The Science Behind the Story of Social Media and Teen Mental Health

Join the Cyber Policy Center, together with the Program on Democracy and the Internet for The Science Behind the Story of Social Media and Teen Mental Health, a conversation with Candice Odgers, moderated by Jeff Hancock, co director of the Stanford Cyber Policy Center. This session is part of the Spring Seminar Series, a series spanning April through June, hosted at the Cyber Policy Center with the Program on Democracy and the Internet. Sessions are in-person and virtual, with in-person attendance offered to Stanford affiliates only. Lunch is provided for in-person attendance and registration is required.

Adolescents spend much of their lives online and fears are high that digital technology use, and social media in particular, is harming their social and emotional development. Last week, the Surgeon General issued an advisory about social media and adolescent mental health leading to a flurry of reporting about the “profound risk of harm” to our children. The narrative around social media and adolescent development has been negative, but surprisingly the empirical support for the story of increasing deficits and disconnection is limited. This talk will synthesize findings from recent large-scale reviews of the associations between social media use and adolescent well-being and present new findings from our large study of adolescents followed daily via their mobile devices. Recommendations for improving science and practice for adolescents in an increasingly digital and uncertain age will also be provided.

This session will take place in Encina Commons, Moghadam 123.

About the Speaker:

Candice Odgers is Associate Dean for Research and a Professor of Psychological Science and Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. She is also the Co-Director of the Child & Brain Development Program at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Her team has been capturing the daily lives and mental health of adolescents using mobile phones and sensors over the past decade. More recently, she has been working to leverage digital technologies to better support the needs of children and adolescents as they come of age in an increasingly unequal and digital world.  Odgers is the author of over 100 scientific publications and her research has been disseminated widely outside of academia. More information about her work can be found on adaptlab.org.