The Sneakiest Drug: Social Media

I spend a lot of time on social media, and to be completely honest I hate it. Worldwide, the average daily time spent on social media is 2 hours and 20 minutes. I could spend 2 hours scrolling through Instagram posts and at the end of it I barely remember anything. The reason for this is simple, there is no engagement. In the past year META revealed that the average attention span for video content on their platforms is 2 seconds. Is it possible to be engaged with content that short? Why is short form content on social media becoming more popular?  Are there prolonged effects of repeatedly consuming short form content? I am hopeful that developments in human psychology and neuroscience will reveal why social media is so addictive, and the long-term effects of addiction.

Access to media of all types has been getting more convenient each year. Most people in the United States carry a phone in their pocket that has instantaneous access to just about all media ever created in human history. Despite this instant access to all this content, social media is emerging as the most popular choice. The best explanation for this is simply the convenience of social media. Short-form content on platforms like Instagram and TikTok are only 34 seconds long, and it only takes a swipe to move onto the next one, eliminating any time needed to spend looking for something to watch. As opposed to movies and books, people need to spend time deciding what they want to watch or read. Users on these apps never have to consciously decide what they want to watch, the algorithms in these apps will provide an endless stream of new videos to watch and you do not have to make a single decision. Even though movies are often more engaging and have richer content, the small mental cost of having to commit to a movie to watch is enough to push people to just go on social media instead because there is no mental cost to mindlessly scrolling. However, there is a downside to social media usage which is low engagement, the algorithms are not perfect and will recommend bad content from time to time. Because users do not actively choose the content they watch on these platforms, they are less likely to engage with it. This is why the average attention span on META platforms is 2 seconds because most viewers are constantly skipping to the next video because they do not like what they are watching. People prefer social media because it is the easiest decision to make.

              Unsurprisingly, mindlessly scrolling through unengaging content is bad for the brain. Social media damages the brain just like alcohol. A neuroscientific study published on sciencedirect.com states “Several structural brain studies suggest that there is an inverse association between brain volume in areas of the limbic system and (social media) overuse.” The limbic system is the part of the brain responsible for controlling emotions, behavior, motivation, and memory. Frequent consumption of alcohol can also damage the limbic system. It is concerning that frequent use of social media can damage a person’s capacity to control their emotions, behavior, motivation and memory in the same way that alcohol does. Especially since many young kids, with still developing brains, use social media and there are no regulations and restrictions like there are for alcohol.

Scientists are beginning to see the impact of social media on kids’ brains. The European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry did a review of papers studying the correlation between digital media use and ADHD in children, they found that, “three studies found support for bi-directional associations between digital media use and ADHD symptoms, four studies found unidirectional associations between digital media use and later ADHD symptoms, two studies found unidirectional associations between ADHD symptoms and later digital media use.” These studies have found that there does exist some relationship between ADHD and digital media use. The studies that show bi-directional associations between digital media use and ADHD symptoms, and unidirectional association of digital media use and later ADHD symptoms are significant. Kids who have minor ADHD symptoms and use social media often are likely to develop worse symptoms, prompting them to use social media even more. This creates a dangerous spiral that will lead to more cases of major ADHD in young kids.

              Social media is so new and still undergoing rapid changes, making it difficult for researchers to keep up and study its impact on people. Given enough time scientists will be able to figure out all the harmful and beneficial effects of social media. I look forward to when there will be a larger understanding of social media’s impacts so people will use it in a safer way, and so that there is regulation to stop addiction, especially for addiction. Perhaps we may see a limit on how much minors are able to use their phones and other devices like the one in place in China.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unlocking the brain secrets of social media through neuroscience

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661323002528

Longitudinal associations between digital media use and ADHD symptoms in children and adolescents: a systematic literature review

              https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=178622997&site=ehost-live.