Durch den Aufbau sozialer Kontakte online und über soziale Medien verringert sich (-40 %) die Interaktion der Menschen mit den geposteten Inhalten und das Lernen daraus, steigert aber ihre Netzwerkleistung deutlich (+65 %). Dieses Verhalten ist sogar bei Personen mit einer höheren Arbeitsgedächtniskapazität weit verbreitet (über 150 %).

>The research involved around 1,000 adults aged between 18 and 77 across five experiments. In each study, participants engaged with simulated social media environments, such as joining groups, following pages, or becoming friends with others. Their exposure to content, as well as their memory for both content (“who knows what”) and social connections (“who knows who”), was then assessed.
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>One of the experiments found participants engaging with an online community showed a notable drop in content learning. Overall, recall accuracy for “who knew what” decreased by around 40%. Conversely, their memory for social connections was significantly boosted, with accuracy in reporting ‘who knew whom’ increasing by around 65%.
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>“This pattern reflects a cognitive trade off. Rather than encoding information itself, individuals increasingly track who possesses the information. It indicates that people engage with and use the social network like an external hard drive for the brain. Once information is perceived as being stored ‘out there’ in the network, the mind reduces effort in remembering it independently,” Dr Kang explained.
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>“The strength of this switch also appears to be determined by working memory capacity. Individuals with higher working memory capacity showed a more than 50% reduction in  content recall, but a dramatic increase (over 150%) in accuracy in tracking social connections after forming connections to others. In contrast, individuals with lower working memory capacity performed more consistently. These high working memory individuals are not just being lazy. Rather, they are demonstrating efficiency, recognising they can retrieve content later through their network, so they invest their attention in understanding who is connected to whom rather than in absorbing content immediately.”
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>The results highlight a hidden trade off in digital environments. While social networks make information easier to access, they may also reduce deep learning and independent knowledge formation.
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[Tracking connections, not content: How working memory shapes content and social learning in online networks – ScienceDirect](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103126000557?via%3Dihub)