Study Suggests Correlation Between Digital Media Use by Teens, ADHD

Hello, readers! This is Sy.

One of the biggest questions surrounding social media’s explosive, seemingly all-encompassing subjugation of everyday life is: How the heck is the tech affecting our brains?

There have been some mixed results in this (admittedly very early) research; but a new study suggests a correlation (ahem, that is: not necessarily a causation) between excess digital media use by teens and ADHD.

The research was published by USC, UCSD, and UCLA scientists in the journal JAMA. The study involved analyzing nearly 3,000 high school students’ digital and social media habits over the course of two years (specifically, the behavior of 15- and 16-year-olds who didn’t show significant ADHD symptoms to begin with).

As always, it’s important to note the study’s weaknesses and caveats: Results were self-reported, so it was up to the participants to divulge their frequency of digital media use.

Still, the results raised some interesting questions: “Among adolescents followed up over 2 years, there was a statistically significant but modest association between higher frequency of digital media use and subsequent symptoms of ADHD. Further research is needed to determine whether this association is causal,” wrote the study authors.

But, given the nature of modern society, in which smartphones and social media have increasingly become critical tools for staying connected and living everyday life, the broader question raised by such studies is: What can be done about it? Can the potential public, mental health effects of the digital age be warded off by taking regular screen breaks, or preventing children under a certain age from being exposed to digital media all the time? At this juncture, we still seem to have more questions than answers.

Read on for the day’s news.

Sy Mukherjee

@the_sy_guy

sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com

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