Your childs brain on TikTok

During the 1980’s, a number of commercials were developed to fight the proliferation of street drugs like crack cocaine. One of the more memorable attempts to catch peoples’ attention began with an actor holding up an egg and telling the viewer, “This is your brain”. The egg was then broken open into a smoking hot skillet, where it began to fry vigorously (and burn).  Turning to face the camera, the actor then said (cue deadly-serious gravitas), “This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?”.  It resulted in a lot of jokes, cliches, and mockery. But the message was visual, visceral, and easy to understand.

This is your brain

This your brain on TIKTOK

Short Videos are Buzzin’

If you’re a parent, you’ve probably seen your child glued to TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Reels. These video platforms are intended to be fun and entertaining. However, every time your child swipes to the next video, their brain releases dopamine in an area called the nucleus accumbens. This is the reward center of the brain. A shot of dopamine in this region causes us to feel good about what we are doing (or just did)… and it also causes us to want more of that feeling. This is the same part of the brain that gets a shot of dopamine from things like crack cocaine, meth, tobacco, gambling, etc.

Yes, you can probably see where I’m going with this…

“But Dr. Poysky, the dopamine kick from a short video isn’t as powerful as these other addictive things” you might say to me. And you would be correct. “Whew! We dodged a bullet!” you might be thinking to yourself.

Well…not so correct.

I’m simplifying things here, but there are important factors that contribute to how addictive something can be. In a “Captain Obvious” kind of way, one of these factors is how powerful the burst of dopamine is that is triggered. A less obvious, yet just as important factor, is the frequency of the reinforcement schedule. This is a fancy way of describing how often the behavior (or drug consumption) has to occur, in order to keep that dopamine kick going. In other words, how long will the dopamine kick last before it wears off, and when will I need to do it again to get that same feeling. This is why crack cocaine is so addictive (huge dopamine burst, and it only lasts about 30-40 minutes before you need another hit). Although cigarettes don’t give you the same dopamine hit, their high-frequency reinforcement schedule (90-120 minutes) hook you in and make them one of the hardest things to quit.

Gimme Another Hit…

At this point, you’re thinking that Dr. Poysky is on an “old man rant” and veering off-target. And you would be correct. However, here’s the thing; the reinforcement schedule for short-format videos is 90 seconds. Most kids and teens don’t even watch the full thing, so we are probably really talking 15-45 seconds. The way they consume these videos is by flipping/swiping one to the next, to the next, to the next, and on and on...

Because the supply of videos is endless, this reward system gets activated over and over again, with no break, no “down-time”, often hundreds of times in one sitting. Several years ago I checked my daughter’s phone usage (she was in high school at the time), and over the course of a 1-hour time period, she had flipped through over 350 short-format videos. Based on my experience working with thousands of families, this amount is not unusual.

Cue Sinister Music…

To make matters worse, the whole goal, the entire business model of companies like TikTok, YouTube, Insta, etc., is dependent on keeping your child/teen engaged. Their algorithms have become incredibly sophisticated, and they rapidly learn what will hook your child in, and keep eyeballs on the screens. They adapt rapidly, and quickly learn what to dangle like bait. This is like when cigarette companies took steps to make their products more addictive, and their marketing more appealing to kids. In many ways it’s actually worse, because it’s more interactive, is available everywhere, and has been sold as harmless entertainment (or free speech, or intelligent exchange of ideas, or expressions of creativity…etc.). It’s like carrying a cigarette machine around in your pocket everywhere you go, with new exciting brands and flavors for you to explore every time you have a free moment…

Here’s the Worst Part…

Not surprisingly, scientific evidence is emerging that indicates that the stimulation your child’s brain gets from short-videos can have a dark side. The nucleus accumbens adjusts over time, and gets used to the non-stop dopamine surge that occurs with the frequent viewing of these videos. It comes to expect it…to crave it…to NEED IT. Yes, this sounds like addiction, doesn’t it?

Even if full-blown addiction doesn’t occur, frequent watching of short-format videos can have an effect on your child:

General Mental Health: it becomes the default, “go to” activity. It competes with other activities that actually contribute to positive quality of life, such as hobbies, creative endeavors, and in-person social interactions. Especially in teens, it has become an automatic reflex whenever they feel bored to reach for their phone and flip through TikTok. Why expend energy learning something new when it takes no effort to scroll through videos (that don’t require much thinking, or any problem-solving)?

Attention and Self-Regulation: When your brain gets used to a continuous level of increased stimulation, it makes other activities without that same level of stimulation feel really boring. This makes it more and more difficult to stay mentally engaged in activities that are lengthier and/or require more mental effort, and are not inherently fun or exciting (e.g., homework). This also makes it harder to tolerate situations that require patience, delaying gratification, or making decisions based on longer-term outcomes. In particular, my colleagues and I suspect that children with pre-existing attention problems (ADD, ADHD), who by definition already have problems in these areas, are even more likely to be negatively affected in this manner.

What You Can Do…

I realize that, at least on some level, I may be over-catastrophizing things. At the same time, I truly believe that many parents are under-appreciating the impact that short-form video platforms can have on their child’s developing brain. Either way, with the rise of generative AI, these videos aren’t going away, and will likely proliferate on an exponential scale. As parents, there are things we can do to help protect our children, while also helping them learn to set their own boundaries in a healthy manner.

·         Develop a Family Electronics Plan that all family members agree to follow. This should stipulate some ground rules and defining concrete limits (no one “owns” an electronics device, there is no inherent right to privacy on your device, etc.). This should be a written document. Try to include your child’s input in the development of this. There are numerous examples of how to do this online.

• Set firm limits, and stick to them for when devices can be used, how much time can be spent on what activities, required breaks, where devices can be used, etc. Start with a high degree of structure and limits, and allow more freedom as they show good judgement and ability to follow expectations. Trust is earned, and this applies to device usage as well. Also, make sure you practice saying this: “I don’t care if your friends’ parents let them spend as much time on their device as they want. Unlike them, we’re actually good parents, so this is how we’re going to set things up.” You can be more diplomatic if you want.

• Encourage (require) time spent on other activities like hobbies, or sports, Scouts, Youth Groups, other social or extracurricular things.

• Have honest conversations about how apps are designed to keep them hooked, the impact it has on their brain, and how tech companies use their engagement to make money.

• Model healthy tech habits so your child sees balance in action. Don’t be the one who preaches the dangers, but then succumbs to the very things you are decrying.

• Install Parent Monitoring/Control Apps on all devices. The purpose is to help your child set limits, and learn how to manage things, it isn’t to be a control freak or to use electronics in a punitive way. The apps that are inherent to the factor operating system (e.g., Screen Time, Google Family) are not sufficient. There are a number of different ones, but for third-party, after-market apps I think Bark works best for Apple devices, and Boomerang works best for Android (although both apps work with multiple operating systems).  They require you to learn how to operate them, and there is some effort and work you have to put in on the front end to get them working the way you want. It can seem confusing at first, but you’ll figure it out, and it will really pay off once you get it all set up. Nothing is perfect, and there are always loopholes, but these apps cover a lot of bases.

• Just a side note: DON’T MAKE YOUR CHILD THE PRIMARY ACCOUNT HOLDER ON THEIR PHONE, RESTRICT THEIR ABILITY TO INSTALL APPS, AND DON’T GIVE THEM THE PASSWORD TO ALLOW THEM ACCESS TO MAKE CHANGES TO THE SETTINGS!!! I’m not sure why I have to actually tell people these things, but I keep finding that I do…

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Don’t get me started on video games…