HOUSTON — As most parents of teens will tell you social media has increasingly become a major part of the teen social landscape. New research suggests there may be a link between a steady stream of social interactions and changes in the brains of middle schoolers.
Neuroscientists at the University of North Carolina did brain scans of kids between 12 and 15 and found those who checked their feeds often showed a distinct change, becoming more sensitive to social rewards as time went on.
So, what does that mean? One of the researchers told the New York Times teens really hooked into social media showed dramatic changes in the way their brains responded. They showed increased activation in the parts of the brain that control your risk and reward response, plus, the prefrontal cortex which helps with regulation and control. That could mean teens using social media will become hypersensitive to feedback from their peers.
Experts warn not to read too much into these results since this age is already when social relationships expand, so the brain changes could be part of that process. One expert told the Times the researchers could have been picking up the natural development of extroverts who would be more likely to check social media more regularly than their introverted counterparts.
The moral of the story is more research on teens and social media needs to be done.