The Impact of Social Media on Human Behavior and Cognition

One of the most popular terms we encounter these days is social media. Playing an integral role in people’s lives around the world, social media has become increasingly popular to the extent that it significantly influences the human mind. Social media refers to the forms of electronic communication that allows people to share content quickly and efficiently. With social media usage on the rise, users are unaware of how mentally unhealthy it is to be frequently exposed to these computer-mediated technologies. Not only can social media services affect cognitive development, but it can be linked to depression and even make a difference to the way we think. Although it is inarguable that social media makes human interaction much more convenient and instant, our lives have been invaded by this wave of technology that we have lost the importance of face-to-face contact. We need to be reminded that interacting face-to-face is essential for communication because it is of higher quality and has the ability to satisfy more of our inherent social needs. With this in mind, it can certainly be inferred that social media has been ingrained into our society to the extent that it affects human behavior and changes our cognition.

Every tool has its own share of effects on society. Regarding social media, aggressive behaviors regularly displayed can cause users to experience depressive tendencies and transfer aggressive behaviors into different dimensions. Actions such as tagging only loved ones, transferring visual materials to virtual environments without others’ permission, and making oneself appear to have this great life by posting better aspects of one’s life, all classify as common aggressive behaviors presented on social media services. According to the World Journal on Educational Technology, being exposed to such aggressiveness can be linked to depression (Eraslan, Kukuoglu, 2019). A factor of depression is a loss of self-esteem, which is common in teenage girls, who compare themselves negatively with artfully curated images of those who appear to be prettier, thinner, more popular or richer. Comparing their lives with that of their friends on social media can cause users to experience envy if others seem to be doing better and are happier than they are. If this envy is not controlled early enough, it can grow into jealousy. This is a very unhealthy situation; users may be tempted to post jealousy-inducing content on their pages in order to challenge the “friend.” If their friend gets equally jealous, they might post to induce more jealousy. The curation of a perfect image cannot only make others feel inadequate, but it is also unhealthy for those who regularly do it. If they are getting positive feedback on their social media accounts, they might worry their friends would not accept their true self. What is viewed in the digital world is a version of the truth. On another note, social media gives individuals the opportunity to act rudely without taking responsibility for their actions, due to privacy that allows them to stay invisible. Although many users are exposed to aggressive behaviors everyday, they are prone to respond instinctively to an act of aggression in a similar hostile reaction. Thus, the pathological process transforms to different dimensions. All in all, online aggressiveness and its outcomes are prevailing over the true purpose of social media: to positively connect people through online means.

In addition to the correlation between depression and social media usage, there are effects of extensive online use on cognitive development in youth, “the prime users.” According to the Official Journal of the World Psychiatry Association, digital media use can lead to shallower thinking. In other words, having instant access to information takes away the need to engage in more cognitively effortful processes. One recent study investigated how both information and cognitive strategy propagated through different kinds of networks: undergraduate students had access to answers provided by highly-connected networks. They were able to correctly answer a question that required analytical reasoning, but were less likely to utilize analytic reasoning in later situations that required this cognitive strategy. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that individuals are less likely to adopt the kind of cognitive strategy needed to reach a solution when the solution is readily available. Another study examined how different forms of communication (face-to-face, video chat, audio chat, and instant messaging) impacted feelings of bonding and affiliation in a group of college students. By coding the amount of interpersonal cues shared between two friends in these four types of interaction, researchers were able to determine how digital communication could impact relationships. They found that interpersonal cues were lower in communications through digital media and that this decline was associated with decreased feelings of bonding and nonverbal affiliation cues. Additionally one concern about being online is how it could make individuals feel as though they are being evaluated by online peers. This could be problematic for adolescents, who are sensitive to social evaluation and exclusion. In a study, a group of adolescents who believed they were being watched by a peer in a laboratory setting, showed greater levels of arousal than children or adults. In another related study, when a group of older adolescents (aged 15-18 years) were actually watched by a present peer while performing a cognitive task, they performed worse than if they were watched by an adult or when performing the task alone. These two experiments suggest that constant evaluation by peers could increase the level of alertness in adolescents, as well as decrease the ability to perform tasks well. Another study measured how adolescents reacted to peer acceptance or rejection in a task that simulated an Internet chat room. As measured by pupil dilation, they showed more emotional and cognitive reactivity to rejection feedback. The participants that reacted strongly to the rejection feedback reported feelings of social disconnectedness in daily life. These findings indicate that online interactions have real–world consequences for the cognitive processes of adolescents.

Lastly, from a general perspective, social media platforms influence attentional capacities and memory processes. The Internet affects our attentional capacities through hyperlinks, notifications, and prompts providing a limitless stream of different forms of digital media. As a result, many are encouraged to interact with multiple inputs simultaneously, engaging in a behavioural pattern called “media multi‐tasking.” A study explored the impact of media multi‐tasking on cognitive capacities. Individuals engaged in extensive media multi‐tasking and were compared to those who did not. Cognitive testing of the two groups produced the surprising finding that those involved in heavy media multi‐tasking performed worse in task‐switching tests than their counterparts. Closer inspection of these findings suggested that the inability to successfully task-switch was due to an increased susceptibility to distraction from irrelevant environmental stimuli. Given the amount of time that people now spend in media multi‐tasking via personal digital devices, it is important to consider the sustained changes that arise in those who engage in large amounts of media multi‐tasking and the acute effects on immediate cognitive capacities. A meta‐analysis of 41 studies showed that engaging in multi‐tasking was associated with significantly poorer overall cognitive performance. This has been confirmed by more recent studies, further showing that even short‐term engagement with an extensively hyperlinked online environment reduces attentional scope for a sustained duration after coming offline, whereas reading a magazine does not produce these deficits. Overall, the available evidence strongly indicates that engaging in multi‐tasking via digital media does not improve our multi‐tasking performance in other settings and in fact seems to decrease this cognitive capacity through reducing our ability to ignore incoming distractions. 

In addition to attentional capacities being affected, social media introduces the possibility of replacing the need for certain human memory systems. By design, social media is internet-based and gives users quick electronic communication of content. Content includes personal information, documents, videos, and photos. An initial indication of the online world affecting typical memory processes was provided by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, which published an article about how the ability to access information online causes people to become more likely to remember where these facts could be retrieved rather than the facts themselves. As a result, people can easily become reliant on the Internet for information retrieval. It could be argued that this is not unique to the Internet, but rather just an example of the online world acting as a form of external memory or “transactive memory”. Transactive memory has been an integral part of human societies for millennia, and refers to the process by which people opt to outsource information to other individuals within their families, communities, etc., such that they are able to just remember the source of the knowledge, rather than attempting to store all of this information themselves. Although beneficial at a group level, using transactive memory systems does reduce an individual's ability to recall the specifics of the externally stored information. This may be due to individuals using transactive memory for “cognitive offloading” , implicitly reducing their allocation of cognitive resources towards remembering this information, since they know this will be available for future reference externally. However, the Internet seems to bypass the “transactional” aspect that is inherent to other forms of cognitive offloading in two ways. First, the Internet does not place any responsibility on the user to retain unique information for others to draw upon (as would typically be required in human societies). Second, unlike other transactive memory stores, the Internet acts as a single entity that is responsible for holding and retrieving virtually all factual information, and thus does not require individuals to remember what exact information is externally stored, or even where it is located. In this way, the Internet is becoming a “supernormal stimulus” for transactive memory – making all other options for cognitive offloading (including books, friends, community) redundant, as they are outcompeted by the novel capabilities for external information storage and retrieval made possible by the Internet.

In conclusion, the rise of social media makes a significant impact on our behavior and mentality in surprising ways. Aggressive behaviors exhibited on social media can result users to experience depression and a loss of self-esteem. Taking this into account, how is social media even connecting the general public? It is beyond belief that the illusion of social media connection can actually disconnect society. Regarding adolescents, who are considered the “prime users” of technology, social media sites prove to affect their cognitive development. With content and information readily available, it has become a reality for young adults to not engage in cognitive effortful processes. Additionally, the lack of face-to-face interaction can be linked to decreased feelings of bonding, making the digital connection the only connection present. Furthermore, having the outlook of being constantly evaluated lowers the potential to perform tasks well. On top of all this, it is common for users to react strongly to rejection feedback and this is associated with feelings of social disconnectedness. From a general perspective of the whole population, social media influences multi-tasking skills and memorization processes. Surprisingly, digital media decreases the cognitive capacity to multitask by narrowing our ability to ignore other distractions. With the media also having the ability to store information, people can rely on the memory of the internet, rather than their own brain. With the major consequences of online usage in view, it is understood that the process of thinking and human behavior is considerably shaped by the rise of social media.