Independent student content

BG Falcon Media

Independent student content

BG Falcon Media

Independent student content

BG Falcon Media

Support BG Falcon Media!
As part of BGSU's One Day fundraising effort, every dollar you contribute to Falcon Media will go directly to helping us continue to produce quality content. Every dollar helps. Donate here
The BG News
Follow us on social
BG24 Newscast
March 21, 2024

  • Visiting Author: Sheila Squillante
    Last week, the visiting author, Sheila Squillante, presented the art of creative non-fiction at BGSU. Last year, her memoir came out. From Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA, Squillante visited BGSU, last week. Previously, she has published collections on poetry, but most recently, her memoir, All Things Edible, Random and Odd  was published in 2023. “I […]
  • Petrofiction Review: Oil on Water
    Here’s my review of Oil on Water by Helon Habila – a petrofiction novel which won The Commonwealth Prize and Caine Prize. For context, petrofiction stems from petroleum and fiction. A specific text that focuses on petroleum culture in political economics and environmental impact. Although Habila’s novel begins with a journalist investigating a kidnapping, the […]
Spring Housing Guide

Social Media vs. Your Brain

With the ever-growing rise of social media, more research is being done on how increased use of social media is beginning to impact the human brain. Many of these studies have discovered social media can have harmful effects on mental health and can even rewire brains.

National Public Radio social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam performed an experiment on a group of teenagers to analyze how social media impacts the brain. She found when teenagers looked at images on social media sites that had a lot of “likes” or comments, there was more activity near the reward center of the brain. This phenomenon could offer an explanation as to why social media can often seem addicting.

According to the AsapSCIENCE video “Five Crazy Ways Social Media is Changing Your Brain Right Now,” “5-10 percent of internet users are actually unable to control how much time they spend online.”

Though this is only a psychological addiction and not physical dependence, like with drug use, brain scans of internet addicts and drug addicts displayed surprisingly similar results. Social media is a very low effort and instantly rewarding activity, and this combination causes the brain to crave more, which can lead the brain to rewire itself.

“Eighth-graders who are heavy users of social media increase their risk of depression by 27 percent,” San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge said.

She said students who have three or more hours of screen time per day are at a 35 percent higher risk factor for suicide. These statistics are repeated, as multiple studies and surveys have shown those who spend a significant amount of time on social media are less happy than those who engage in other activities. Social media can also lead to cyber bullying and lower self-esteem.

Additionally, social media use is it harms people’s ability to multitask rather than enhance it. According to Stanford professors, social media makes people more susceptible to being distracted because it can make it harder to tune out outside stimuli.

Social media, and phone use in general, can also have a harmful effect on sleep. “57 percent more teens were sleep deprived in 2015 than in 1991,” Twenge said.

One reason for this is that teenagers are staying up later because they are scrolling through their social media feeds. However, according to Medical Daily, the blue lights that smartphones emit can actually decrease melatonin production, which makes it harder to sleep. This light can also increase alertness, which also impacts how one falls asleep. One way to curb this issue is to power down the phone an hour or so before going to bed so the brain can power down too.

Social media is a relatively new phenomenon, so its long term effects are yet to be discovered, but researchers will continue to study how it affects brains.

Leave a Comment
Donate to BG Falcon Media
$825
$1500
Contributed
Our Goal

Your donation will support the student journalists of Bowling Green State University. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

More to Discover
Donate to BG Falcon Media
$825
$1500
Contributed
Our Goal

Comments (0)

All BG Falcon Media Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *