HOW IS SOCIAL MEDIA REALLY AFFECTING YOUR BRAIN? (( post eight ))

As time has progressed, communication has become more and more consumed by technology, with keeping in touch being more heavily focused on screen to screen and less on face to face interaction. With social media constantly becoming more prevalent in teens' daily lives, the long lasting effects on various aspects of their wellbeing are starting to reveal themselves. 

Researchers at UCLA's Brain Mapping Center discovered that when teenagers' photos gain more and more 'likes' on their social media pages, their brains' reward centers respond in a similar way to winning money or seeing a loved one. With this instant gratification that coincides with receiving a lot of positive feedback comes a desire to feed the ongoing obsession with social media, thus increasing usage and allowing the use of apps like Instagram and Facebook to become second nature.  

Because one's teenage years are such a crucial time for social learning, how teens interact on a daily basis can have a long-lasting impact on their development of social skills. Research has shown that with the rise of social media, people are learning to read likes and shares instead of facial expressions. Therefore, instead of face-to-face interaction where we can see a person's emotions via physical and verbal cues, we are now gauging people's reactions and responses via the number of likes, retweets, or shares we receive. 

Therefore, our time spent on social media is having an altering effect on the brain, causing it to adapt and grow. While our ability to read the subtleties of facial expressions might be becoming duller, we are much quicker at monitoring what's going on among a group of friends. While the changing of skills can be argued as a strength or weakness, it is clear that social media is having a greater impact than one might think.