Can Social Media Affect Children’s Focus?

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Children who spend more time on social media may show small increases in inattention over time, according to a study published in Pediatrics Open Science.

Many children today spend a large portion of their day using digital media, including watching videos, playing video games and engaging with social media. Researchers have been interested in whether time spent on these activities might be linked to symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), such as difficulty paying attention or staying focused.

To better understand this, a team of investigators followed 8,324 children, around age 10, for four years as part of the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study.

The children reported how much time they spent daily on social media, video games, and watching television or videos, while parents reported on ADHD-related behaviors. The researchers also considered each child’s genetic risk for ADHD and socioeconomic background. On average, children spent 2.3 hours per day watching TV/videos, 1.5 hours per day playing video games and 1.4 hours per day on social media.

The study found that higher social media use was linked to a gradual increase in inattention symptoms over the four-year period. This association was small for each child, but across the population, even a small increase in inattention could have meaningful consequences. Importantly, no similar link was found for video games or TV/video watching.

“Our study suggests that it is specifically social media that affects children’s ability to concentrate,” said Torkel Klingberg, Ph.D., professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, in Sweden. “Social media entails constant distractions in the form of messages and notifications, and the mere thought of whether a message has arrived can act as a mental distraction. This affects the ability to stay focused and could explain the association.”

Additionally, the link between social media and inattention was consistent regardless of sex, existing ADHD diagnosis, genetic risk or use of ADHD medications. Interestingly, children with higher inattention symptoms did not tend to use social media more over time, suggesting that social media use may influence attention, rather than the other way around.

“Greater consumption of social media might explain part of the increase we’re seeing in ADHD diagnoses, even if ADHD is also associated with hyperactivity, which didn’t increase in our study,” said Klingberg.

Investigators noted the strengths of the study included following a large group of children over time, incorporating genetic information and analyzing different types of digital media use. However, it relied on children’s self-reported screen time and parent-reported ADHD symptoms, which may not capture every detail, and certain groups of children (e.g., those with severe neurological conditions or autism) were not included. Despite these limitations, the results linking social media use to increased inattention appear reliable and unlikely to be explained by measurement issues.

In short, while the effect of social media on children’s attention appears modest, this research suggests that frequent social media use may contribute to small increases in inattention over time. Parents and caregivers may want to consider monitoring and moderating social media use, especially for children at risk for attention difficulties, while remembering that other forms of digital media, like video games or TV, were not associated with increased ADHD-related symptoms in this study.

“We hope that our findings will help parents and policymakers make well-informed decisions on healthy digital consumption that support children’s cognitive development,” said lead investigator Samson Nivins, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Karolinska Institutet.