Whether you’re swiping left or right on Tinder, double-tapping an Instagram photo, or scrolling mindlessly through your Facebook feed, most of us have been victims of social media’s dangerous incentives. The copious surges of dopamine brings about obsessive pleasure-seeking behavior as the brain starts to desire these stimulations (Salehan and Negahban, 2013). Regular social media users experience an excessive amount of neurological excitement and instant gratification, thus resulting in the brain to rewire itself completely.
Although it is categorized under a psychological addiction as opposed to a substance addiction, brain scans of social media users show similar impairment in regions commonly associated with individuals dealing with drug dependence (Lin et al., 2012). There is clear degradation of white matter in the region that controls emotional processing, attention, and decision-making (Figure 1) (Lin et al., 2012).
Alterations of nodal functional networks found in the limbic system including the cingulate gyrus, thalamus, and inferior parietal lobule show a negative impact on important brain functions (Wee et al., 2014). The cingulate gyrus is responsible for learning and memory, executive function, and respiratory control (Wee et al., 2014). The thalamus is involved in reward processing, goal-directed behaviours, and motor functions, while the inferior parietal lobule takes care of auditory and visual cortexes (Wee et al., 2014). These disrupted functional networks will give social media users brain impairment and behavioural abnormalities (Wee et al., 2014). Electrophysiological evidence shows lower inhibitory ability and slower speed in addicted internet users. Dong et al. reveal users to have decreased levels in information processing than their normal peers (Dong et al., 2010).
93% of young people aged 18-29 resort to using their smartphone to avoid boredom (Nees, Michael and Cutino, 2016). The attractiveness of social media services has lead to compulsive checking habits, further instigating unnecessary usage (Yildirim and Correia, 2015). Pathological social media use causes low impulse control consequentially leading to addictive behaviours such as gambling, substance abuse, and alcohol abuse (Dong et al., 2010).
Social media has started to rewire our brains in a way they never have before in history. Addiction sounds severe, yet simply going on our phones to check Facebook seems ordinary. The perils of social media are becoming more prevalent each day and will continue to do so at greater costs. There are nicotine patches for tobacco addiction and help groups for alcoholics, but there are no regulations to the most addicting and pressing issue of excessive social media use (Goessl, 2012).
Social media companies will always choose the option to exploit our addictions for profit. The capitalistic gains of social media platforms help their companies grow and succeed. There needs to be limitations to social media use as the general population does not see this phenomenon as a threat yet. Children are more prone to this psychological addiction as they are still reaching critical stages of their brain development. Schools can also start educating students on safe social media use to raise awareness in the younger population. Royal Society is advocating for social media companies to make changes, recommending the introduction of “heavy-usage” pop-up warnings within apps and websites (Royal Society for Public Health, 2017). Furthermore, easily installable applications that block social media such as ‘StayFocusd’ can help limit excessive usage. Posting a Snapchat story may be a normal inclination to most, but these hedonistic desires have a darker narrative.
References
Dong, G., Lu, Q., Zhou, H. and Zhao, X., 2010. Impulse inhibition in people with Internet addiction disorder: Electrophysiological evidence from a Go/NoGo study. Neuroscience Letters, 485(2), pp.138–142.
Goessl, L., 2012. Study: Social Media More Addictive than Cigarettes or Alcohol. [Text] Carlson School of Management. Available at: <https://carlsonschool.umn.edu/news/study-social-media-more-addictive-than-cigarettes-or-alcohol> [Accessed 13 Sep. 2017].
Lin, F., Zhou, Y., Du, Y., Qin, L., Zhao, Z., Xu, J. and Lei, H., 2012. Abnormal White Matter Integrity in Adolescents with Internet Addiction Disorder: A Tract-Based Spatial Statistics Study. PLOS ONE, 7(1), p.e30253.
Nees, Michael and Cutino, C.M., 2016. Restricting mobile phone access during homework increases attainment of study goals. Available at: <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308183539_Restricting_mobile_phone_access_during_homework_increases_attainment_of_study_goals> [Accessed 16 Sep. 2017].
Royal Society for Public Health, 2017. Status of Mind: Social media and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Available at: <http://www.infocoponline.es/pdf/SOCIALMEDIA-MENTALHEALTH.pdf>.
Salehan, M. and Negahban, A., 2013. Social networking on smartphones: When mobile phones become addictive. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(6), pp.2632–2639.
Wee, C.-Y., Zhao, Z., Yap, P.-T., Wu, G., Shi, F., Price, T., Du, Y., Xu, J., Zhou, Y. and Shen, D., 2014. Disrupted Brain Functional Network in Internet Addiction Disorder: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study. PLOS ONE, 9(9), p.e107306.
Yildirim, C. and Correia, A.-P., 2015. Exploring the dimensions of nomophobia: Development and validation of a self-reported questionnaire. Computers in Human Behavior, 49(Supplement C), pp.130–137.
Comments
13 Responses to “Social Media: The New Nicotine”
Hey everyone, as neuroscience is one of our future RP’s in 2nd year, I wrote about how social media negatively affects our neurological functions and how it can rewire our brain processes. I find great interest in this topic, so if you would like to discuss this issue further or help give me some feedback, please leave a comment!
Hi Bea,
That was a very interesting and relevant blog post! The neuroscience side really excites me for tomorrows lecture – while making me want to go on social media less. Your writing is clear and concise and I can really hear your voice behind it – great job.
A few small comments:
1. In paragraph 2 you wrote “brains scans” but I think it should just be “brain scans”
2. In your final paragraph where you are discussing future work to decrease social media dependence, I would also suggest mentioning easily installable applications/software (I.e. Forest and Focus). This may allow readers to take the first step with their internet dependence – instead of waiting on future research.
Once again great blog post – I look forward to reading many more.
– Sloane Kowal
Hi Sloane,
I’m glad you enjoyed this topic as much as I do! Thank you for the brain scan correction, and that’s a really good idea to mention Social media blocker apps in the last paragraph, as I do use “StayFocusd” during the school year. I will make the changes as soon as possible.
Bea
Hey Bea!
Great article! Some suggestions:
1) In your second paragraph it should say “brain scans” not “brains scans”.
2) I think it would flow better if you replace the first comma with “and” and remove the comma after “but” in “There are nicotine patches for tobacco addictions, help groups for alcoholics, but, there are no regulations…”
3) In last paragraph you should remove “thrive” and “to” in “The capitalistic gains of social media platforms help thrive their companies to grow and succeed.”
DJ
Hi DJ,
Thanks a lot for your feedback, I made all of the changes to help the flow and proper grammar in my post.
Bea
Hey Bea,
Great blog post, it was very relevant to what we are about to learn and it makes me excited to learn more about neuroscience in our upcoming classes. I have only a few small comments.
1) The figure you used is great but I think that you should reference it in the text.
2) In your third paragraph you write “Dong et al. reveal users to have decreased …”. I think it should be reveals instead of reveal.
3) In your final paragraph you write ” The capitalistic gains of social media platforms help thrive their companies to grow and succeed”. I think the sentence would flow better if your removed the word thrive.
Overall amazing blog post!
-Abby
Hi Abby,
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s lecture as well! I find great interest in neuroscience, so I’m excited to dive into the content we’ll go through. Thanks a lot for your feedback, I made referred to the figure in text and removed the word thrive. However, I am keeping Dong et al. as a plural subject, staying with ‘reveal’ instead of ‘reveals’ since it translates to Dong and others.
Bea
Hey Bea!
Thank you for the awesome and informative read! Social media addiction is something everyone struggles with, so your article was filled with very relevant information.
Just a few suggestions,
1) In the second paragraph you say, “show similar impairment in regions that those with drug dependence have.” I think it might emphasize your point even further if you change it to, “show similar impairment in regions commonly associated with individuals dealing with drug dependence.”
2) I think the third paragraph is really informative, however I think it might be beneficial to increase readability for everyone by using terms which are more accessible. For instance, if you said “a negative impact on important brain functions” rather than “disrupted connection pathways in critical neurological functions”, as an example!
Hope this is in anyway helpful!
Kate
Hi Kate,
Thanks so much for your feedback! I made the changes to help with accessible readability and a clearer point in the third paragraph.
Bea
Hi!
Woah. As I was reading this, I just kept thinking “this is so true! how did this happen? why do I even go on facebook? why do I care who ‘likes’ what I post?”…
My answer to my own questions was exactly what you were explaining – it’s a phycological addiction. Its been built into our everyday lives. Its similar to a reflex; when you’re waiting in the dentist’s office or laying in bed after a nap, you just grab your phone and scroll through (generally) completely mindless posts that you don’t really have any care or interest in. Moreover, no one really considers it a true addiction, but in my mind, it completely is. There comes a point where there’s no reason why you’re looking on facebook, you just are. You could even compare the effects of peer pressure when it comes to substance abuse and social media use. Everyone in your age group is always buzzing about the latest trend, thus making you want to check it out for yourself and join the buzz.
Overall, I really liked your post, and it really got me thinking. I think its important to spread this mindset regarding social media to get people, such as myself, questioning their social media actions and in turn considering their validity. Thanks:)
Serena
Hey Serena,
I’m so happy to hear your thoughts on my post! I completely agree, the perils of social media are always undermined. I’m glad that it got you thinking, your comment resonated very well with my opinion, thanks for sharing that.
Bea
Hey Bea,
Your post was very prevalent. Not only do you give us material related to our neuroscience RP, but you have also touched upon a major issue that I think plagues our generation. It’s such an important and interesting topic and you did a great job communicating it in a laid-back way. I have a few suggestions that will hopefully help:
– I think the last sentence in the first paragraph could flow better by replacing the word “resulting” with “causing” OR adding “in” after “resulting” So, “Regular social media users experience an excessive amount of neurological excitement and instant gratification, thus resulting in the brain to rewire itself completely.”
-In the sentence “93% of young people aged 18-29 report to using their smartphone to avoid boredom.”, I would remove the word “to” or change “report” to “resort”.
Looking forward to your final draft!
Sara
Hi Sara,
I’m glad you found interest in my blog post. I will make those changes to improve my sentence flow, thanks a lot!
Bea