Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr are some of the most popular social media among young people. It is estimated that almost 90% of American teenagers are active users in social media (Lenhart, 2015).
In 2020 physical insulation no longer necessarily matches social insulation. Thanks to the rise and vast popularity of social media, we witness a new form of interaction: digital interaction.
Social communication (that which provides for an “face -to -face” exchange) implies an exchange of information through facial expressions, gestures and prosody. It is necessarily qualitative and involves subjective interpretation.
Digital interactions instead allow quantitative feedback. A particularly salient example of simplified and quantitative digital interaction is the “like” or “like”.
What do the “likes” and “likes” really represent?
They are simple, fast and quantifiable measures of peer approval. The “likes” offer the opportunity of a clear and quantifiable social confrontation, to determine whether social behavior receives approval from peers.
Like is a new type of social reward. Researchers and anthropologists have hypothesized that the evolutionary history of the brain of primates and in particular of the human brain, is directly connected to the growing importance of social interaction and belonging to the group.
This means that the characteristics of the human brain may have developed in response to evolutionary thrusts that aimed at increasingly complex social relationships.
In this perspective, putting a “like” or a “like” would represent a basic human need: the need to Create and encourage social relationships.
Like is a very new concept, but represents an ancient human need.
Looking for and receiving feedback from others can contribute to the creation of new social relations and the strengthening of existing ties.
In adolescence, a period in which relationships between peers are very intense, it can be particularly important for young people, the motivational thrust to give positive feedback to others in order to strengthen social ties.
What happens in the brain when we receive a “like”?
There are not many specific studies on the subject. From the literature present, it seems that receiving many “likes” to your photo on Instagram leads to the activation of the Accumini (Nacc) nucleus and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). Sharing content on social media, would activate the Accumens nucleus and the Tegmental Ventral Area.
These areas correspond to the neural circuit of the reward which as we know, is involved in the subjective experience of pleasure.
The Accumens Core is considered the fulcrum of the neural circuit of the reward: it is involved in the subjective experience of reward and pleasure, but also in motivating the behaviors oriented to achieving the objective.
What happens in the brain of teenagers?
Some studies have shown that when teenagers receive many “likes” at their photos, there is greater activation of the Nacc. This confirms the hypothesis that the likes motivate the continuous use of social media and the active behaviors of sharing online content.
Even the “likes” on the photos of strangers influence neural and behavioral responses. When the boys see some photos on Instagram who have many “likes”, they show greater activation of the brain areas of the reward circuit and are more likely to click on “I like” in turn.
In the study of Sherman et al., (2016), it also emerged that the popularity of a photo (in terms of the quantity of likes) it had a significant effect on the way the photo was perceived. It is more likely that teenagers like a photo, even one that reports at risk behaviors (such as smoking marijuana or drinking alcohol), if that photo has received a large number of likes.
This data is particularly relevant: adolescence is a period during which the influence of peers is very important. The pressure of peers can also be misunderstood when strengthening dangerous behaviors (such as dangerous guide, drug consumption …).
Teenagers, “likes” and risky behavior
Young people publish and often share content that show risky behaviors and this can affect the tendency of their peers to engage in similar behaviors.
Some theories suggest that the nucleus accumulates interacts with the neural regions involved in the congnative control during decisions concerning dangerous behaviors.
From the results of a recent study by Sherman et al., (2018), it seems that the neural network involved in cognitive control was less active when the boys observed images published on social media that portrayed dangerous behaviors. Certainly The view of online photos does not in itself constitute a risk.
The adolescence years are a period of greater risk of risks than childhood and this could be consequent to their greater independence.
However, the eligible neural systems are at the basis of the decision -making process, they mature during late adolescence and at the beginning of 20 years of age. The executive functions improve in this period, probably also due to the pruning and myelinization process of the frontal lobes and the parietal lobe.
This means that the brain of a young teenager, who has not yet achieved this degree of maturation, has a greater sensitivity of the Accumens nucleus. This area, as we said previously, is linked to the neural circuit of the reward.
A study on the subject
In a 2018 study conducted on a population of high school children, a reduction in the activity of the frontal regions of cognitive control emerges during the display of images of risk behaviors, published on Instagram.
On the contrary, the boys of the college to which the same images were subjected, showed a greater activity of the frontal areas. This difference could be explained by the immaturity of some brain areas in younger children.
The results of this study are interesting and seem to demonstrate how in adolescence, the frontal regions of cognitive control are insufficient to inhibit responses to “risky” stimuli (as in this case, images on Instagram that portrayed at risk behaviors).
The data that we currently have from literature show that the approval between peer (measured in a quantitative way through the “likes” received on Instagram or other social networks), significantly influences the perception of images and the behavior corresponding to these images.
It therefore appears very important for future research, further examining the relationship between social media, neural responses and the behavior of taking risk in the real world.
