Cortisol can disrupt the brain’s ability to manage stress, such as provoked by traumatic social media content—and its impact is even more intense for adolescents.
in this process is cortisol, which is released as part of the stress response. Changing cortisol levels during development help explain why teenagers may react more strongly to online traumatic content compared with adults.
The stress response triggered by a traumatic incident or image involves activation of the brain’s amygdala. In turn, the amygdala activates the the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal gland , which eventually leads to the release of cortisol from the adrenal gland. This state persists until the cortex downwardly regulates the amygdala, and stops the HPA cascade–the part of the brain that helps us to think clearly and stay in control. This process strengthens the prefrontal cortex’s ability to calm the amygdala, which is responsible for emotional reactions like . As a result, the stress response slows down, emotional reactions become more regulated, and we feel less overwhelmed. When the stressor is intense, or lasts a long time, the body produces higher levels of cortisol. Too much cortisol can reduce activity in the prefrontal cortex. When this communication breaks down, the amygdala becomes more active and less regulated by the prefrontal cortex. As a result, the body’s stress response stays switched on, emotions feel stronger, and it becomes harder to manage them. Thus, cortisol is involved in regulating communication between brain structures that control and regulate stress responses. The key thing to know, when explaining greater reactivity to traumatic social media images for children, is that levels of cortisol change as we develop and grow. The change in cortisol levels with maturation helps to explain the greater sensitivity of teenage individuals to traumatic content on social media. During puberty, there are relatively greater levels of cortisol in the body’s system; perhaps because the HPA axis matures during this stage of a person’s development. Higher levels of cortisol promote limbic reactivity at the expense of cortical regulation . Sadly, the downwardly regulating prefrontal cortex does not mature as quickly, meaning there is less counterweight to limbic activity when people are younger. What counterweight there is gets ‘turned off’ by the relatively higher levels of cortisol, as it inhibits theConsequently, adolescence is marked by heightened stress sensitivity and emotionality. Exposure to social media with traumatic content, like suicide and self-harm, can produce a stress responseHowever, it is not just the lack of fully-developed brain structures and pathways, coupled with heightened levels of cortisol, that cause vulnerability to stressors for children. The cortical-limbic pathways that are in place for younger people may be more likely to react to cortisol in the system. For adults, the effect of cortisol is modulated across many neural pathways, but for the child, with fewer and less well-developed paths, they may reach the point where downward cortical control is reduced, and become dysregulated, much more quickly.—and there is a heightened sensitivity to stressors for adolescents, then this material can be more triggering for younger individuals. As younger people respond to the perceived traumatic stimuli, the reactions provoked can be less easy for them to regulate, and these can lead to harms more quicklyThe question then becomes: How to mitigate the impact of cortisol on the younger brain and body, so that exposure to traumatic social media content, should it happen, will produce less intense reactions? One way to mitigate the effects of raised cortisol is not to allow those in the early-teenage years to view such content. This, of course, would be nearly impossible to police, and has been analysed as being highly unlikely to work. As a result, there are very few countries where a social media ban has been implemented, and studying the effects on younger people of removing this potential stressor is confounded by the fact that most countries that do ban social media tend to be somewhat More likely to be effective is ensuring that lifestyle behaviours are set up to reduce baseline levels of cortisol. Among the things that reduce cortisol and reactivity to stress is having consistent and adequate sleep—for adolescents, this is seven to nine hours a night. Regular low-to-moderate exercise and stress-reduction techniques like/self-harm material on adolescents may be enhanced, and more dangerous than for adults, due, among other things, to increased levels of cortisol. Whilst reducing social media interactions and/or banning social media is unlikely to work, preparing for stress might protect the adolescent.2. Pan, D., Jentsch, V.L., Langer, K., Hagedorn, B., Höffken, O., Wolf, O.T., & Merz, C.J. . What a difference timing makes: Cortisol effects on neural underpinnings of emotion regulation.3. Datta, D., & Arnsten, A.F. . Loss of prefrontal cortical higher cognition with uncontrollable stress: molecular mechanisms, changes with age, and relevance to treatment.4. McEwen, B.S., & Morrison, J.H. . The brain on stress: vulnerability and plasticity of the prefrontal cortex over the life course.6. Glass, D. J., Godwin, J., Bez, E., Corley, M. K., Valeggia, C. R., & Martin, M. A. . Longitudinal analysis of cortisol changes during pubertal development in indigenous Qom girls.7. Arendt, F., Scherr, S., & Romer, D. . Effects of exposure to self-harm on social media: Evidence from a two-wave panel study among young adults.10. Fardouly, J. . Potential effects of the social media age ban in Australia for children younger than 16 years.The Friend EffectSelf Tests are all about you. Are you outgoing or introverted? Are you a narcissist? Does perfectionism hold you back? Find out the answers to these questions and more with Psychology Today.
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