By ShelbyLynn Curry
Influencers are all the rage! From posting selfies to vlogging about their day—is it really all fun and games? According to Exploding Topics, the average teen spends seven hours and twenty-two mins on their phone a day. But how does this affect us cognitively?
How Social Media Affects Us:
Attention Span: Consuming bite-sized chunks of entertainment makes it harder to focus on longer and more complex information.
Information Overload: We get overwhelmed which leads to difficulty in processing new information and contributes to more stress and anxiety.
Comparison: We begin to compare ourselves to their edited bodies, face and lifestyle. But what are we comparing ourselves to? A greenscreen made to look like a yacht? A poorly edited selfie? This affects our self-esteem and mental well-being.
How Social Media Affects our Cognition:
“Online brain”: According to the National Library of Medicine, there have been findings of acute and sustained alterations in attention span, memory process and social cognition which has led to changes in the brain.
Real World vs. Online World: A seminal study with 125 participants with a real-world social network size and media network size showed that scenarios greatly affected the brain’s amygdala. This region focuses on the social cognition and social network. This causes an overlap where our brain can’t differentiate between real life and social media.
It's unrealistic for most people to completely turn off their phone, but staying glued to electronics can impact you mentally and emotionally if you’re not careful. Instead, step outside to embrace the sun, practice deep breathing or even take a short nap to improve your brain function.
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Loved the article.
This article was very informative! Parents and kids need to read!