Part of what makes online interactions so different from in-person ones is their permanent-and often public-nature, according to research by Jacqueline Nesi, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at Brown University ( Psychological Inquiry, Vol. But arriving at school in a new pair of designer jeans, hoping your crush will smile at you in the hallway, is worlds away from posting a video on TikTok that may get thousands of views and likes, Prinstein said. In youth, the drive for approval has historically helped kids and teens develop healthy social skills and connections. Second, adults have a more mature prefrontal cortex, an area that can help regulate emotional responses to social rewards.

First, adults tend to have a fixed sense of self that relies less on feedback from peers. In adulthood, social media use is also linked to activation in the brain’s reward centers, but two key differences may lessen harm, Prinstein said. These structures, which lie beneath the more recently evolved cortex, are older parts of the brain that drive instinctual behaviors. Right next door to the ventral striatum lies the ventral pallidum, a region of the brain key for motivating action.

“This region gets a dopamine and oxytocin rush whenever we experience social rewards.” “We know that social media activity is closely tied to the ventral striatum,” said Mitch Prinstein, APA’s chief science officer. Specifically, receptors for the “happy hormones” oxytocin and dopamine multiply in a part of the brain called the ventral striatum, making preteens extra sensitive to attention and admiration from others. Between the ages of 10 and 12, changes in the brain make social rewards-compliments on a new hairstyle, laughter from a classmate-start to feel a lot more satisfying.

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