Angie Li | November 22nd, 2024
You sit down to study for your upcoming chemistry midterm, telling yourself you’ll just check TikTok for five minutes. After all, it’s been a long week — you deserve it, right? One funny meme video turns into 10, and before you know it, an hour’s gone by — and your homework is still untouched and your study time is gone.
Social media plays a crucial role in our daily lives by offering entertainment and connection, but at the cost of our focus, attention span, and mental well-being.
Why is social media so addictive? Let’s explore how social media platforms are specifically designed to capture and hold our attention.
Attention span, working memory, and mental health
The average person checks their phone 144 times a day. There is a finite amount of attention that goes around a day, and companies are well aware of this — companies like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have designed social media platforms to capitalize on our limited attention. Ever wonder why it’s so hard to stop scrolling?
In order to maximize viewing, companies need to develop strategies that are specifically designed to keep us scrolling. Algorithms change depending on the content we view, share, and like, causing us to not only continue scrolling but keep coming back for more. Social media triggers the brain’s dopamine system, releasing dopamine each time we receive a notification, message, or like. Often called the “feel-good” neurotransmitter, dopamine reinforces behaviors by creating pleasurable feelings. This reinforcement makes us yearn for more, reinforcing a cycle of constant checking and scrolling. Each time we open Tiktok, Instagram, or Snapchat, among many others, we get instant gratification from dopamine hits that make social media so hard to resist. Doom-scrolling on social media is relentless.
Alongside dopamine hits, many students believe that they can multitask with social media and studying. However, this isn’t the case. The International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education states that “multitasking is negatively associated with GPA, test performance, information recall, comprehension, and note-taking.”
Research in Stanford’s School of Humanities & Sciences shows that “heavy media multitaskers are significantly underperforming on tasks of working memory and sustained attention.” That frustrating moment when you realize you didn’t retain anything from your reading while checking Instagram? It’s because your brain wasn’t really doing both tasks at once, it was switching between them — and that switching comes with a cognitive cost.
Constantly switching between apps fragments our working memory, the part of the brain that holds and processes information temporarily. Think of your working memory like a desk — when it’s cluttered with constant notifications and app-switching, there’s no space to really focus on studying or problem-solving. This is why you may feel like you can’t remember the material you just reviewed for an exam.
Not only does social media impact our ability to succeed, but it can also affect our mental health. The constant cycle of what many teenagers call “FOMO” (fear of missing out) from not checking social media can lead to apps becoming even more addictive. This anxiety can amplify distractions, making it harder for students to disengage from social media. Many Vanderbilt students can relate to scrolling through Instagram late at night, worrying that they’re missing out on social events or news, which in turn keeps them hooked.
“Students, especially freshmen, can get latched onto the silent expectation to have an active social life, and scrolling through social media can often invoke or exacerbate feelings of loneliness or missing out on what is perceived to be the perfect college experience,” said Vanderbilt first-year Suhani Joshi.
Potential remedies
Given the clear impact of social media on our attention and mental health, how can we regain control of our focus and ensure we succeed academically? We can implement two techniques in particular: single-tasking and mindful social media use.
Single-tasking rather than multitasking. You don’t have to let social media control your focus. Instead of juggling multiple things at once, like trying to check Instagram while writing a paper, set aside dedicated time for focused work. With the Pomodoro Technique, you can work for 25 minutes straight and then reward yourself with a five-minute break. This simple method makes studying feel less overwhelming while keeping your social media usage in check.
Mindful social media use. The key to regaining control over your attention isn’t about cutting social media out completely — it’s about being intentional with your time online. Curate your feed to include only accounts that inspire you, educate you, or genuinely bring value to your day. By unfollowing content that distracts or drains you, you can turn social media into a tool for education and growth, instead of a source of constant distraction.
As Vanderbilt students, we constantly navigate a world filled with academic workloads, extracurricular activities, and social interactions, with social media often at the center of it all. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok help us stay connected, yet finding a balance between digital engagement and focused time is crucial for our success.
“It was difficult to stop using these apps because I felt the need to keep up with public knowledge and distract myself when faced with difficult things,” said sophomore Nina De Leon. “However, after the apps were gone, my mind was clear, and I had so much time to focus on important aspects of my life, like my school work. I started using a version of the Pomodoro Technique to complete tasks where I would work for 50 minutes and then take a 10-minute break.”
De Leon’s commitment to limiting her social media usage allowed her to turn her habits around, improving both her academic performance and overall well-being.
“I managed to get my work done with ease and minimal stress,” De Leon said. “I would say that deleting social media was a beneficial idea because it allowed me to live my life in the present and put my energy towards things that mattered.”
Just like when you sat down to study for that chemistry midterm and got lost in TikTok, it’s easy to let time slip away. But by understanding the effects of social media on our focus, Vanderbilt students have shown that small changes — like setting boundaries and using techniques similar to the Pomodoro Technique — can lead to big improvements. So, the next time you’re tempted to scroll, ask yourself, “How much could I accomplish if I reclaimed that time?” Who knows, you might even ace that chemistry midterm — without needing a TikTok tutorial to get there.
References
The “Attention Economy”: The New Currency of the Digital Age. (2023, October 16). Discover Economics. Retrieved October 7, 2024, from https://www.discovereconomics.co.uk/post/the-attention-economy-the-new-currency-of-the-digital-age.
Bates, S. (2018, October 25). Heavy multitaskers have reduced memory | Stanford Report. Stanford Report. Retrieved October 7, 2024, from https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2018/10/decade-data-reveals-heavy-multitaskers-reduced-memory-psychologist-says.
Cell Phone Statistics 2024 | ConsumerAffairs®. (2023, September 28). Consumer Affairs. Retrieved October 7, 2024, from https://www.consumeraffairs.com/cell_phones/cell-phone-statistics.html.
Efficient, helpful, or distracting? A literature review of media multitasking in relation to academic performance – International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. (2018, February 27). International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. Retrieved October 7, 2024, from https://educationaltechnologyjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41239-018-0096-z.
Waters, J. (2021, August 22). Constant craving: how digital media turned us all into dopamine addicts. The Guardian. Retrieved October 7, 2024, from https://www.theguardian.com/global/2021/aug/22/how-digital-media-turned-us-all-into-dopamine-addicts-and-what-we-can-do-to-break-the-cycle.
Adisa, D. (2023, October 30). Everything You Need to Know About Social Media Algorithms. Sprout Social. Retrieved October 21, 2024, from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-algorithms/.