Can We Safety-Proof Our Kids' Brains in This Digital Age?

Digital interactions trump in-person social Interaction.

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American teens are spending nearly five hours a day on social media (Gallup Panel, 2023). For some youth, this equals nearly one-third of their waking hours! You have probably read that digital and social media can have a negative impact on our brains. So, how do we address this problem? You may not have already known that there are scientifically backed, effective ways to combat the potential negative cognitive and emotional health effects of the fast-paced digital world in which we live. This blog post will overview the problem as well as its potential solutions, especially for concerned parents.

Restricting Kids From Social Media Hurts

As a published attention and cognition researcher, an educator, and a professional mentor to college students for over 20 years, I know about the need to apply psychological research to help young Americans lead a happier, healthier, and more balanced life. As a parent of two teens and two tweens, I understand the frustration parents face when trying to figure out how to control the digital diet our children consume, a task admittedly easier said than done. Parents don't want their children to feel socially isolated. We know that there are benefits to social media from our own healthy social media use to keep in touch with friends. Parents can feel their children's angst when they take away their digital media, and data suggest that teens and young adults feel extremely isolated from "their world," lonely, and even symptoms of withdrawal when their cell phones are completely removed (ICMPA, 2010).

What's a Parent to Do?

All of the above poses a big dilemma. As parents, we want to help our children so they can reap the benefits of online social interactions such as safe, healthy use of social media, yet we want to shield them from the perceived potentially negative effects of too much digital media. The potential negative effects of social media use that cause parents to worry include reported effects such as developing a shorter attention span, online addictive behaviors (including gambling for teens), psychologically unhealthy self-comparison, being cyber-bullied, or replacing healthy and productive activities (e.g., physical exercise, socializing, or reading books) with potentially harmful excessive digital media use. There is a strong correlation between high social media usage and overall poor mental health (Rothwell, 2023). It might be poor mental health that is driving increased social media use.

Proactive Parenting Can Help

Instead of being stressed out and filled with our own anxiety about how our children's digital and social media usage may be affecting them, we can do our best to counter the risks posed by overreliance on digital media. We can take proactive steps to get familiar with our children's feelings about life and school. Teens are often reluctant to share how they feel with parents/caregivers for fear of disappointing them. This and Rothwell's 2023 finding that strong parental relationships cut the risk of social media-related mental health risks are both great reasons to nurture your parental relationship with your kids. We can get to know our children's school counselors before any problems may ever arise. According to the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP, 2024), school psychologists aim to ensure that all students have access to the full range of school psychological services they need to be successful and to provide referrals to those who may need more than limited school psychological services.

A Case for Intervention With Neurofeedback

Ultimately, however, we as parents have to parent in a new way for this digital age. For example, there are not enough school psychologists around to help all children in school maintain optimal psychological wellness. Currently, there is only a single school psychologist available for every 1,119 students in the United States on average (NASP, 2024). Many have caseloads with the students who are not doing well and need them most. All people in psychological distress can benefit from the help of a health care professional and positive changes that will impact their overall mental wellness. Even if your child's psychological health seems fine, we can improve their quality of life by feeding them a brain-healthy diet of intellectually stimulating conversation, games, supplements, and foods (e.g., Firth et al., 2019; Djamila et al., 2023) and even neurofeedback to counter the potential negative effects of the pervasiveness of digital media in their generation.

Neurofeedback is an accessible, scientific way to change your brain activity and how you interact with your environment. Neurofeedback is a kind of biofeedback that teaches self-control of brain functions to subjects by measuring brain waves and providing an audio and/or visual feedback signal. The effects are greatest and most long-lasting when training is done early in childhood and life when the brain is more malleable and self-concept can improve (Martínez-Briones, 2023).

Individualized neurofeedback that involves a brain map, called qEEG, is the most beneficial since the map is used to create an individualized protocol for neurofeedback training (NFT) instead of a generic one. This way, each individual's brain activity can be personally targeted for improvement based on their own brain wave activity pattern. NFT can also be completed at home by renting or purchasing a mobile unit from a neurofeedback provider who will guide you in your progress and goals. Neurofeedback is an American Pediatric Association-approved "first line" of treatment used to improve symptoms of poor attention span and focus. This type of neurofeedback (19-channel) is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of anxiety, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and poor sleep.

Alternative Low-Tech Ways to Help

If individualized qEEG-based neurofeedback training is not yet available in your area or you don't want to spend the money on more expensive, invasive alternatives (such as a SPECT scan) or to use less-effective home systems that provide generic biofeedback, here are some alternatives to try that can help you and your children improve cognitive and emotional functioning in general. Many simple positive activities, such as practicing acts of kindness and expressing gratitude increase social wellness (Lyubomirsky and Layous, 2013). Engage your children's minds in problem-solving and challenging games regularly. Playing traditional board games has been shown to be related to a neural reorganization of brain areas associated with attentional control, working memory, problem-solving, and executive functioning (Noda and Nakao, 2019). Sudoku, chess, and collaborative board games that promote social skills are others that can help.