The number of people joining social media is increasing day by day, and an estimated 2.51-billion people are already using it around the globe. Still, social media is spreading like a virus in new areas of the world. Continue reading to find out how our brains are changing under the storm of social media.
Science agrees with your mother, at least on the addiction part. A study showed that 5-10% of internet users are unable to control the time-period they spend on social media. The scan of brains of such individuals shows that these brains appear similar to the brains inflicted with substance addiction, as opposed to the psychological addiction in the present case. The loss of White Matter reduces the attention span, emotional processing, and eventually the capability of a decision-making process. A user gets an immediate reward even with the little effort on the internet. Thus, the brain is rewired to adapt to the expectations of getting whatever you want in the blink of an eye. Hence, in real life, it forces the user to ‘want more,’ just like a drug.
Switching between tabs and working while checking Facebook makes us better at multi-tasking, right? Your supposition is absolutely wrong! When multitasking capabilities of heavy internet users were compared to those who spend less time on the internet, the latter performed better. Multitasking weakens the ability of your brain to process information and convert it into memory. Also, filtering interferences and prioritizing is also challenged!
Phantom Vibration Syndrome is a documented psychological phenomenon where your brain tells you that your phone just vibrated. 89% subjects in this study experienced the syndrome. When your itch is perceived by your brain as a phone vibration, this is a direct proof that your brain is no longer the same.
Dopamine release in your brain is much higher while using social media. This is the reason why we feel good to give opinions rather than listening to others. As opposed to 30-40% of ‘me talk’ in everyday conversations, almost 80% of our activities on social media revolve around our personalities and our lives only. This also hints towards the success of finding partners online in comparison to the face-to-face encounters.
However, the facts remain same! There is no doubt that social media has brought us closer to our loved ones living in the far-flung areas. It depends on us whether we make it a bliss or poison. The only thing that matters is the time we spend on social media!