Smartdevices, Social Media, and the Youth

-- By MoneshDevireddy - 28 Oct 2024

The Problem

The ramifications of the internet society on the world’s youth and future generations are a huge worry for me. Never having received a smartphone until high school, I had the benefit of growing up relatively technology-free; in contrast, children nowadays are entrenched in the world of dopamine-providing, attention-span-depleting, and insecurity-breeding media almost straight from the womb. I fear that the world in which society’s youth is growing up will stunt their cognitive development and harm their mental health in a significant way. Many people share my fears, as evidenced by a wealth of scientific exploration on the effects of technology and social media on younger demographics. It is time for humanity to act proactively and regulate the endemic of technology/social media addiction so that children and adolescents can grow up happier and healthier.

The Effects

Cognitive Development

For years, people have voiced their concerns about the effects of technology and social media on attention, focus, and cognitive functioning generally. The softwares, operations, and layouts of smartdevices and social media platforms are meticulously designed in a way to take advantage of human behavioral patterns. The bright colors, typing bubbles, sound alerts, post reactions (likes/comments), vibrations, infinite scrolling layouts, “pull to refresh” mechanisms, and many other techniques are created to capitalize on the brain’s reward mechanism and human desire for attention and validation to keep us hooked for hours on end. In many ways, these devices and websites mimic methods used in casinos to create the a sense of “uncertainty, anticipation, and feedback” to addict users.

Most adults can attest to how they have succumbed to the addictive nature of their smartdevice or favorite social media site, so it is not hard to imagine the catastrophic consequences of being exposed to these sophisticatedly crafted schemes to capture and hold attention in a child's early (and most crucial) years of development. Studies show that nearly 40% of children under the age of two now use mobile devices, and that this early introduction of media is rewiring the brains of infants, as demonstrated by significantly poorer performance on developmental screening tests. Early disruption of cognitive development can spell out disaster in later life; evidence shows that chronic sensory stimulation (via excessive screen exposure) can lead to under- or abnormal-development of neural circuits underlying cognitive-behavioral abilities essential for general intelligence, and make people more vulnerable to accelerated neurodegeneration in late adulthood. In fact, smartdevices have altered cognitive behavior so much that the mere presence of one’s smartphone can reduce available cognitive capacity, manifesting as lower working memory and less functional fluid intelligence available for a cognitive task. It is no surprise that humanity is seeing a global decrease in academic performance in this age of an incredible increase in prevalence of smartdevice and social media use (measured, for example, by PISA scores).

Mental Health

There is no dearth of evidence demonstrating the detrimental impact smartdevice and social media use has on mental health, particularly for younger people. This impact stems from a variety of factors. Lack of supervision of smartdevice/social media use has led to youth exposure to unwanted sexual material online, and high rates of cyberbullying. Platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat expose children to unrealistic beauty standards, bombarding them with edited photographs of models, providing them with “filters” to dramatically alter their facial structure and skin texture in an effort to look more attractive, and resulting in children being dissatisfied with their appearance generally. Selfie Syndrome describes a disorder characterized by a compulsion to take photos of oneself and post them online; as a symptom of Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Selfie Syndrome can often lead to depression, social phobia, and substance abuse. Teens also report greater feelings of loneliness, social isolation, and envy stemming from a perception that peers in their social networks are better off than they are. Social media creates a toxic atmosphere pressurizing individuals to prove to their contemporaries that they are successful, popular, and attractive. This pressure leads to disingenuous displays of one’s life to create an impression of success and happiness, and encourages vulnerable children/adolescents to measure their worth through comparison with peers and celebrities. The manifestation of this phenomenon is alarming, with significant increases in childern/teen hospital visits for suicidal thought/attempts, and increases children/teen rates of mental disorders such as anxiety, depression, stress, and disordered eating.

The Way Ahead

Contemporary usage of smartdevices and social media is an enormous issue in society, and the youth is at a greater risk as dependence on these technologies rises—compounded by the fact that they are exposed to these technologies during crucial developmental years. It is a possibility that future generations will be afflicted by severe smartdevice addictions, lower attention spans, weaker communication abilities, and increased mental health issues. The issue is a cultural one, presenting a tragedy of the commons type situation: while society as a whole would benefit from less smartdevice and social media use, any child or adolescent that gives up their smartdevice or social media account may find themselves feeling socially alienated and having less access to information. Accordingly, society must address this issue through governmental regulation in tandem with a cultural shift. While it is difficult to regulate individual smartdevice or social media usage, the government can potentially address tech companies’ exploitation of behavioral psychology, which adds to smartdevices’ and social medias’ addictive nature. Just as advertisements directed towards children are regulated, perhaps the government can regulate other forms of media that children consume, in order to decrease its sensory overwhelm on them. Regulations can make it unlawful for children and teens to use smartphones in K–12 schools, and schools can require alternatives (e.g., flip-phones) for emergencies. Children must grow up in an atmosphere of focused learning and abundant real-world connections. In a world slowly moving away from reality to “virtual reality,” it is imperative that we take action to save our youth now.

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