Adolescents’ Health Issues Caused by Increased Use of Social Media
The internet and technology are important tools to access information quickly, although their increased use by adolescents is harming their emotional and physical development. The increasing internet use has caused several issues in adolescents’ health, including nutrition problems, unhealthy sleep patterns and effects in exercise, all which lead to different concerns in adolescents’ development (Ahn, 2011). Adolescents normally spend more time using social media, playing online video games and generally surfing the web, as compared to participating in physical activities important for the development of their health like sports. The internet activities that adolescents are engaging in are lacking the necessary requirements for proper biological development. Sitting in the same position for prolonged periods of time hinders the development of muscle and bone, with the lack of physical activities taking a toll on their cardiovascular health. Teenagers enjoy engaging in using the internet which is different from the requirements for healthy physiological development. For example, keeping the same kind of actions for prolonged times hence becoming static (Lemola, Perkinson-Gloor, Brand, Dewald-Kaufmann & Grob, (2015). Therefore, the essay seeks to establish the effects of Social Media use on the brain development in adolescents.
According to Strasburger, Jordan and Donnerstein (2010) the experience of rejection or acceptance while communicating through the internet has been having an impact on the social experience of teenagers. Extensive research carried out demonstrates that the rejection experienced in the communication through social media in an environment which is computerized is similar to the face-to-face bullying and rejection. However, the extent of cyberbullying is lower, with the rates of prevalence depending on how the cyberbullying is measured and defined. Generally, increased cyberbullying is experienced during adolescence, with large overlaps usually being witnessed between bullies and victims. Partly, the overlap can be explained by adolescents who have been victimized and who seek exposure to risk behavior and antisocial media content.
The neural and emotional effects of social exclusion have been expressed well by Cyberball Paradigm research. Cyberball Paradigm refers to a virtual game of ball-tossing whereby the players, together with the other two players who are simulated, toss a ball via a screen (Williams & Jarvis, 2006). After one round of fair play, the simulated players start throwing the ball to each other, hence excluding and rejecting the human participant. The action leads to the human player experiencing negative effects on the feelings of the participant. Although the paradigm’s design was not for the study of the occurrence of online rejection occurring in today’s social media, the Cyberball studies have provided an important aspect to understand the involved processes in online rejection. Through Cyberball inspiration, the application of Facebook format in the study of the online social exclusion effects has led to the recent development of a Social Media Ostracism paradigm.
Negative Effects of Cyberbullying and Social Exclusion on Adolescents
After experiencing exclusion, researchers have noted an increased insula and orbitofrontal cortex activity with the use of functional MRI (fMRI), which likely signals increased negative effects and arousal (Berna, Leknes, Holmes, Edwards, Goodwin, & Tracey, 2010). Additionally, an observation of the increase in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity is made in adolescents bearing histories of insecure attachment, being maltreated or socially excluded. However, ACC is observed to reduce when adolescents spent more time with friends. Therefore, adolescents show a rejection expectation which is stronger as compared to that of adults, with the medial frontal cortex and subgenual ACC being critically involved in the processing of online rejection and exclusion.
The positive feeling of being socially accepted in the online community is depicted through the number of likes a person receives, hashtags and positive comments, their popularity, cool ratio and other reward forms (Atkinson, 2009). Neuropsychological research presented online acceptance to evoke the activation of the same brain regions which are activated when a person receives other rewards such as pleasant tastes and money. The activity found in the ventral striatum was the most pronounced, consistently reported as the main region for reward and pleasure subjective experience in the brain including social rewards. In the same way, acceptance through likes in the chat room results in the ventrial striatum activity increase in adolescents, children, and adults. However, in adolescents, the response is blunted if they have experienced depression or if they have a history of negative effects on their growth.
Prior social experiences including relations with parents are important to understanding the adolescents who are increasingly sensitive to Social media’s impact. Therefore, media research presents depression to be moderated by popularity, and that loneliness and attachment styles increase the possibility of adolescents seeking socio-affective bonding with figures of the media (Masten, Eisenberger, Borofsky, Pfeifer, McNealy, Mazziotta, & Dapretto, 2009). Furthermore, different meta-analyses and studies using reward paradigms and gambling have reported the peaking of the ventral striatum’s activity after monetary reward in adolescents. The report, therefore, suggests that adolescent’s general sensitivity to rewards is centered on the ventral striatum, with the sensitivity to social reward being a strong reinforcer to the use of social media Dewall & Bushman, 2011).
According to Shoemaker and Reese (2013) peer groups have a strong influence on decision-making and opinions as they can exert a strong adolescence influence through Social Media’s user-generated content. Neuroimaging studies in adolescents and peers indicated that peer feedback influences adolescence behavior significantly.
Impact of Social Media on Adolescents’ Sensitivity to Social Rewards
Social media is also related to intense emotional experiences that occur in adolescence during the brain development process. Furthermore, media use and processing may guide the emotional needs of the adolescents. For example, the lonely feeling may provide an easy path for youths to connect to different social media platforms or significantly relying on social media for social interactions. Furthermore, frequently engaging in social media may evoke strong emotional reactions and feelings especially when an adolescent is experiencing online rejection or playing violent video games. In particular, the majority of adolescents is guided by their emotions on how they access, process and use the Social Media. For example, the increase in exposure to Social Media is associated with a high degree of frustrations and anger experienced by adolescents who have fallen victims to bullying hence portraying risk-taking behaviors over time, antisocial and norm crossing, hence making the adolescents more likely to bully others in future. According to Kirsh (2011) anger has more tolerance for anti-social media content in adolescences as compared to adults.
Neuroscience provides insight into moral leniency which follows anger in adolescence. According to Decety and Michalska (2010) development of the prefrontal cortex which is an important region that regulates anger matures until adulthood. Furthermore, a better understanding between brain regions regulating direct responses and that of brain regions showing the responses can vividly explain behavioral regulations of adolescents when relating to media-based interactions. A further research by Crone and Konijn (2018) has shown that rejected-based anger is associated with retaliatory actions and adolescence are more aggressive after facing rejection in Social Media. For example, adolescents may blast noise which is longer and contributes less to people who have previously rejected them in an online environment. Social rejections evoke anger although some adolescents are better when regulating emotions than others and, therefore, those who control the emotions better are likely to have self-control.
The current technology has been proven by various scientists to have both negative and positive effects on the human brain. Therefore, technology has been beneficial and a threat to humanity in the future depending on its frequent usage. Further research by Sternberg, Ballard, Hardy, Katz, Doraiswamy, and Scanlon (2013) has shown that technology also affects human intelligence either positively or negatively. Furthermore, technology has erupted to be a mind change among adolescents and peer groups who spend most of their time on social networking sites and computer games. Experts express the activities and differences that take place in brains of adolescents after spending long hours accessing Social Media sites and computer games either through mobile phones and computers.
Peer Influence on Decision-Making and Opinions Through Social Media
The current Social Media technologies open understanding of sensitivities to the median and all peers in the adolescence stage. For example, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and Instagram provide a conducive environment for studying media contents and feedback from peers in adolescence. Furthermore, the social media platforms have introduced user-generated content and options for expressing and presenting oneself in the media environment hence increasing media’s social functions tremendously. Accounting for ethical aspects, social media impinges on users’ privacy and also can provide significant opportunities for understanding how exposure to the media affects daily fluctuations in self-esteem and moods. The abundant use of Social Media impacts adolescents’ development in terms of functional brain development, behaviors, and structural brain developments. According to Van, Bolle, Hegner, and Kommers (2015) the habitual use of social media is associated with decreasing in abilities of gratifications although it can have positive consequences like increasing ability for switching between tasks flexibly. Further research by Kuss and Griffiths (2011) indicates that adolescents who spend more time on Social Media may engage less in offline social interactions but high in online interactions. The Social Media use can also result in an addiction disorder causing depression and other health issues. According to Lemmens, Valkenburg and Gentile (2015) addiction of internet in adolescents has resulted in psychological, occupational and social disorders.
The consequences differ always between those who experience offline interaction and those experiencing online interactions and, therefore, important mediators and moderators should understand how online and offline communications are processed and provide a viable solution. When adolescents are online frequently they are likely to affect their sleep patterns which might impact their moods. In future, the studies which are based on media use and outcomes should be integrated through methods of neuroscientific and experimental insights which will advance the understanding of adolescents who are susceptible, and under which circumstance to which it affects, negatively or positively.
Conclusion
The paper has reviewed how Social Media use affects the development of adolescents’ brains. Social Media use influences adolescents through social acceptance and rejection, peer influence on self-opinions and emotional precedence. The neural systems are linked to behavior which is important for Social Media including emotion-based processing, social reward processing, and regulations. Natural systems are still underdeveloped, and therefore, undergoing changes during adolescence period hence contributing to sensitivity to online acceptance, rejection, emotional-loaded interactions in media-environment and peer influence. The means of expressing risk-taking differs across generations, as in the current era, the Social Media risk-taking is expressed in ways such as sexting or unlimited self-disclosure which has developed to be adolescents’ specific tendency to learn and explore a new social environment. Furthermore, peer sensitivities are larger in adolescents as compared to older age groups. However, Social Media is still important to adolescents as it socially develops the need to belong, reputation building and managing impressions.
Emotional Reactions of Adolescents to Social Media
References
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