Social media may alter brains of children – study

Habitually checking social media as a young teenager is linked to hypersensitivity to peer feedback and may potentially lead to permanent changes in the brain’s reward and motivation centers, neuroscientists at the University of North Carolina suggested in a study published on Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics.

The study looked at a group of 169 teens as their brains developed between the ages of 12 to 15 and their self-reported use of Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

When those with usage the researchers classed as “habitual” – meaning they checked their accounts 15 or more times a day – played a game that modeled feedback in the form of peer approval, they became increasingly sensitive to that feedback. Brain scans showed increased activity in areas associated with reward processing, concentration, regulation and control, and the researchers observed that these appeared to contribute to positive feedback loops, further increasing their sensitivity to peer approval.