What social media does to teenage brains

Posted on August 16, 2016

Photo: flickr

Ever felt that teenagers spent way too much time glued on their smartphones, or more specifically, on the social media apps on their phones? There may be a very good reason as to why teenagers just can't stop obsessing over social media.

Researchers from UCLA conducted a brain scan study, where teenagers' brains were scanned using fMRI technology while they viewed a series of photos, similar to those on social media posts.

According to the study, the reward circuit of the brain becomes highly excited when one of their photos receive a lot of "likes". Teenagers are also highly influenced by the number of likes a photo had - the more likes it had, the more they themselves will like it.

"It may be that one of the reasons that teens are such active users on social media is that they’re really sensitive to these likes," said Lauren Sherman, lead author of the brain scan study. Having your photo "liked" is a highly rewarding and intoxicating experience, and thus may serve to explain social media's influence over teenagers.

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Category(s):Teenage Issues

Source material from UCLA