Data Points: How Social Media Impacts Our Mental Health (featuring Dr. Corey Emanuel)

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The Broken Cycle Media team is excited to offer a new series of educational episodes which we're calling data points. These special episodes will include educational information, statistics, and support on different topics that are important to our community. Thank you so much for listening. As a media psychologist, I am frequently asked, how is social media use affecting our brains? Which is a valid question. Research shows that social media has both positive and negative effects on psychological, social, and physical well-being. According to smart insights, more than 62.6% of the world now uses social media, with an average daily usage time of 2 hours and 20 minutes. Given these insights in the continuous development of social media platforms, examining their impact on brain structure and function remains a constant concern. The rise of social media in the early 2000s marked a significant transformation in how we interact, communicate, and share content online. Early social networks, like six degrees, for instance in my space, laid the groundwork by introducing basic features such as friends lists, and personal profiles. However, it was the launch of Facebook in 2004 that truly revolutionized social networking. Founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook integrated a wide range of features including status updates, photo sharing, and a news feed, quickly becoming the dominant platform. Since then, social media networking sites like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok have emerged fundamentally transforming how we communicate, share information, and interact socially. And while some studies show that social media can offer comfort during periods of loneliness, there are several potentially negative effects it has on the brain, as well as our mental health. Social media use can affect the tensions ban. Research shows that social media platforms are designed to capture and hold our attention through a constant stream of notifications, updates, and multimedia content. Online environments encourage multitasking and frequent shifts in focus, leading to fragmented attention. As users often find themselves switching between tasks and content quickly, it reduces the time spent on any single activity. The immediate gratification and endless novelty of social media content can diminish our ability to maintain sustained attention on prolonged tasks. Some examples include reading a book, completing work assignments, or writing creative works. The habitual nature of checking social media can create a compulsion to frequently look for new content and interactions instead of completing desired tasks. While some studies have shown that multitasking has no adverse effects on attention, other literature suggests that extensive multitasking may lead to poor performance on various cognitive tasks. Social media imposes the cognitive load as it exposes users to a vast amount of information in a short period. This information overload can overwhelm cognitive resources, making it challenging to process and retain information effectively. Examples include not remembering details of important news, stories, or personal interactions, educational content, or instructions. Developing strategies to minimize interruptions such as setting dedicated study or work periods without social media access can help improve information retention and overall learning effectiveness. As I mentioned, the constant notifications and updates on social media can interrupt focus activities leading to fragmented attention. Relatedly, social media use also affects the memory. In one experiment, a psychology professor at the University of Alabama divided students into two groups amidst a lecture. One group kept their phones and one didn't. During the lecture, the students with phones received distracting messages while the other group had no such interruptions. At the end of the lecture, both groups were tested on the material. The findings reveal that the students distracted by their phones performed worse on average than the control group. Particularly on questions about the material were viewed at the end of the lecture. The students who kept their phones and received distracting messages during the lecture exhibited fragmented attention, which significantly impaired their ability to encode and retain information. Another side effect of frequent social media use is that it can condition users to expect constant stimulation and immediate gratification, triggering the release of dopamine in the brain. This dopamine effect reinforces the behavior making users crave more of the quick rewarding interactions that social media provides. Over time, this can not only lead to a reduced attention span, but the brain also becomes increasingly conditioned to seek out and respond to these instant rewards rather than engage in sustained focus activities. According to the National Library of Medicine, stimuli such as laughing faces, positive recognition from ears, and messages from loved ones can activate the same dopaminergic reward pathways as strokes. This helps explain why our memory can be compromised by social media use, as these rewarding interactions reinforce behaviors that distract from focus, deep cognitive processing. Social media use can affect cognitive development. Deep learning is essential for long term cognitive development and the ability to apply knowledge in different contexts. The constant influx of brief, often sensationalized content can discourage critical thinking. Social media users may become accustomed to accepting information at face value rather than analyzing and questioning its validity and underlying assumptions. According to the National Library of Medicine, the production of fake news often leads individuals to believe the disinformation, struggle to distinguish it from legitimate news, and potentially share it further. Frequent exposure to misleading or sensational content can shape neural pathways related to information processing and decision making. This may lead to habitual reliance on emotional cues rather than critical thinking, making it hard to break the cycle of accepting and spreading misinformation. In addition to brain function, social media use can also have a significant impact on our mental health. Studies show that although social media can provide a sense of belonging, excessive use or exposure to negative content or interactions can lead to increased stress, anxiety, and depression. Increased stress, anxiety, and depression can arise from various aspects of social media use, particularly cyber bullying, the use of digital platforms to harass, imitate, or harm individuals. Victims may feel trapped as the harassment is not confined to a specific place or time leading to a sense of helplessness and constant vigilance. Similarly, cyber stalking, which can include tracking someone's online activity, sending in excessive messages or making threats, can create an environment of fear and anxiety for the targeted individual. Parasultural relationships. One-sided relationships where individuals form strong emotional connections with celebrities, influencers, or online personas who do not reciprocate these feelings may also lead to negative outcomes. As frequent exposure to idealized representations of others on social media can lead to unhealthy comparisons impacting one's self-esteem. These various factors lead many people to suspect that experiencing symptoms of altered brain functioning or mental health challenges might indicate an addiction to social media, prompting them to consider reducing or completely stopping their social media use. I encourage social media users to not only be honest with themselves about social media behavior and experiences, but also to interrogate how they feel before and after social media use. Often emotions from your offline life can be amplified by social media interactions, while comparisons on these platforms can trigger feelings of imposter syndrome and low self-esteem. Recognizing these signs can be an indication to take a break from social media or set alerts to limit your usage. If you find that these issues are affecting your mental health and well-being, it's okay to seek support from a licensed mental health professional. They can provide guidance and strategies to help you manage the impact of social media and address any underlying concerns. This can ensure that you maintain a balanced and healthy relationship with your digital life. For a more comprehensive list of related resources and support, please visit somethingwaswrong.com/resources. For the complete list of research studies and references from today's episode, please see the episode notes. I'm Dr. Corey Immanuel and you can follow me across social media at Corey Immanuel or visit my website at CoreyImmanuel.com. Thank you so much for listening and learning with us.