What Happens to Boys' Attention After a Year of Compulsive Social Media Use

A boy who increases time spent compulsively on social networks tends to show more symptoms of ADHD a year later. This was found by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, in a study that followed 11,286 American adolescents over five years, from about 12 to 16 years of age. The report, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, does not operate in the opposite direction: symptoms of inattention do not predict increased problematic social media use.

The team, led by pediatrician Jason Nagata, cross-referenced five annual surveys collected between 2017 and 2023. On one side, the responses from the boys about their relationship with social media (recurring thoughts about the platform, failed attempts to reduce use, need to retreat online to escape problems), and on the other side, parental assessments of attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity of their children.

The numbers emerging from the statistical model are modest but consistent over time. Between the fourth and fifth year of data collection, the increase in compulsive social media use predicted an increase in ADHD symptoms with a coefficient of 0.08 (95% confidence interval between 0.03 and 0.12), and the value remains the same in the subsequent period. The reverse path, from ADHD symptoms to social media use, produces a lower coefficient (0.04) and is not confirmed in the following survey.

The effect almost exclusively concerns males. Separating the data by sex, the association between compulsive social media use and ADHD symptoms is significant only among boys: 0.11 in the transition from the fourth to the fifth year, 0.07 in the next one. Among girls, the same statistical link is not confirmed in either of the two time windows analyzed.

Nagata links this to a higher male sensitivity to immediate rewards typical of adolescence. "Social platforms encourage constant switching from one task to another and offer a constant flow of stimuli," the researcher explained, emphasizing how this mechanism makes it harder to maintain the attention needed for school and daily life. The design functions of the apps, he added, reinforce impulsivity through immediate gratification and continuous novelty, a mix that can compromise working memory and executive control.

The study arrives in a context where, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 7 million American children and adolescents between the ages of 3 and 17 have already received an ADHD diagnosis, with an incidence among males twice that of females.

The authors do acknowledge some limitations. ADHD symptoms were reported by parents and not clinically measured, and the sample is predominantly composed of white adolescents from middle-to-high income families. Additionally, the annual surveys do not capture any short-term effects and, being an observational study, the researchers avoid speaking of direct causality.

Nagata suggests that parents focus less on the total time spent online and more on specific signals: whether the child can stop whenever they want, if social media interferes with studying or social relationships, and if symptoms similar to those of addiction appear, such as withdrawal and relapse. One aspect remains crucial, he reminded: "Parental screen use is a very strong predictor of how much time children will spend in front of a screen."