Roshan Cools emphasises that many assumptions about social media have not yet been scientifically proven: “Social media is often associated with changes in mental health. That’s a reasonable assumption, but we don’t know for certain.”
Initial insights
The small-scale study featured in this documentary does, however, reveal clear effects. On average, the four teenagers slept longer, were better able to concentrate and reported being in a better mood. According to researcher Leonie Balter, the results are promising, but as only four teenagers were monitored for this documentary, further research is therefore needed.
Cools would like to expand that follow-up research to include brain scans: “With social media use, you can see that it has an impact on motivation, mood and attention. But whether that’s due to dopamine, we don’t know. We need to measure that.”
From experiment to larger-scale research
The documentary forms part of a broader aim to better understand the effect of social media use on the brain. The focus is on the dopamine system, which plays a key role in motivation and behaviour.