Why Do The Teens Do So

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They are hard-wired to respond to all those 'likes.'
If you have teenagers or know them, you’ll agree they always seem to be glued to their smartphones -- or, more precisely, the social media platforms these phones contain.
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But while it’s easy to joke that teens are obsessed with Instagram, Snapchat and probably a bunch of apps we don't even know about, there's new evidence that might explain why: Neuroscientists have found that seeing all those “likes” on a social media post may be especially intoxicating to growing brains.
In the first study to scan teenagers' brains while they use social media, scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles found that a certain part of the brain associated with rewards hums with activity whenever teens see one of their photos earn a lot of “likes.”
The researchers also found that "liking" had a cumulative effect: When peers liked a photo, teens were more likely to like the photo themselves, no matter the content.
Almost 90 percent of American teens say they use at least one social media site, and 71 percent of teens say they use at least two sites. And that can have negative effects: A recent survey found that half of teens feel addicted to their devices. Other research has found that pressure from social media might be linked to an increased risk of depression and anxiety in teens.
While this current brain scan study didn't delve into these areas, it does offer clues as to why social media is so irresistible to the teen brain -- perhaps even in the face of negative feelings.
"It may be that one of the reasons that teens are such active users on social media is that they’re really sensitive to these likes,” said Lauren Sherman, lead author of the brain scan study and a researcher at the UCLA Brain Mapping Center in a phone call with HuffPost. Secondly, she said, they’re "really sensitive to what their peers are doing online."
Instagram 'lights up' the brains reward system
Sherman and team recruited 32 teenagers, aged 13 to 18, to take part in a small, photo-based social network similar to Instagram. They asked the teens to submit 40 photos from their own personal Instagram accounts to be part of the feed, and then showed them a total of 148 photos from these submissions on a computer screen.
The researchers told the individual participants that the photo stream had already been reviewed by 50 other teens as part of the study, and these photos had earned “likes” from these other teens. (In reality, the researchers themselves had assigned “likes” to these photos).
As the teens viewed the photos, researchers scanned their brains with an MRI machine and observed that certain images stimulated parts of their brain. For instance, when a participant saw that their own photo had earned a large number of “likes," several centers in the brain associated with social activity and visuals lit up.
One region in particular, called the nucleus accumbens, was especially active. This region is linked to rewards and lights up when a person does pleasurable things like eating chocolate or winning money, the researchers noted. This suggests that the experience of being validated with “likes” is extremely rewarding, the researchers wrote.
Separately, when the researchers asked teens to choose photos to like, they discovered that teens were heavily influenced to like a photo when it already had a large number of likes.
Why this affects teens in particular
Past research on the nucleus accumbens shows that compared to kids or adults, teens have exaggerated activity in this area of the brain when it comes to rewarding activities. The nucleus accumbens also grows to its largest size during adolescence before it starts to shrink, which is why, “nothing -- whether it’s being with your friends, having sex, licking an ice-cream cone, zipping along in a convertible on a warm summer evening, hearing your favorite music -- will ever feel as good as it did when you were a teenager,” psychology professor Laurence Steinberg explained in a 2015 New Yorker article about the teenage brain.
The over-activity and size of the nucleus accumbens can explain everything from teens’ risk-taking behavior to intense pleasure seeking to their tendency to make poorly thought-out decisions. It could also explain why teens feel such a strong connection to the rewards that come from social media, Sherman said.
Of course, teens have been eager for validation from their peers and have been easily influenced by their peers long before social media became such a prominent part of everyone’s lives.
But the one thing that’s different about social media, Sherman explains, is that it provides a quantitative measure of peer approval in terms of the number of likes one can earn in a single post. The “likes” on the photo provide an immediate, tangible reward, which lights up parts of the adolescent brain like the nucleus accumbens that are primed to overreact to every pleasure and happiness, Sherman explained.
“That’s one of the reasons social media is more compelling,” she said. “It helps explain what’s going on and why teens find it so interesting."
Social media influence isn't necessarily a bad thing
These and other findings don't mean that social media access will necessarily harm teens, Sherman explained.
Her study found that teens were influenced by the “liking” activity of their peers no matter what the subject of the photo was -- neutral, positive in nature or "risky" (say, drinking or smoking) -- which means that peer influence could go either way.
If you’re a parent with a teen who is obsessed with social media, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are being negatively influenced, Sherman said. However, parents should realize that their teen’s online social networks are probably more vast than their day-to-day, IRL friendships, and that their teen is probably drawing from a bigger pool of influences than a parent would think.
“Peer influence is kind of agnostic; it can be a good thing, it can be a potentially bad thing,” Sherman said. “Ultimately what really matters is what teens are seeing online, what their peers are posting and liking, and if these are pro-social, positive behaviors.”
For more perspective on how to encourage teens to have a healthy relationship with their devices, check out experts who offer this counterintuitive advice for parents: Rethink time limits, be honest about your own relationship with your smartphone, and get to the root of the issue -- depression, anxiety or bullying --that could be behind problematic social media use.
The study was published in the journal Psychological Science.
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Driving fast, breaking curfew, arguing, shoplifting. Teenagers can push your patience, but unfortunately, some kids go as far as blatantly flouting rules or breaking the law, often with tragic results. What's with this rebellious streak? How can parents funnel it into less risky business?
All teens go through similar phases -- the need for independence, a separate identity, testing authority. It's part of growing up; it's also linked to developmental changes in the brain that will eventually help them become analytical adults.
But today's teens get an extra whammy -- social pressures come earlier than in previous generations.
To understand this complex picture, WebMD turned to two of the nation's experts.
David Elkind, PhD, is the author of All Grown Up and No Place to Go, and is a professor of child development at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. Amy Bobrow, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and professor in the Child Study Center at New York University School of Medicine in Manhattan.
During the teenage years, the area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex is developing. This is the part of your brain that is behind your forehead. It's your thinking cap and judgment center, Elkind explains, which means kids can now develop their own ideals and ideas.
Whereas younger children don't see the flaws in their parents, adolescents suddenly see the world more realistically. "They construct an ideal of what parents should be, based on their friends' parents, on media parents. When they compare their own parents to the ideal, they find them wanting. Their parents don't know how dress, walk, talk; they're embarrassing," he tells WebMD.
All the arguments -- they're also the result of the prefrontal cortex at work, Elkind says. As a child evolves into a teenager, the brain becomes able to synthesize information into ideas. Teens want to exercise their new skill -- and they tend to practice on their parents. "It may seem that they argue for the sake of arguing. But really, they're practicing their new abilities."
Whereas wild clothes and make-up used to be a rite of passage into adolescence, that's not true today, says Elkind. The preadolescent 11- and 12-year-olds -- the Britney Spears generation -- are pushing that fashion envelope.
Body piercing, tattoos, and music are today's "markers" of adolescence. "No self-respecting 15-year-old is going to listen to Britney Spears," he says.
Another dynamic: first love, first sex, first drugs, first drinking. In earlier generations, kids weren't expected to be sexually active -- or experiment with alcohol or drugs -- until they turned 17 or 18, when they were better able to resist peer pressure, says Elkind. "Now they're getting pressure at 13 and 14, when they're too young to resist. It's not that child development has changed, it's that the demands are coming at earlier ages."
Yet it is a myth that all teenagers are big risk-takers, says Bobrow at New York University.
"Parents are concerned that kids who try drugs use them on a regular basis, but that isn't always the case," she tells WebMD.
Indeed, there's evidence of a decline in teenage sexual experimentation, says Elkind. Thepregnancy rate has gone down. "I'm not sure if it's threat of AIDS or sex education. At any rate, those signs are good," he says. "Also, laws in many states require parental consent laws for an abortion. That may have contributed."
Also, teen crime statistics have stabilized, although they have taken a different twist. "We're finding that girls are involved in the same crimes as boys are, like armed robbery," says Elkind. "Girls are involved in carjacking, car stealing, which used to be exclusively boy crimes."
Unfortunately, Elkind adds, the rates of sexually transmitted disease have not declined among teenagers.
Of course, the fact that all teenagers aren't as wild as some people imagine doesn't necessarily help create peace in your home. Even the most balanced teenagers are arguing and challenging their parents, sometimes on a daily basis.
So what can you, the parent, do to keep your relationship strong during these turbulent years?
Spend time together, say the experts.
"The bottom line is communication -- and not just at times of disapproval, discipline," says Bodrow. "Make sure you communicate with your child when you're proud, when he did a good job. It's important to balance that out. Otherwise, it becomes 'why are you always nagging me, always on my back.'"
Originally published on August 11. 2003.
WebMD Feature Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD
© 2005 - 2021 WebMD LLC. All rights reserved.
WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

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