Is Instagram addiction similar to being high on cannabis? New study aims to find out
- Dr Kara Bagot at UC San Diego is investigating whether social media affects the adolescent brain in the same way as cannabis
- She says a treatment model for social media addiction can be developed if similar changes in brain activation are found
In a groundbreaking study, a psychiatrist at the University of California San Diego is investigating whether social media affects the adolescent brain in the same way as cannabis. Establishing a link could change how medical professionals view teens’ engagement with Instagram, Snapchat and other social media platforms.
“Psychiatrists don’t recognise excessive social media use as addictive behaviour,” says Dr. Kara Bagot, a child psychiatrist and assistant professor in residency at UCSD. “If it shows similar changes in the activation of the brain’s reward circuitry, then we can develop a treatment model.”
Other researchers have looked at how social media, for better or worse, affects teens. But Bagot’s study is the first to compare social media to cannabis.
“There are studies already that show video games, computer games, social media and increased tech use associated with poor outcomes in physical health, mental health and risk-taking,” she says. “We have to have more conversations about how to responsibly use social media.”
Bagot was a high school junior in Los Angeles when AOL introduced Instant Messenger, an early texting system. She was not an avid user. As an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins, a medical student at the University of Illinois at Chicago and then a resident at Yale, she paid scant attention to online platforms.