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AMERICAN V AM PSY'CN^ OLOGICA Usm wow ASSOCIATION TMEM Now SERVICES,INC. p Children's interactions with peers are not merely for fun. It is within the social context that most children's education occurs; thus, peer interactions significantly affect cognitive development. The peer context also is the milieu in which children learn social rules, norms, and expectations; develop emotional competence and morality;and in which all of children's behaviors are consistently reinforced (or corrected), thus influencing long-term behavioral development. Indeed, numerous studies have revealed that children's interactions with peers have enduring effects on their occupational status, salary, relationship success, emotional development, mental health, and even on physical health and mortality over 40 years later 6. These effects are stronger than the effects of children's IQ, socioeconomic status, and educational attainment. These enduring effects likely occur because of remarkably powerful and reciprocal interactions between youths' social experiences and their biological development. Children's brains and peripheral nervous systems influence how they interact with peers, and in turn,those experiences change the development of their brain structures, neural pathways, and even how their nervous system responds to stress throughout their lives. Our brains, our bodies, and our society have been evolving together to shape human development for millennia, influencing our communities, our culture, and our society. Within the last twenty years, the advent of portable technology and social media platforms is changing what took 60,000 years to evolve. We are just beginning to understand how this may impact youth development. I will first discuss the potential effects of technology and social media use on youth mental health. This will include an outline of five main issues emerging from the research, including the risks of pre-adulthood use of social media, the ramifications that come from unmonitored (and "liked") content online, the potential effects of digital stress, the encouragement of social comparisons, and research demonstrating benefits of social media use among youth. In the 6 For a review, see;Prinstein,M. J., & Giletta,M. (2020). Future Directions in Peer Relations Research. Journal of Clinical Child&Adolescent Psychology,49(4),556-572..t.lL)s:// oi.orl::/➢0 I080/i5:� 44� 6.2020.i 756299. 5 APA.ORG APASERVICES.ORG 750 Furst street,NIIE 202.336.5800 Advocating for APA rrte tiers ood psychology Washington,DC'20002-4242 202.336,6i123 TDD