Neuroscience and social media: Ramesh Shrestha

A complex relationship

Micronutrients are important for normal growth and development of infants and children. The micronutrients, as the name suggests are required in microgames and nanograms, the deficiency of which can negatively impact children's growth and mental development including learning. For example, deficiency of iodine leads to negative impacts on cognitive development of children which impacts functions such as eye-hand coordination, reaction time, short- and long-term memory, attention span, etc. Hundreds of academic studies on micronutrient deficiencies and their impacts on children have been available since the mid 20th century based on studies conducted in Latin America, Africa and in Asia.

Lo and behold, there is now a new factor that can confound the normal cognitive development of children. It is the excessive use of social media available in smartphones and other handheld mobile devices. In 2021 there were 15 billion mobile devices in use which is expected to grow to 18.2 billion by the end of 2025 (Statista January 2025). According to the World Economic Forum the number of smartphones in use in 2022 based on subscriptions was estimated at 8.59 billion. The Statista figure includes all mobile devices such as iPads, Tablets, Surface, etc. in addition to smartphones. With such widespread use of smart devices, social media use has become universal. UNCEF's own data indicates that 90% of children by the age of 18 years have access to a smartphone. Some 80% of European children in 19 countries own smartphones by the age of 16 years while children as young as 2 years are allowed to play with smartphones by their parents (Guardian, 1 Feb 2024).

A double insult

A crucial question one might ask is what happens to the mental development of children who are already deficient in micronutrients who become addicted to social media?

According to child development experts, cognitive development of children can continue till the age of 19 years. This is the period when children learn, mimic, experiment and develop their identity – building personality. The teens and adolescents during this period are predisposed to social pressure besides being curious to experiments. Addiction to social media during this stage can seriously impact on emotional and learning behaviour. This component of learning is controlled by the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Addiction of children to certain content of social media can negatively impact children with long term consequences impacting their emotions and social behaviour, two of the most important slices of personality. It seems like overload of social media contents is overriding children's natural biological path of development including personality formation. It is a serious interruption in child development that must be prevented.

Social media has become a medium for news and entertainment for children, teens and adults alike. According to AI generated data, children spend an average of 7.5 hours to 9 hours on a smart device in a 24-hour period (depending on different age groups). This includes scrolling on a smart device while in bed. Another study shows screen times use by children between 5.5 hours to 8 hours (Curious kids 23 Oct 2023). Several studies have demonstrated the negative impacts of such addiction on sleep deprivation, interruption in behavioural and social skill development. The impact of social media on children depends on the content of the media which disrupts other routine activities such as interaction with people, education and physical activities. Sleep deprivation is the most serious impact which could lead to other health complications. The positive aspects of social media include easy access to information, finding peers with common ideas and opinions and of course entertainments such as music and videos, much of which are also available free.

A message to regulators

Mental health and uninterrupted growth & development of children is more important than the freedom of media. Proper regulation is the only way to protect and preserve the future of the young generation from irresponsible social media. But the profit from social media continues to undermine the regulatory mechanism of the governments in the name of freedom of media.

The young generation is heading towards a future made up of walls of crisis, such as negative fallout from climate crisis, depleting natural mineral resources including freshwater reserves, a linear rise in income inequality and needless to say worsening geopolitics with zero sum game. Meanwhile the social media is adding fuel to fire in disfiguring the developmental path of children, adolescents and teens. Yet, our leaders are sleepwalking, ignoring all these crises while serving the interests of the oligarch. Why is it so difficult for the decision makers to understand that we do not have the luxury of time to save the future of the young generation from collapsing?

It is getting late

Social media is here to stay as it is a huge source of income for building pyramids of $ for the media tycoons. The tasks for the regulators are to regulate widely and freely available extreme, harmful, and inappropriate contents of the social media to prevent children from being unduly influenced. The behaviours once influenced at this stage of brain development can remain permanent. The algorithm designs introduced by the software developers for social media is like a constant feeder of content of their choice which leads to addiction. It is a serious issue especially for children who feel lonely, depressed and experiencing social stigma. Yet, scientists are still searching for perfect correlation between the use of social media and its impact on children and teens. By the time such a study will be found to remedy any action it would be too late for far too many. The negative contribution of social media far outweighs its positive contribution. It is getting late for the regulators to take actions in restricting the contents of social media.

We all know that parental control and age verification in accessing social media is not working and will never work. Recently Meta stopped their authenticity verification system which means there would be no control at all in uploading any material by anyone. Given the fact that parents are in a rat race to maintain a family they alone cannot manage to guard children against social media contents and use. But the parents can at least take responsibility in restricting screen time for children. The main task however lies with the regulators to take hard decisions as the social media barons will not do anything that goes against their profit-making media industry. There is no time to wait for perfect study results to design and safeguard children's normal growth and development uninfluenced by destructive (anti)social media.



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