How social media affects development of young people and the brain
By Natalie Seow UA’22 and Jim Stellar
In the age of globalization, connectivity through social media can somehow bring us closer to ourselves. People are now given an opportunity to be even more selective in how they present themselves to the world. Self-creation takes place through a negotiation between the opportunities and risks given by their engagement with social media.
Take a look at your social media account, now pull up the most recent picture, I guarantee it is one that displays nothing less than a positive perspective of your life, or something that you feel needs to be seen. It begins to get complex when the way you present yourself is structured around how you want people to see you. And not just people in your life, but populations across the globe. With media being exposed to all ages, we must consider how media plays a role in the evolution of humanity.
To understand how media might shift the path of human development today, we must look at a highly impressionable population that is likely exposed to media at a high average rate. Adolescents take the reins. With Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development, we identify that adolescents (12-18 years old) are undergoing ‘Identity vs confusion;’ the search for a sense of self and personal identity through an intense exploration of personal values, beliefs, and goals. During these stages of life your brain is going through major developmental changes, so the decision being made can affect the growth of certain areas of the brain.
This theory that has been well known in developmental studies, now goes through changes as the world takes on technology. The phase of creating your self identity is now overflowing with so many outlets of exposure. Social media is used for ‘impression management’ and ‘self-expression’ that stems from adolescents’ desire for recognition and proof of self existence.
As children grow up and are exposed to so many different people, they are inclined to make judgments, which coincides with them being judged. Now, adolescents are making decisions to represent themselves in ways that will make a positive impression on their peers. The social process and this effect could be very important neurologically as the brain is developing during this time of life, particularly in the frontal cortex and the general idea is that the developing brain (or developing brain regions) are more susceptible to neuroplasticity. This is why people who practice the violin a great deal, especially if they started young, have bigger hand areas in their neocortex than people who did not. Does this mean that the decision making part of the brain is altered in its development?
With impression management, As Takahasi discovers, teenagers will post illegal activity simply because it helps them fit in. They will take the risk of incriminating themselves and consciously neglect the permanence of online media. Prior to the age of 25, key developments in the prefrontal cortex influence a young person’s capability to plan, judge, rationalize, make decisions, and balance cognition with impulsivity as found in 2012 by Judge. So, adolescents are unable to fully process the gravity of the situation and can decide simply on the desire for recognition from peers- who and what they are exposed to on a regular basis.
This desire for recognition, which is made tangible through likes and comments, is fuel to their frequency and content posts online. This may be due to the vast array of options available to young people that present both opportunity and challenges. As Doi suggests, amidst this abundance, uncertainty becomes more pronounced making it difficult for these individuals to navigate their choices. Social media creates this difficulty but also relieves it, by displaying like and comment counts,which relieves these young individuals need for recognition. The dominant hypothesis is that there is a little release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain and that is the same neurotransmitter that is released in large quantities when cocaine is taken or in smaller amounts when other experiences of pleasure occur, e.g. eating chocolate.
When our phone notifications go off, it sends our brains into overdrive and triggers the release of stress hormones like cortisol. We are all guilty of checking our phone even when I know the notification is meaningless. Our brain interprets it as something that demands immediate attention. That is the dopamine again. This can put us in a constant state of alertness, and create habits of always checking our devices, especially with social media accounts buzzing for every single like and comment. This natural reaction is in correspondence with the need to feel present in the social world. As media continues to expand, there needs to be promotions for adolescents to present themselves authentically, and find recognition within their peers where it counts. It’s essential to understand that impression management, whether online or offline, transcends individual actions, constituting a multifaceted social process intertwined with peer interactions and social norms.
Notice that this topic fits with the general orientation of this blog which is to cognitive-emotional integration when undergraduate students have a direct experience, like an internship, that helps to confirm or disconfirm the decision they made to pursue a specific area of academic study. Sometimes, after these experiences, a passion is developed for the field that sustains them through college and into the profession. We also think it deepens their academic understanding of what they are doing. Sometimes, they change their career planning direction. Of course, this can also happen after college. The point is that the psychological and brain mechanisms are at work there as they are in this blog. Other students have even written a blog about social media before, and the two of us here will be back again with more thoughts.
