The American Psychological Association(APA)has issued its first guidance on teens' social media use.What's most surprising in its databased recommendations is how little we know about how these apps affect our kids.
The relative newness of platforms like Snapchat and TikTok means little research is available about their long—term effects on teen and tween brains.Getting better data will require significant funding—and much more openness from tech companies
What little evidence we do have unsurprisingly suggests that social media trades on motivators(激励因素)that aren't great for young brains.Many kid start using social media"at the worst possible time when it comes to brain development",says Mitch Prinstein,a psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of North Carolina(UNC).
"Thing like the ‘like' button and artifcial inteligence(in general)are going to affect young people's brains in a way that's very different from adult brains when it comes tothe desire to stay online and to say or do almost anything to get followers."When it comes to social interactions(互 动),he compares kids' brains to a car with a huge gas pedal and weak brakes(刹车).
Earlier this year,Prinstein and his UNC colleagues published the results of one of the first studies of how the teenage brain reacts to social media.The team surveyed a group of middle schoolers to understand their social media habits,and then stuck them in an MRI machine to watch their brains as they reacted to social rewards or punishments.They found that 12-year-olds who habitually checked social media had different neural patterns,with more activity over time in parts of the brain associated with motivation,salience(or where attention is focused)and cognitive(认知的)control.
The team didn't weigh in on whether those differences were good or bad,or whether the relationship was causal or correlational.But their work points to the need for more research.It should also remind parents of the need to be keenly aware of social media's hidden influence on still—developing brains.