Social media: Is it really the brain-killer we fear?

THERE’S something about that little red bubble that pops up whenever you have a new notification on social media.

Before you have time to register, your thumbs are keying in your phone’s pin code and you’re refreshing your screen to find out how many people have liked that oh-so-witty status update you made about that neighbour’s Halloween costume which turned out not to be a costume at all.

This obsession with monitoring social media, even despite the fact that it brings no joy and, in many cases, even produces negative emotional outcomes, has given rise to a new class of virtual dependency.

“When you use social media, your brain releases dopamine, which is like a fountain in the brain that accesses and puts the brain into a state of pleasure,” Susan Greenfield, neuroscientist and author of A Day in the Life of the Brain, says.

“The mistake is when it becomes the alternative to real communication.” Full story...

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