Much is discussed about the long-term effects of some platforms on the minds of young people and teenagers, since this whole situation is still very new. This new study published in The New York Times sought to map the effect of social networks on the brains of people of this generation and reached results that called attention.
Social networks x changes in personality
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A group of neuroscientists at the University of North Carolina sought to understand the effects of social networking platforms on the minds of teenagers. To do this, they gathered around 160 students between the ages of 12 and 15 who, in this context, were aged between sixth grade and high school.
In this case, these young people were subjected to observation by scientists who sought to analyze their behavior based on the frequency of access to Instagram, Facebook and others. From this, the scientists categorized the teenagers into three groups. The first was formed by frequent users (15 hits or more per day), moderate users (up to 14 hits) and those who checked their accounts only once.
Thus, it was possible to perceive that there is a very large difference in behavior between those who had frequent access and those who rarely accessed the networks. According to the survey, teenagers with more contact with the platforms tend to be more dramatic and less accepting of feedback from friends and relatives.
What does that mean?
For the researchers, this indicates that young people in this new generation and, consequently, adults of the next generation are more susceptible to the opinions of others. Furthermore, they are much more emotionally unstable than those who only access networks on rare occasions. For researchers, this can be very alarming!
What is worth mentioning is that this research did not bring with it a result regarding all possible changes in the structure of the brain, however there is already research being developed in this direction. As already mentioned, little is known about the effects of platforms on people, given that this is the first generation with the most contact.