The popular YouTube channel AsapSCIENCE recently created a video on the crazy ways social media is changing our brains.

Here are a few interesting takeaways:

• 1/3 of the entire world use social media sites
• 5-10% of Internet users are unable to control how much time they spend online (a majority of these must be social media managers!).
• Heavy social media users perform worse during multi-tasking tasks. I may have to disagree with this one!
• Phantom Vibration Syndrome, the psychological phenomenon where you think your phone went off but it didn’t, is a recent symptom that 89% of people say they experience once every 2 weeks. Social media is actually rewiring our nervous system!
• Social medie trigggers a release of dopamine, the feel-good chemical, since it provides immediate rewards from things like a “like” or “retweet.” The reward center in your brain is then activated.
• People like talking about themselves, which releases dopamine. While 30-40% of face-to-face communications revolve around talking about yourself, an astounding 80% of social media communication is self-involved, thus releasing more dopamine during social media use.
• Partners tend to like each other more if they meet online. There is a statisitcal increase in successful partnerships that start online.

Watch the full video here:
[embedplusvideo height=”315″ width=”560″ editlink=”http://bit.ly/1ulQCGz” standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/HffWFd_6bJ0?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=HffWFd_6bJ0&width=560&height=315&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=&notes=” id=”ep2275″ /]