Kids who use social media score lower on reading and memory tests, a study shows

"Preteens using increasing amounts of social media perform poorer in reading, vocabulary and memory tests in early adolescence compared with those who use no or little social media. That's according to a new study that suggests a link between social media use and poorer cognition in teens. The findings are published in JAMA. "This is a really exciting study," says psychologist Mitch Prinstein at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who wasn't involved in the new research."

"To understand that, Nagata and his colleagues used data from one of the largest ongoing studies on adolescents, called the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Scientists have been following thousands of preteens as they go through adolescence to understand the development of their brains. The ongoing study has been surveying kids about their social media use every year and giving them a range of tests for learning and memory every other year."

Data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study on more than 6,000 children aged 9 to 10 were analyzed through early adolescence. Social media use was surveyed annually and cognitive tests for reading, vocabulary and memory were administered every other year. Children were classified into three groups by evolving patterns of social media use; about 58% used little or no social media over time. Increasing social media use during preteen years was associated with poorer performance on reading, vocabulary and memory tests in early adolescence. Longitudinal tracking compared trajectories of social media engagement and cognitive development.

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