Impact of Social Media on Children's Concentration: New Study Reveals

Study Highlights Decline in Concentration Among Children

New Delhi, Dec 8: A recent study indicates that children who engage with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat for over 30 minutes daily may face a gradual decline in their concentration abilities. This research involved over 8,000 children aged between 10 and 14 years.

Conducted by researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Oregon Health & Science University in the United States, the study explored the relationship between screen time and symptoms associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Over a four-year period, the researchers tracked 8,324 children aged 9 to 14 in the US, noting that the average daily screen time increased from about 30 minutes for 9-year-olds to 2.5 hours for those aged 13.

Findings revealed that children who spent considerable time on social media platforms, including Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Messenger, exhibited increasing symptoms of inattention.

Despite many platforms requiring users to be at least 13 years old, the average time spent on social media rose significantly as children aged.

Published in Pediatrics Open Science, the study found no similar associations for children who watched television or played video games.

According to Torkel Klingberg, a cognitive neuroscience professor at Karolinska Institutet, "Our findings suggest that social media specifically impacts children's concentration abilities."

Klingberg elaborated that social media is filled with distractions, such as messages and notifications, which can divert attention and hinder focus. This could explain the observed correlation.

The study noted that socioeconomic factors or genetic predispositions towards ADHD did not influence this association.

Interestingly, children who already displayed inattentiveness did not increase their social media usage, indicating that the relationship is likely from social media use to the development of symptoms, rather than the other way around.

While the impact on concentration was minimal on an individual basis, the researchers emphasized that it could have significant implications at a population level.