peer pressure. It is possible that being more sensitive to social rewards may be an advantage for teenagers– these teenagers may be more socially adept and more empathetic.

This study, along with other research on social media, suggests that parents should continue to use caution and set limits with children for social media. However, we need more research before concluding that social media changes the brains of children in any negative way.

social mediatechnologyphones