Author’s Name 1

Social media has completely dominated our lives. Teenagers spend most of their active time on social media. It

virtually links the individuals to friends and family from anywhere around the world. Most of the people use

social media to upload pictures and keep others updated on one’s activity. It acts like a digital archive

documenting every little activity of an individual. In the article the writer, Lauren E. Sherman emphasizes on

how some activities pertaining to an individual are influenced by the peers. While clicking the like button might

be an easy way to interact but those likes have the capacity to really effects one perspective or approach towards

a certain subject. The popularity of the post is calculated by the amount of likes it gets, which in turn leads more

people to like it and so on. Individuals are inclined towards activities that are encouraged online as it provides

one with a sense of belonging. Sometimes it can trigger a negative response, for instance if the idea of alcohol

or drugs is supported more people will start doing it because it might earn them recognition. The analysis

involved study of social endorsement, especially responses influenced by the large number of likes on negative

content.

The purpose of the UCLA study was to understand the amount of influence of peers. E. Sherman used a

quantitative method to conduct an experiment. A group of teenagers were asked to volunteer for the experiment.

The 32 teenagers were shown a number of pictures, some of them were submitted by the individual themselves.

The objective was to analyze change in brain activity due to the number of likes on Instagram.

The pictures were assigned a certain number of likes by the researchers; however the participants were

kept unaware and thought to have received the likes from their peers. According to magnetic resonance imaging

when a person came across their own pictures with large number of likes, most of their brain parts became

active. Similar to the effect of endorphins released as a result of eating chocolates, the individuals got excited as

a result of receiving more likes. The part of brain related to reward circuitry is the accumbens which was active

when they saw the likes on their photos. The brain activity which affects an individual’s cognitive control was
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not as active when the teenagers came across risky photos. While the individuals were more cautious when

viewing risky photos, a large number of likes still encouraged the activity for some.

The experiment served as means of understanding sociocultural behavior. A like provided a hint specific to

adolescents’ social activity and cultural pattern. The adolescents follow the pattern to become a part of the social

circle. Adolescents interact in multiple ways from setting a pattern for standard behavior to reinforcing that

behavior in their peers. Social media divides the individuals into these two groups. Some document their

behavior through the pictures they post on social forums while the others acknowledge the activity by giving it

more likes.

However there is a downside to the experiment. It was completely quantitative with no regards for

ambiguity. The results may vary from person to person. One individual’s brain activity cannot account for or

predict the general response the adolescents may exhibit. Also, there was no comparison between the amounts

of influence as result of physical interaction versus an online interaction. The FMRI only provides the possible

results but not the actual results, since the results are generated by computer and were not testified by the peer

themselves. Furthermore the lack of quantitative date and theoretical findings resulted in the unreliability and

possible inaccuracy of the results.

Nonetheless the experiment draws attention on a certain kind of social interaction specifically in

adolescents. While the understanding of the social pattern can prove to be adaptive, in that it places an

individual in a context and provides him with an opportunity to learn from his peers, it can be maladaptive in

case of a risky behavior being acknowledged by the peers. The findings does throw light on the fact that people

are influenced by the nature of the content and its popularity online, and how negative activities can be

prevented by monitoring the content and the social an adolescent is following.