According to a new study, increased social media use in children and adolescents may be associated with a deterioration of cognitive performance. A large-scale study published in JAMA, which included 6,554 adolescents aged 9 to 13, showed that participants who spent more time on social media scored lower on tests of oral reading, memory, and vocabulary.
On average, young adolescents and teens spend about five and a half hours daily on screens for non-educational purposes, a significant portion of which is dedicated to social media.
Unlike the passive consumption of media content (e.g., watching TV or videos), social media use requires active cognitive engagement. Actions such as incessant “scrolling,” constant checking of notifications, and online interaction activate neural networks responsible for information processing and decision-making. This constant cognitive load places much higher psychophysiological demands on the brain than simply gazing at a screen.
The goal of this study was to determine how time spent on social media affects adolescents’ cognitive abilities—how well they can think, learn, and process information.
The researchers utilized data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, which monitors the brain development, cognitive abilities, and behavioral changes of 11,880 children.
When analyzing the 6,554 adolescents, the researchers identified three distinct trajectories (patterns) of social media use:
- The majority of adolescents (57.6%): Had low or very low social media use.
- Approximately one-third of adolescents (36.6%): Had low but increasing use over time.
- A small group of adolescents (5.8%): Had high and further increasing use over time.
A set of standardized tests was used to assess cognitive performance, evaluating reading, memory, and pattern comparison speed.
The results showed that children in the high and increasing social media use group scored the lowest on multiple cognitive tests, particularly in the language and memory sections. Scores decreased with increased social media use, while children in the very low use group generally received the highest overall scores.
These findings emphasize the need to strengthen age restrictions on social media platforms.
Although the study established a correlation, it could not confirm a cause-and-effect relationship. For the development of effective interventions, future research should focus on studying the mechanisms that lead to cognitive decline and also on how different social media platforms specifically contribute to these effects.
