User:Irisham16/Social media and psychology

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Neuroscience

The three domains that neural systems rely on to be strengthened to support social media use are social cognition, self-referential cognition, and social rewarding.

When someone posts something on social media, they think of how their audience will react, while the audience thinks of the motivations behind posting the information. Both parties are analyzing the other's thoughts and feelings, which coherently rely on multiple network systems of the brain including the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, bilateral temporoparietal junction, anterior temporal lobes, inferior frontal gyri, and posterior cingulate cortex. All of these systems work to help us process social behaviors and thoughts drawn out on social media.

Social media causes people multitask and spend more time online

Social media requires a great deal of self-referential thought. People use social media as a platform to express their opinions and show off their past and present selves. In other words, as Bailey Parnell said in her Ted Talk, we're showing off our "highlight reel" (4). When one receives feedback from others, the individual obtains more reflected self-appraisal which leads to comparisons of their social behaviors or "highlights" to other users. Self-referential thought involves activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex. The brain uses these systems when thinking of oneself.

Social media also provides a constant supply of rewards that keeps users coming back for more. Whenever users receive a like or a new follower, it activates the brain's social reward system which includes the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, ventral striatum, and ventral tegmental area.

While these areas of the brain become strengthened, other parts of the brain start to weaken. Technology is encouraging multi-tasking, especially because of how easy it is to switch from one task to another by opening another tab or using two devices at once. The brain's hippocampus is mainly associated with long-term memory. In a study done by Russell Poldark, a professor at UCLA, they found that "for the task learned without distraction, the hippocampus was involved. However, for the task learned with the distraction of the beeps, the hippocampus was not involved; but the striatum was, which is the brain system that underlies our ability to learn new skills." The study concludes that multitasking can cause reliance on the striatum more than the hippocampus, which can change the way we learn. The striatum is known to be connected to mainly the brain's reward system. The brain will strengthen the neurons to the striatum while it weakens the neurons to the hippocampus to make the brain more efficient. Because our brain starts to rely on the striatum more than the hippocampus, it becomes harder for us to process new information. Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: How The Internet Is Changing Our Brains, agrees: "What psychologists and brain scientists tell us about interruptions is that they have a fairly profound effect on the way we think. It becomes much harder to sustain attention, to think about one thing for a long period of time, and to think deeply when new stimuli are pouring at you all day long. I argue that the price we pay for being constantly inundated with information is a loss of our ability to be contemplative and to engage in the kind of deep thinking that requires you to concentrate on one thing."

Depression[edit]

Especially in today's society, social media has gained a new perspective on younger generations. It is what younger generations are born into and are growing up to use because social media runs today's society. Social media has an impact on depression and mental health. Many users often compare their lives to what they see on these platforms. In an article Does Social Media Cause Depression? by the Child Mind Institute, Miller states that in "several studies, teenage and young adult users who spend the most time on Instagram, Facebook and other platforms for have shown to have substantially (from 13 to 66 percent) higher rates of reported depression than those who spent the least time." The study shows how Facebook and Instagram are platforms showcasing daily lives and or lifestyles on a flaunting, superficial base. Instead of a social community, there has become a perception of individuals striving for a life that is not real, whether that is editing photos or making life seem perfect. This causes a sense of depression by the weight of comparison. Social media users witness these ideal lifestyles, leading them to make assumptions about their personal lives. This can lead them to question their values and sense of belonging, which could bring forth this aspect of depression. For example, Facebook and Instagram allow comments on posts or stories, indicating hateful and nasty comments/bullying that can cause mental health issues.

As the internet first began to grow in popularity, researchers noted an association between increases in internet usage and decreases in offline social involvement and psychological well-being. Investigators explained these findings through the hypothesis that the internet supports poor quality relationships. In light of the recent emergence of online social networking, there has been growing concern of a possible relationship between individuals’ activities on these forums and symptoms of psychopathology, particularly depression.

Research has shown a positive correlation between time spent on social networking sites and depressive symptoms. One possible explanation for this relationship is that people use social networking sites as a method of social comparison, which leads to social comparison bias. Adolescents who used Facebook and Instagram to compare themselves with and seek reassurance from other users experienced more depressive symptoms. It is likely, though, that the effects of social comparison on social networking sites is influenced by who people are interacting with on those sites. Specifically, Instagram users who followed a higher percentage of strangers were more likely to show an association between Instagram use and depressive symptoms than users who followed a lower percentage of strangers.