CPRC Seminar Series | The Shifting Science of Social Media Use and Adolescent Mental Health
Adolescents spend much of their daily lives online and fears are high that digital technology use, and social media in particular, is harming their social and emotional development. The narrative around social media and adolescent development has been negative, but empirical support for the story of increasing deficits, disease, and disconnection is limited. This talk will synthesize findings from our recent review of associations between social media use and adolescent social and emotional 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.
Bio
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
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