Social media use damages children’s ability to focus, say researchers | Internet safety
Children’s increased use of social media is harming their concentration levels and could contribute to an increase in cases of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a study suggests.
The peer-reviewed report tracked the development of more than 8,300 U.S.-based children ages 10 to 14 and linked social media use to “increased symptoms of inattention.”
Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Oregon Health and Science University in the United States found that children spent an average of 2.3 hours a day watching TV or online videos, 1.4 hours on social media and 1.5 hours playing video games.
No link was found between ADHD-related symptoms – such as being easily distracted – and playing video games or watching TV and YouTube. However, the study found that social media use over a period of time was associated with an increase in inattention symptoms in children. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by symptoms such as impulsivity, forgetting daily tasks, and difficulty concentrating.
“We identified an association between social media use and increased symptoms of inattention, interpreted here as a likely causal effect,” the study states. “Although the effect size is small at the individual level, it could have significant consequences if behavior changes at the population level. These results suggest that social media use may contribute to the increased incidence of ADHD diagnoses.”
Torkel Klingberg, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Karolinska Institutet, said: “Our study suggests that it is specifically social media that affects children’s ability to concentrate.
“Social media leads to constant distractions in the form of messages and notifications, and just the thought of whether a message has arrived can act as a mental distraction. This affects the ability to stay focused and could explain this association.”
The study found that the link to ADHD was not affected by socioeconomic background or a genetic predisposition to the condition. Klingberg added that increased use of social media may explain some of the increase in ADHD diagnoses. Its prevalence among children increased from 9.5% in 2003-07 to 11.3% in 2020-2022, according to the US National Survey of Children’s Health.
The researchers stressed that the findings did not imply that all children using social media developed concentration problems. But they pointed to children’s increased use of social media as they grow up and the fact that children are using social media well before the age of 13, the minimum age for apps such as TikTok and Instagram.
The report states: “This early and growing use of social media highlights the need for stricter age verification and clearer guidelines for technology companies. »
The study found a steady increase in social media use, from around 30 minutes a day at age nine to two and a half hours a day by age 13. The children were enrolled in the study at ages nine and ten between 2016 and 2018. The study will be published in the journal Pediatrics Open Science.
“We hope that our findings will help parents and policymakers make informed decisions about healthy digital consumption that supports children’s cognitive development,” said Samson Nivins, one of the study’s authors and a postdoctoral researcher at the Karolinska Institutet.
