Increased use of social media by children damages their concentration levels and may be contributing to an increase in cases of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a study.
The peer-reviewed report monitored the development of more than 8,300 US-based children from the age of 10 to 14 and linked social media use to “increased inattention symptoms”.
Reseachers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Oregon Health & Science University in the US found that children spent an average of 2.3 hours a day watching television or online videos, 1.4 hours on social media and 1.5 hours playing video games.
No link was found between ADHD-related symptoms – such as being easily distracted – and playing video games or watching TV and YouTube. However, the study found that social media use over a period of time was associated with an increase in inattention symptoms in children. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder with symptoms including impulsiveness, forgetting everyday tasks and difficulty focusing.
“We identified an association between social media use and increased inattention symptoms, interpreted here as a likely causal effect,” said the study. “Although the effect size is small at individual level, it could have significant consequences if behaviour changes across population level. These findings suggest that social media use may contribute to rising incidence of ADHD diagnoses.”
Torkel Klingberg, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute, said: “Our study suggests that it is specifically social media that affects children’s ability to concentrate.
“Social media entails constant distractions in the form of messages and notifications, and the mere thought of whether a message has arrived can act as a mental distraction. This affects the ability to stay focused and could explain the association.”
The study found the ADHD link was not affected by socioeconomic background or a genetic predisposition towards the condition. Klingberg added that increased use of social media may explain part of the increase in ADHD diagnoses. Its prevalence among children has risen from 9.5% in 2003-07 to 11.3% in 2020-22, according to the US national survey of children’s health.
The researchers stressed the results did not imply all children who used social media developed concentration problems. But they pointed to increased use of social media by children as they got older and to children using social media well before they turned 13, the minimum age for apps such as TikTok and Instagram.
The report said: “This early and increasing social media use underscores the need for stricter age verification and clearer guidelines for tech companies.”
The study found a steady increase in social media use from about 30 minutes a day at age nine to two and a half hours a day by age 13. The children were enrolled for the study at the ages of nine and 10 between 2016 and 2018. The study will be published in the Pediatrics Open Science journal.
“We hope that our findings will help parents and policymakers make well-informed decisions on healthy digital consumption that support children’s cognitive development,” said Samson Nivins, one of the study’s authors and a postdoctoral researcher at the Karolinska Institute.
