The Hidden Impact of Social Media on Young People: Addictions and Mental Health at Risk | Philosophy essay examples | Philosophy etymology dictionary | Personal philosophy examples sentences | Turtles AI

The “reconfiguration of childhood” caused by the indiscriminate use of social media and smartphones during childhood, in addition to having devastating consequences for psychophysical health, also works as a reconfiguration of the brain in a conformist, consumerist and non-critical way.

Recently, news has emerged that Norway wants to raise the minimum age for joining social media to 15, believing that these platforms are harmful to the mental health of young people. The Prime Minister and the Minister of Family have made some statements worthy of enlightened politicians that, in reality, find their justification in a vast scientific literature. The consequences for children and young people, in fact, are devastating.

Since 2010, at an international level, there has been a sudden surge in the onset of mental illnesses among adolescents. Between 2010 and 2013, it was possible to access social media via smartphones. In a short time, these devices reached the majority of American and Western families, giving anyone the possibility of staying continuously connected. It has been estimated that, in the field of communication technologies, this invention has had the fastest diffusion compared to any other previous one. In the same period, there is an increase in those disorders that in psychiatry are classified as "internalizing disorders", namely anxiety and major depression. In fact, there is a 134% increase in the former and 106% in the latter (source: US National Survey on Drug Use and Health).

The suicide rate is growing, as much as 167% in females and 91% in males (source: US Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control). But we are also seeing a substantial increase in cases of ADHD and even cases of schizophrenia. Episodes of self-harm are also increasing.

Some clinicians rightly speak of a “great reconfiguration of childhood” because we move from a childhood based on play to one based on the telephone: from free play made of gradual adaptations and successive learning, we move to solely virtual interactions that in fact turn out to be real inhibitors of those physical and real experiences that determine the success of a functioning social adaptation. Compared to the “trial and error learning”, which occurs during the long apprenticeship of childhood, another is experienced that is shaped exclusively on two fundamental evolutionary strategies: conformity and prestige. We try to conform to others in order to survive and resemble those who are more successful. Social media, in this sense, are the most efficient conformity mechanism ever invented. This happens during a phase in which the brain, which has already reached its definitive size by the age of 5, provides for a sort of selective thinning: it retains only the most frequently used neural networks. A reconfiguration of childhood that, in reality, is also a reconfiguration of the brain. It is interesting, in fact, to see what happens to our brain when we use the smartphone. Clinical trials show that, when given mathematical and mnemonic problems, the mere presence of the smartphone compromises our ability to think deeply and reduces problem solving skills as well as cognitive resources. Smartphone notifications activate our biological programs: they constitute an alarm in the presence of a hypothetical danger; involving the same neural circuits that have been activated in the brain since the dawn of time in the face of stimuli for which our survival is at stake, they cause the adrenal gland to continuously produce adrenaline and cortisol. An excessive production of these two substances causes anxiety, headaches, depression and insomnia. The addiction that is triggered is in all respects analogous to what happens with drugs: every time we use the smartphone, in fact, we receive very rapid feedback that the brain interprets as pleasurable stimuli and, thanks to the release of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine or endorphins, a reinforcement is structured that will lead us to seek that sensation again, according to a mechanism developed during evolution for the survival of the individual. It has been seen that one hour a day for five days on the net is enough to reconfigure our brain: using the internet changes our neural circuits. Brain activity, while surfing the net, is twice as intense. But this has a cost: we neglect other things and the neural circuits that are not used in the long run are erased, thanks to the plasticity of the brain.

Facebook designers have deliberately induced a spiral of addiction. Screenshots of some internal Facebook presentations have been made public, during which psychologists give instructions on how to keep users engaged longer through rewards, novelty and emotions. It is learned that girls, in particular, would be harmed more. Probably due to an “unfavorable social comparison” based on competition and unhealthy models suggested by algorithms, compared to their male peers who would be harmed by other platforms, video games and pornography. One of the captions released reads: “Teenagers’ decisions and behaviors are primarily driven by emotions, curiosity for novelty and reward. Even if these are positive things, they make teenagers very vulnerable. Especially in the absence of a mature cerebral cortex that helps impose limits on the satisfaction of these desires”. When we receive a like, the brain’s reward circuit, as we said, activates and releases dopamine that will push us to access the platform again. But, in the absence of a like, we will wait for it and start publishing new posts and commenting on friends’ posts, hoping to get more.

It emerges, therefore, that an addiction has been induced completely knowingly through the use of what in jargon are called "variable ratio reinforcement schedules". Therefore, there is a fully malicious conduct; having cleverly structured a conditioning according to a "variable ratio reinforcement schedule" when it is known both that this type of program is involved in many behavioral addictions, such as gambling and use of technology, and that such programs are capable of producing the most difficult paradigms to extinguish. This makes it very difficult for users to stop using the platform, especially if they are minors. Remember the statement of the Netflix CEO: "Think about it, when you watch a video on Netflix, you get passionate and stay up late: we are in competition with sleep".

All this in defiance of respect for childhood that is totally abandoned and adrift. At the mercy of “a limbic capitalism” that, in a society of consumerist abundance, fuels the market of cerebral gratification, deliberately generating dependence at the expense of the mental health of young people and children. The basis for profound unhappiness is laid on the model of the most blatant drug addiction. In light of all this, it would be desirable that, in the face of these serious emergencies, even in Italy the institutions would take action with ad hoc measures to regulate and limit the use of these devices also and above all based on age, and considering the frequent inability of parents to know how to impose themselves and say no even if it is for the good of their children.

A balance between technology and human development seems essential to protect the new generations from an addiction designed to sacrifice their critical and social growth on the altar of profit.