How Social Media Creates Flabby Young Brains
The ‘Gen Z stare’ is one symptom of widespread overconsumption of electronic entertainment.
Bored at a dinner party or work meeting but don’t want to come off as rude by pulling out your phone to scroll?
Mark Zuckerberg has a gadget for you.
The Meta CEO last week unveiled Ray-Ban “smart glasses” with a built-in display that wearers can use to watch videos, scroll Instagram, respond to texts and more—all controlled by a wristband that translates discreet hand gestures.
Just what society needs: a device to tune people out without their knowing.
As if social media hasn’t done enough to degrade behavior and fuel cultural dysfunction.
Charlie Kirk’s assassination, allegedly by a 22-year-old videogame and social-media junkie, and the unhinged responses on social media laid bare the corrosive effects.
Such effects are most conspicuous in digital natives—those who grew up with smartphones and social media.
The meme “Gen Z Stare” went viral on TikTok this summer, a reference to young people who seem to struggle to connect with older co-workers and customers.
“The most common meaning is a vacant expression a Gen Zer gives in response to a question,” a NBC report explained.
“The stare occurs in classrooms, restaurants, at work and more settings.”
Psychologists attribute the dazed look to excessive screen time stunting the development of social skills, which was exacerbated by the pandemic lockdowns.
Many digital natives exhibit autistic traits like difficulty reading social cues and communicating.
This isn’t to say that social media or videogames cause autism.
But they may give rise to behaviors that are associated with the disorder and fuel a sense among parents that something isn’t right with kids these days.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has tapped into these anxieties, blaming chemicals, food additives and medications for increasing rates of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, anxiety and gender dysphoria.
But what kids are putting into their bodies isn’t the real problem.
It’s the junk their brains are ingesting—or the essential nutrients they aren’t taking in.
Social media and videogames are ultraprocessed foods for young brains.
Too much leads to flabby and underdeveloped minds.
A 2022 systemic review of 87 studies found increased screen time was modestly associated with higher levels of aggression, inattention, anxiety, depression and behavioral problems.
A 2022 study from China found “smaller brain volume in excessive smartphone users,” which was associated with impulsive behavior.
No doubt such damaging effects are why the Chinese government requires videogame and social-media platforms to restrict when and how much time kids can spend online.
Studies in multiple countries have found a dose-dependent association between screen time and ADHD symptoms, which suggests a causal connection.
A 2021 meta-analysis of the impact of videogames found that some games have educational benefits, but heavy gaming can also “lead to addiction and impair ability to focus on effortful goal oriented behavior.”
“Video games, beyond their content, can favor pathological aggression, withdrawal, escape from reality and reduction of interests,” the study noted.
“Virtual reality becomes more attractive than the real one and can become the ‘non-place’ to escape from the complexity of everyday life.”
That seems increasingly to be the case.
Excessive digital consumption also reduces the time kids spend engaging in beneficial activities.
The Pew Research Center last year found that 97% of teen boys play videogames, and 61% do so every day.
Around 60% of adolescent boys participate in sports.
Sports can be a healthy outlet for aggression and physical energy.
Unlike virtual reality, they teach life skills like resilience and teamwork.
Kids learn how to play with others—and how to get back up after getting knocked down.
Competing in organized sports can also help develop time-management skills.
Sports are character-building protein.
Kids are also reading less.
A 2023 study from the University of Cambridge found that American adolescents who spent more time reading for pleasure when they were younger had fewer mental-health problems and scored higher on cognitive assessments.
Medical imaging also showed they had larger areas of the brain that are involved in information processing and mental health.
Reading provides nourishing food for thought.
As a Cambridge neuropsychologist explained, “language learning, including through reading and discussing books, is a key factor in healthy brain development.
It is also a critical building block for other forms of cognition, including executive functions (such as memory, planning and self-control) and social intelligence.”
Is it any surprise that performance on standardized tests has fallen over the past decade as kids spend more time online?
Or that many Generation Z members behave like zombies?
States are experimenting with regulations to curb adolescent digital addictions, but the problem defies a pat government solution.
And it requires cultural introspection.
When kids see adults scrolling their phones at all hours of the day, they begin to think this is normal and acceptable behavior.
It isn’t.
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