Social media behaviors increase during adolescence, and quantifiable feedback metrics (e.g., likes, followers) may amplify the value of social status for teens. Social media’s impact on adolescents’ daily affect may be exacerbated given the neurodevelopmental changes that increase youths’ sensitivity to socio-emotional information. This study examines whether neurobiological sensitivity to popularity moderates daily links between social media use and affect. Adolescents (N = 91, M_age=13.6 years, SD_age=0.6 years) completed an fMRI task in which they viewed faces of their high (>1 SD above the mean) and low (<1 SD below the mean) popular peers based on peer-nominated sociometric ratings from their school social networks. Two years later, adolescents reported their time spent on social media and affect daily for two weeks. Neural tracking of popularity in the ventromedial and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex moderated the association between time on social media and affect. Specifically, adolescents who tracked high popular peers in the vmPFC reported more positive affect on days when they used social media more. Adolescents who tracked low popular peers in the vmPFC and dmPFC reported more negative affect on days when they used social media more. Results suggest that links between social media and affect depend on individual differences in neural sensitivity to popularity.

青春期期间社交媒体行为增加，可量化的反馈指标（例如，喜欢、关注者）可能会放大青少年社会地位的价值。鉴于神经发育变化增加了青少年对社会情感信息的敏感性，社交媒体对青少年日常情感的影响可能会加剧。这项研究探讨了神经生物学对流行度的敏感性是否会调节社交媒体使用和情感之间的日常联系。青少年（N = 91，M_年龄= 13.6 岁，SD_年龄= 0.6 岁）完成了一项功能磁共振成像任务，其中他们观察了高受欢迎程度（高于平均值 > 1 SD）和低受欢迎程度（低于平均值 < 1 SD）同龄人的面孔基于学校社交网络中同行提名的社会计量评级。两年后，青少年报告了他们在社交媒体上花费的时间，并在两周内每天都受到影响。腹内侧和背内侧前额叶皮层受欢迎程度的神经追踪调节了社交媒体上的时间和情感之间的关联。具体来说，在 vmPFC 中追踪高受欢迎同龄人的青少年在更多使用社交媒体的日子里报告了更积极的影响。在 vmPFC 和 dmPFC 中跟踪不太受欢迎的同龄人的青少年报告称，当他们更多地使用社交媒体时，他们会受到更多的负面影响。结果表明，社交媒体和情感之间的联系取决于神经对受欢迎程度的敏感性的个体差异。