Not TV-gaming, only social media is spoiling children’s brain, know what the research of neuroscientists says!

Neuroscientists, while giving the results of a new research, warned that the concentration power of children aged 10 to 14 years who use social media is gradually decreasing. Professor Torkel Klingberg of Sweden’s famous Karolinska Institute, who is the chief scientist of this entire research, told the big British newspaper ‘The Telegraph’. He said, ‘Till now people mostly talked about the total screen time of children (i.e. how much time is spent on mobile-TV). But we saw that the real difference comes from what the child is spending that screen time on.

The problem of distraction gradually increased in children who used social media apps like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat a lot, whereas no such effect was seen in children who spent the same amount of time watching TV or playing video games. That is, just watching the screen is not the problem, the special way of social media (repeated notifications, messages, likes) distracts the mind again and again, which does not happen in other activities.

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TV or video games still safe

Researchers monitored more than 8,300 children for four years. These children included children of every race: white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, etc. It was found that the more time a child spends on social media, the more their ‘distraction’ score increases. The attention score of children who used more social media increased by an average of 0.15 points over four years. Surprisingly, watching TV or playing video games did not have any such adverse effect on attention. Professor Torkel Klingberg, the chief scientist of this research, told The Telegraph, ‘Earlier we used to think that the entire focus was on ‘total screen time’, i.e. how many hours a child sits in front of phone and TV. But now it has become clear that the real thing is what the child is using the screen for. The effect of social media is completely different and dangerous. This is not seen in TV or gaming.

Why is only social media causing harm?

Notifications, messages, likes, stories keep coming on social media every moment. They distract attention again and again. Even while playing or reading, the child keeps thinking, ‘Have I received any message or not?’ Just these small obstacles eat away the power of meditation. On the other hand, in video games, the child has to pay constant attention, hence gaming does not have a bad effect on attention, but sometimes improvement is also seen.

small effect, terrible result

Researchers believe that this effect on a single child is very small and he may not even understand anything immediately. But when millions of children spend hours every day on social media, the attention span of an entire generation becomes weak. For example, currently 5-11% of children in the world fall in the category of ADHD (attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder). If the use of social media continues to increase like this, then this figure can reach 7-14% i.e. more than double the number of children can get stuck in serious attention problems.

At that very moment Australia took a big step

Just two days after this research, Australia made the world’s strictest law. Social media is completely banned for children below 16 years of age. Now more than one million children and teenagers there will not be able to use Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat etc. However, the situation in India is also worrying. In 2021, a review of 50 studies from 19 states revealed that 20-40% of college students are at risk of internet addiction. In a survey conducted in Tamil Nadu in 2024, one-fourth of teenagers were found to spend more than 2 hours daily on social media.