Mitchell J. Prinstein, PhD, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association, is available to discuss the effects of social media, including Facebook and Instagram, on the minds and mental health of children and adolescents.
Prinstein believes there are pros and cons for young kids having a presence on social media, so we need to be careful to think about how social media is affecting kid’s brains.
“This is a new area of science, as social media is relatively new, but emerging findings are clear. The qualities of social media, including its permanence, quantifiability, etc. create social interactions that are fundamentally different from other social interactions. Many of these differences lead to potentially harmful outcomes, especially depending on how youth use these platforms. Adolescents are more likely to be influenced by others on social media, they witness or experience more severe discrimination and cyberbullying online, and they engage in harmful social comparisons online, often when looking at distorted images or misinformation. Data on adolescents’ brains while using social media, using functional magnetic imaging, demonstrates that adolescents even respond differently to dangerous images online compared with offline, which has significant implications for additions and future behavior.“
Prinstein can also discuss “digital stress,” how fear of missing out and need for instant gratification can lead to negative mental health outcomes and how parents can teach children to effectively digest what they see on social media.
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