How Social Media Affects the Teenage Brain: A Narrative Review of Key Neurodevelopmental Processes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58445/rars.3672Keywords:
Adolescent brain development, Neurodevelopmental Processes, Social MediaAbstract
Social media has been rapidly changing over the past two decades, and more and more people are starting to use it in their daily lives to connect with others. Perhaps the group that utilises social media is adolescents, who are experiencing a period of rapid neural development. As such, these years of development are some of the most crucial and malleable periods for teens, making it no surprise that the growth of social media has become a prominent environmental risk to adolescent brain development. This review explored how social media affects three key functions within the brain during adolescence: social sensitivity, emotion regulation, and attention and memory. The literature suggests that when using social media, adolescents have a higher sensitivity towards feedback from others, and they also possess lower levels of cognitive control when looking at risky images online. Social media was also found to cause worse emotional regulation as well as increase risks for depression. Working and long-term memory are also impaired with overuse of social media, as well as the attention of adolescents, which has been shown to be shortened due to media usage. Finally, we discuss limitations of the current literature and suggest directions for future research.
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