Very important piece. "Whether or not OpenAI leaders intend to muddy the waters of science, grantwashing hinders technology safety ... It adds uncertainty and debate in areas where companies want to avoid liability and that uncertainty gives the appearance of science."

In the 2020 Election Project, Meta collaborated w/ academics to study how FB impacts elections. ⬇️ @aanixel.bsky.social, @fassiluisa.bsky.social & I argue that such research collaborations, w/ clear conflicts of interest, should be regulated. Would love to hear thoughts!💬 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Curious about how smartphones shape children’s development? We’re recruiting a Postdoctoral Researcher for 3(+2) years for a cutting-edge randomized controlled trial conducted in collaboration with @orbenamy.bsky.social and her team. iwm-tuebingen.de/en/career/jo...

Social media ~ mental health meta-analysis: - Cited 7 times - The 45 included studies appear not to exist - The authors’ institution appears not to exist - The journal editors won’t respond

🥂 Congratulations @fassiluisa.bsky.social for passing her viva! Luisa has been a hugely respected and influential team member. Her dedication to rigorous and careful research has been evident throughout the four years I have had the privilege of supervising her with @tamsinford.bsky.social.

knowing many directly affected, I personally asked some senior male colleagues to speak out about this during my earlier years as a professor, as i felt too vulnerable due to my stage of career.. it was shocking how much this was 'common knowledge' among women and how few male colleagues knew 😔

Horror stories of sexual harassment from Oxford University 'Prof Hewstone turned up unannounced & dropped his trousers ... touched women inappropriately ... made comments about relationships with students' Oxford will do nothing, betcha Brutal from Bloomberg www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Completely agree Nils; and also extend my thanks to Katherine Griffiths who did such important and careful journalistic work on this issue.

📣 Digital Research Community! The new UK Adolescent Health Study will follow 100k young people (8–18yrs) for 10+ years. Please share what digital technology measures you think it should include. Please complete this survey (by 24th November 2025 @ 9AM): cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

My first paper, out in PsychReview!! Along with @orbenamy.bsky.social, Nik & @jaeggiadrian.bsky.social, @realadamhunt.bsky.social & I revisit an old theoretical question using concepts from evo psychiatry and anthro: Why do mixed associations exist b/w social media & mental health? A 🧵

This isn't just a national issue either; it is the single biggest soft power asset we have in a globally degrading information economy.

🚨 New Preprint 🚨 Some people are at greater risk of experiencing negative mental health outcomes of social media use than others, but why? 🧵 We examined whether individual differences in cognitive processes shape risk and resilience to mental health effects on social media: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Our need to belong increases our dependence on social media feedback.

Check out @bcdavidson.bsky.social's preprint (w/ @georgiaturner.bsky.social @orbenamy.bsky.social @livia-tomova.bsky.social and co.) about the (computational) consequences of social isolation in social media use during covid!

So excited this is now out!

Are you a potential, current, or past ReproducibiliTea organizer? ✨ Join our upcoming networking event! 📅 October 2, 2025 (16:00 CEST) on Zoom 👉 Register for the Zoom link: forms.gle/iH6sHt3dB4Wf... Everyone is welcome!

Great time in London watching intern @sineadcleary.bsky.social and research assistant Brandon Davidson give a fantastic presentation to the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology - what superstars I get to work with!

An abbreviation (ABB) in a journal article (JA) or Grant Application (GA) is rarely worth the words it saves. Every ABB requires cognitive resources (CR) and at my age by the time I'm halfway through a JA or GA I no longer have the CR to remember what your ABB stood for.

Can confirm it was a fantastic 250+km across 10 islands ... when I was not miserable with wet feet, knee deep in bog, or waking up with 50+ seed ticks invading my tent 😅! Disturbed by only one Radio 4 Today interview and a phone call with a senior govt official.

BRB solo hiking the Outer Hebrides (south ➡️ north) over the next 2 weeks. 👋 No big news when I am away please, thanks.

The rest of 2025 promises to be exceptionally important for advancing social media data access for UK researchers. 📣 UK social media researchers! Join us at the event below to hear directly from Ofcom and UK government on current ideas, next steps, and to also share your own perspectives ⬇️

We have a ✨NEW PREPRINT✨! Using data from the @clscohorts.bsky.social Millennium Cohort Study and linked healthcare records, we tested the association between social media use and psychiatric diagnoses in secondary care in young people in England. This is still a work in progress - feedback welcome!

I'm hiring 2+ 2.5-year postdocs over the next few months. Job 1: looking for someone with deep expertise in computational modelling (reinforcement learning, agent based modelling) on real-world/complex data (closing: 18 August, starting: October-December), www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52059/

Crazy coincidence how often [thing that will fix science of all of its ailments] coincides with [thing the speaker considers themselves an expert in]. Makes you think

🚨New preprint 🚨 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐬: 𝐀 𝐋𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞-𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨-𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲 osf.io/preprints/ps... 🧵 Using a novel micro-narrative method, we collected ~ 900 first-person accounts of social media harms from young people across the UK and US.

Thanks for inviting me Anna, and the rest of the History and Philosophy of Science department 🙏

Screen Sense: Parenting in a Digital World, the new podcast from @shuhbillskee.bsky.social and I - first episode is now live. We hope you enjoy it. open.substack.com/pub/screense...

Very excited and grateful to receive the 2025 Psychology of Technology Dissertation Award for my PhD thesis! A special thanks to the Institute, the organisers and my wonderful PhD supervisors @orbenamy.bsky.social & @tamsinford.bsky.social. More info: psychoftech.substack.com/p/congratula...

Interested in improving researcher's access to social media data? Kate Dommett and myself are hiring for a Research Fellow (1 year; based at Sheffield) for an exciting new project to be announced soon: jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Research...

🔷New in Biological Psychiatry🔷 **Old Strategies, New Environments: Reinforcement Learning on Social Media** In this Review, we argue that the computational framework of Reinforcement Learning can help us understand social media behaviour: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I might just have missed something ... but... in other news, last week, my team went on a lovely retreat in North Norfolk and we had a lovely time unwinding and re-centring after an exceptionally hectic few months/year! Photographic evidence attached; more waffling on LinkedIn.

🚨 Job opportunity! 🚨 @sheffielduni.bsky.social with @profkatedommett.bsky.social and @orbenamy.bsky.social, Research Fellowship seeking to advance researcher access to social media data in the UK, apply here by 9th of June 👉👉 jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Research...

So glad to see this out as a preprint!

Congratulations to @amiraskeggs.bsky.social for leading on this thoughtful and deeply considered piece of work. Interested in social media research? Amira is one to watch!

I am so excited that this is now out. An absolutely **mammoth** amount of work, please give this thread a read ⬇️💪💪

Reminds me that I once asked @sonialivingstone.bsky.social what area of public policy we could learn from when thinking about digital life and her answer was ‘town planning’

Recommendation for anyone with a spare hour over the long weekend: Absolutely fantastic lecture about science, race/racism, art and history. One of the best I have watched in a long time + even more pertinent in light of recent attacks on scientific values in the US: youtu.be/eZEAiXl6hNY

Very accessible and engaging write up of our Science piece by @natematias.bsky.social 🙏⬇️⬇️

Important Policy Forum in @science.org on the desperate need for a rigorous basis for research on the harms of social media and phones. Too much conjecture out there on very little signal. @candiceodgers.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A must-read for all of us in #philsci #sts. Written by scientists with a first hand experience of trying to provide evidence-based answers under time pressure and with most evidence being controlled by industry. Imagine inductive risk and agnotology combined, plus more and you get Amy's world.

New Paper! I'm truly excited to share @natematias.bsky.social and my new Policy Forum in Science published yesterday. We evaluate science's ability to address technological harms, and offer recommendations for what could be done to improve on the status quo: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Why do scientists still struggle to answer basic questions about the safety of digital tech from AI to social media, even as families point to rising evidence of individual harm with concern & grief? @orbenamy.bsky.social & I have a new article in @science.org: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

My PhD student @adigitaltanay.bsky.social released an episode of his podcast Cognitations interviewing ... me. One of the toughest interviewers I've had! You can listen to it here: open.spotify.com/episode/6L7q... He will feature some other team members next, so do give the podcast a follow 🤳

It was an absolute privilege to have interviewed one of my intellectual north stars @orbenamy.bsky.social on the @cognitations.bsky.social podcast. Another bucketlist dream checked off!! As always, she provides nuanced, thoughtful answers that reflect empathy for various stakeholders in this debate

A warm welcome to Dr Christina Haag, who joined our team earlier this month! 🙌 Christina brings outstanding expertise in computational methods, NLP, and AI, particularly in analysing psychological trace, language and questionnaire data - I'm thrilled to have her on board.

Deadline is Sunday!

I'm hiring! I'm looking for 1️⃣ pre-doc and 2️⃣ post-docs. If you're fascinated by media effects, quantitative methods, and open science, please consider applying 🙂 International applications welcome! Application Pre-doc: jobs.uzh.ch/job-vacancie... Application Post-doc: jobs.uzh.ch/job-vacancie...

First ride that felt a bit like spring 💐

Nice to see The Economist spotlighting our research and emphasising that we are “trying to paint a complete picture with both hands tied behind their back”. Understanding new technologies requires not just good quality and independent data, but long term and sustainable investment.