Social media and your teen’s brain

It’s too much pressure to be available 24/7 on social media. Adolescents begin to have too much dependence on social networks (more than adults). For them, social media is an everyday part of their life. But the adolescent brain responds in a way that is necessary to know, to understand the need for its limited use.

THE ADOLESCENT BRAIN AND NETWORK

Social media is almost addictive. Certain regions of the adolescent brain are activated by each ‘like’ they receive on their social networks, something that makes them want to use them more often. The areas of the brain that are activated are the same that are activated when viewing images of the people we love or when making money.

It is the reward area of ​​the brain and is an especially sensitive area in the teenage years, which is why this explains their addiction to social networks and ‘likes’.

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON MENTAL HEALTH

Not only are teenagers’ developing brains vulnerable to so much time online, they often struggle to self-regulate their screen time, and the risks can increase. Additionally, they are more susceptible to peer pressure, cyberbullying, and sexting – all activities that involve digital communication, making navigating the social world online sometimes dangerous.

When they spend too much time online, teens can have health problems. The most common are relationships with mental health, and it is almost always conditioned by the excessive use of social networks.

• • Depression. There may be a connection between depression and social media. Isolation and loneliness increases. It promotes low self-esteem, especially in the youngest.

• • Anxiety. Teens feel pressure to reply quickly but they also feel pressure to make their photos perfect. The larger a teenager’s online social circle, the more anxious they feel to keep up with everything.

• • Mental exhaustion It takes time and effort to stay up to date on social media. This puts extra pressure on teens, which in addition to anxiety, causes mental exhaustion.

• • Concern for what others think. Within anxiety we can also find adolescents who worry too much about what others may think of them or how they will respond when they see them.

• • Sleep deprivation Sometimes teens spend so many hours in front of screens that they miss a lot of sleep time. This loss of sleep can lead to mood swings, lower grades, overeating, or exaggerating problems. They can also increase cases of depression or anxiety in adolescents who sleep poorly because of checking social networks before sleeping .

• • Unhappiness. In addition to being more tiring, adolescents are less happy because of social networks. So in addition to affecting your physical health, it also affects your mental health.

• • Envy. The jealousy and envy are emotional normal running amok in the brains of teenagers when it occurs in social networks. People often post only positive things, and this can make teens feel like their lives are less interesting than others. They compare themselves and think that others are happier than them, generating depression, loneliness, anger …

• • Communication problems. Although social media can be a great way to communicate with others, it is not the same as face-to-face communication. Misunderstandings can occur mainly due to not being able to see the body language or hear the tone of the person’s voice.

• Shallow relationships. Teenagers can look at the status or updates of their contacts and this can make relationships suffer and not be authentic, because a real contact is lost. Also, teens sometimes focus more on taking photos of their ‘fun’ rather than actually having fun with the people around them.