NIH study tracks effects of social media on adolescent brains — Transcript

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1. 0:00new research aimed at understanding the
2. 0:01impact of social media on adolescent
3. 0:04brains is already showing fascinating
4. 0:06the results the National Institutes of
5. 0:08Health study is following more than
6. 0:1011,000 children over a decade in early
7. 0:13testing researchers found significant
8. 0:15differences in brain chemistry for kids
9. 0:17who had at least seven hours of screen
10. 0:19time a day compared to kids who use
11. 0:21screens less Anderson Cooper spoke to
12. 0:24the researchers for last night 60
13. 0:26minutes until recently it was impossible
14. 0:29to see what happens inside a young brain
15. 0:32when a person is focused on a mobile
16. 0:34device but now scientists at the
17. 0:37University of California San Diego have
18. 0:39hacked that problem how often do you
19. 0:42have young people come in for the MRIs
20. 0:44so as often as we possibly can dr. Cara
21. 0:47baguette is an investigator on that 300
22. 0:50million dollar NIH study her team is
23. 0:52scanning teenagers brains as they follow
24. 0:55Instagram the most popular social media
25. 0:58app when we met 18-year old Roxy Shemp
26. 1:00she was about to participate in dr.
27. 1:03Baggett study how much some do you
28. 1:05actually spend on screens I check my
29. 1:06phone pretty regularly I'd say what's
30. 1:09pretty regularly every at least 10 to 20
31. 1:11minutes is that a conservative estimate
32. 1:13probably she can't take her phone into
33. 1:16the MRI because of the powerful magnets
34. 1:19in the machine so a mirror has been
35. 1:21placed above her face to allow her to
36. 1:23look across the room at a movie screen
37. 1:25displaying images from her Instagram
38. 1:28account this way dr. Baggett can see
39. 1:31exactly which parts of the brain's
40. 1:32reward system are most active while
41. 1:35using social media so you can actually
42. 1:37see a part of the brain light up when
43. 1:40you're feeling good yes from the scanner
44. 1:43in the scanner yeah
45. 1:44based on her data and the results from
46. 1:46other studies dr. Baggett is among
47. 1:49scientists who believe screen time
48. 1:51stimulates the release of the brain
49. 1:53chemical dopamine which has a pivotal
50. 1:55role in cravings and desire so you're
51. 1:58more likely to act impulsively and use
52. 2:02social media compulsively instead of
53. 2:05like checking yourself you want to keep
54. 2:07on it to keep getting the good feelings
55. 2:11psychologists and best-selling author
56. 2:13Lisa d'amour is a CBS News contributor
57. 2:16and it's here with more on this Lisa
58. 2:17good morning good morning so we won't
59. 2:19know the full results from this study
60. 2:20for quite a while but does anything
61. 2:22concern you from what we see thus far
62. 2:24well here's what we do know we do know
63. 2:27that social media is incredibly
64. 2:29compelling we know that it triggers the
65. 2:32reward centers in the brain and this is
66. 2:33true from grown-ups too not just
67. 2:35teenagers and kids so we know that we
68. 2:38also know that digital technology
69. 2:40already disrupts things that are
70. 2:42important for healthy development so
71. 2:44sleep one-on-one interactions that are
72. 2:47face-to-face learning how to focus on
73. 2:49one's schoolwork physical activity so we
74. 2:52should already start to be drawing some
75. 2:54minds around digital technology just to
76. 2:56protect normal and healthy development
77. 2:58and so much is about guidelines we know
78. 3:00that now pediatricians recommend the
79. 3:02children under the age of two not have
80. 3:04any screen time what are the guidelines
81. 3:05for children up through adolescence
82. 3:07though I think that the way we want to
83. 3:10think about it is that there's no simple
84. 3:11answer right that we wish there were I
85. 3:14recommend that we really make priorities
86. 3:16about what are we trying to protect so
87. 3:18we're trying to protect sleep we're
88. 3:19trying to protect family time we're
89. 3:21trying to protect focus so I think the
90. 3:23guidelines should flow from there
91. 3:25children need a lot more sleep than
92. 3:27people appreciate elementary school
93. 3:29children need 11 hours a night middle
94. 3:31schoolers need 10 hours a night high
95. 3:33schoolers need 9 hours a night so if we
96. 3:35even do that that's one heck of a
97. 3:37guideline and the thing is it's not just
98. 3:38total time it's that we're creating a
99. 3:40habit of distractions we're training our
100. 3:42kids to keep interrupting themselves
101. 3:44which means they can't do anything hard
102. 3:46because they seek that interruption
103. 3:48that's right focus is a muscle that we
104. 3:50build and it doesn't matter if someone
105. 3:52interrupts you or you interrupt yourself
106. 3:53it still disrupts your focus you have a
107. 3:56new book coming out about anxiety and
108. 3:58depression specifically among young
109. 4:00girls how does social media contribute
110. 4:04to that is there data that shows that
111. 4:06it's causal we don't yet have causal
112. 4:08data but what we do have are some
113. 4:11longitudinal studies that have actually
114. 4:12looked at the trajectory through sleep
115. 4:14that when high schoolers get phones that
116. 4:17disrupt their sleep subsequently they go
117. 4:20on to have higher rates of depression
118. 4:21higher rates of emotional fragility so
119. 4:24we don't you
120. 4:25have a certain knee but we are in that
121. 4:27door I mean I hear this from parents all
122. 4:29the time suicide rates being up they
123. 4:32know someone that their kids go to
124. 4:33school with depression anxiety what's
125. 4:35causing that I think we don't really
126. 4:37know and I think simple answers are
127. 4:39appealing but they're probably not
128. 4:41accurate we want to look at this in
129. 4:43broad scope and think about a lot of
130. 4:45factors that may be causing stress and
131. 4:47anxiety to go up for our kids and making
132. 4:50it important that we take steps to
133. 4:52protect them
134. 4:53from a lot of things social media may be
135. 4:55one of them and since I've already read
136. 4:57an early copy of her book I know there's
137. 4:58a lot of answers
138. 5:01February 12 anyway and with teenage kids
139. 5:03who sees those weather patterns of their
140. 5:05moods change quickly you know that
141. 5:06social media is playing a little bit of
142. 5:08a role he said the more thank you so
143. 5:09much you're welcome this thanks for
144. 5:10having me