A recent study has found that social media use, unlike video games or television, is specifically linked to increasing inattention symptoms among children over time. The research, published in Pediatrics Open Science, followed more than 8,000 children from age 9 into early adolescence to assess the impact of different types of digital media on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms.
Researchers analyzed data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, a nationwide cohort in the United States. Children self-reported their average daily time spent on social media, video games, and television/videos using the Youth Screen Time Survey. Parents provided ratings of ADHD-related symptoms through the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), focusing on inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity.
The study accounted for genetic risk by calculating a polygenic risk score for ADHD (PGS-ADHD) based on genome-wide association data. Other factors considered included age, sex assigned at birth, study site location, and socioeconomic status.
Results showed that children spent an average of 1.4 hours per day on social media, 1.5 hours playing video games, and 2.3 hours watching television or videos. Over four years of follow-up, only social media use was associated with small but consistent increases in inattention scores (standardized β per year approximately 0.03; estimated four-year change β ≈ 0.15). Video game play and television viewing were not linked to increased ADHD symptoms; some analyses even suggested slight decreases in hyperactivity-impulsivity related to these activities.
The researchers explained: "The observed association was specific to social media use rather than digital media exposure overall." They added that directionality analyses indicated a path from social media use to later inattention rather than the reverse: "Children with higher inattention at one wave did not subsequently report more social media time," supporting the conclusion that reverse causation was not evident.
These findings held across various sensitivity checks—including when limiting the sample to term births or typically developing children—and regardless of assumptions about missing data. Genetic risk for ADHD correlated with baseline symptoms and some initial screen habits but did not moderate the link between social media use and later inattention.
The association between social media use and increased inattention was consistent across subgroups divided by sex, baseline ADHD diagnosis, or medication status.
From a public health standpoint, even small individual effects can have broader implications at scale. The authors noted: "While the individual-level effect on concentration was small, at a population level it could have a meaningful impact." They projected that as average daily social media exposure increases—rising from about 30 minutes at age nine to around two-and-a-half hours by age thirteen—the proportion of children crossing clinical thresholds for attention problems could also rise.
The authors suggested that constant messages and notifications inherent to social platforms may disrupt sustained attention even without active engagement: "Social media’s constant stream of messages, alerts, and notifications may interfere with sustained attention."
They concluded: "Not every child who uses social media will struggle," but recommended actions such as setting age limits and controlling notifications while noting these steps go beyond what their study directly tested. The results may inform parental guidance and policy discussions regarding healthy digital media habits for youth; future research will examine whether these associations persist into later adolescence.
