How Social Media Affects Your Brain: What Science Says

0:00Social media has become part of our nature. We post, we share, we like, we follow, we unfollow, we subscribe. But how is social media affecting us? A small study of 20 college students found a correlation between students who demonstrated higher levels of Facebook addiction and activity in the MIG-Dillistriatal system while they interacted with Facebook symbols. This activation was the same scene in those with substance addiction. In a 2016 UCLA study, teens were split into two groups. One was shown a photo with a high number of likes, and the other group was shown the same photo, but with fewer likes. Those who viewed the photo with more likes were more likely to like the photo themselves than the group who saw the photo with fewer likes. Again, it was the same picture. This experiment found activity in multiple parts of the brain when teens saw photos they took receive a lot of likes. In particular, the study found significant activity in part of the brain's reward circuitry known as the nucleus acompens. Dopamine is released in the brain after positive social stimuli,

1:02such as likes and positive comments on social media. That photo she just posted, she got a bunch of likes, releasing dopamine into her brain and causing a feeling of satisfaction. Psychologist B.F Skinner found that mice would respond to certain stimuli they knew resulted in a reward more often when the reward came at variable times. This theory can also be applied to social media and the times we check it looking for a reward in terms of a like, comment, or message. We have visually checked our accounts, but we are not always rewarded. Maybe this photo didn't get the amount of likes he wanted, so you will try again and again and again, looking for that reward. But wait, something else. Have you ever felt your phone vibrate when it really didn't? According to Robert Rosenberger of the Georgia Institute of Technology,

2:06we've become so connected to our phones that they've sort of become part of our bodies. Anytime something stimulates or triggers sensation in an area where you keep your phone, you might believe it's your phone. This is called Phantom Vibration Syndrome. Studies show that nearly 90% of people report experiencing these Phantom vibrations.