Dopamine pathways in the brain greatly affect how an adolescent feels on a daily basis. However, these dopamine rushes can be negative if triggered by the wrong thing, which can often be the case with teens who use social media. This can lead them to seek validation by doing unadvisable things, or think more negatively about themselves after not getting many likes or positive comments.
Constant media usage and desire for validation
One of the more alarming issues proposed by the expansion of social media is children becoming trapped within inescapable loops of constantly checking these platforms. This is due to the production of dopamine, an important function in our daily lives.
Dopamine is a chemical responsible for our everyday feelings of pleasure. Whenever people complete an action that feels emotionally rewarding: a positive social interaction, an unexpected gift, or even exercise, it activates their dopamine reward pathways. Over time, people’s brains associate certain actions with the pleasure that they produce, and their reward pathways become active in anticipation of such gratification.
Social media websites like Facebook and Instagram are specifically designed to lure people into repeatedly checking the app by abusing this natural mechanism of the human brain.
Upon receiving likes or comments messages on posts, people feel a social affirmation that stimulates dopamine production. Over time, people begin to associate this stimulation with the validation they receive from social media, which leads them to repeatedly check the app throughout the day.
“It’s really easy to turn on your phone whenever you’re doing homework,” said Rory Chamberlin, a sophomore at Carlmont. “I can end up checking my phone every 20 minutes sometimes.”
During a lecture at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Chamath Palihapitiya, CEO of Social Capital and a former Facebook executive, warned about the dangers of becoming attached to social media.
“We curate our lives around this perceived sense of perfection because we get rewarded in these short-term signals; hearts, likes, thumbs up and we conflate that with value and we inflate it with the truth. And instead, what it really is, is fake brittle popularity. That’s short-term, and that leaves you even more vacant and empty before you did it,” Palihapitiya said.
With time, this craving for popularity can lead to problems of a greater magnitude. With a child’s impressionable nature, they will be more prone to doing anything that makes them feel accepted by their peers.
There have been many recent trends that highlight this exact issue. In September 2021, a trend known as the “Devious Lick” challenge grew popular on the social platform, TikTok. In essence, the challenge required students to record themselves stealing school property, and posting it on the platform.
Not only does this negatively impact educational environments, but students can also be fined over $1,000 and be sent to jail for a year. In fact, multiple students have been arrested for partaking in this challenge and stealing school equipment.
“It’s stupid; [students] do it out of shock-factor, which gets them popularity online,” Taylor said.
All of the major social media platforms are designed by some of the brightest minds. We have to be addictive and to capture and hold our attention for as long as possible. When we are away from the “apps” we get constant reminders and notifications to jump back on to see what’s happening
— Lance Garrison
According to Garrison, children do this because they seek the affirmation of their peers, social media sites such as Facebook acknowledge this, and exploit this nature to inflate their numbers.
“All of the major social media platforms are designed by some of the brightest minds. We have to be addictive and to capture and hold our attention for as long as possible. When we are away from the “apps” we get constant reminders and notifications to jump back on to see what’s happening,” Garrison said.
Apart from attention, children also need validation to feel loved. According to the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, it is important for children to receive praise and love in order to have stable self-esteem. Without it, insecure teens often turn to strangers online to imitate the parental love that they need but may not receive at home.
Not only does social media capture kids in phone-checking loops, but it can lead them to make questionable decisions out of the desire to be approved by society.