Candice Odgers is the reasoned, evidence-based, and child-centric voice that EVERYONE needs to listen to. If you are TRULY concerned about youth, so many more effective things can be done to improve their lives. Banning phones is SUPREMELY stupid, and harmful. Thank you, Candice.

Watch the entire talk here: go.ted.com/candiceodgers

The more often you hear something, the more likely you are to believe that it is true. But please, don't believe everything you hear about teens today. Science and how well they are doing, despite the suffering of adults around them, tells a different story.

In 1908 the Lancet called for an 18+ age limit on reading in bed for U.K. children.

"Banning children from social media is not the answer, UN warns – platforms must be made safe by design" news.un.org/en/story/202...

Canada is getting ready to ban social media for kids under 16. The quote going around by cabinet minister Marc Miller: "it's obvious why it's a priority. Kids are dying." Every death by suicide is a tragedy but the numbers don't support this claim. I pulled Statistics Canada data to illustrate: 🧵

There's a few things I want to say about this, but I'll stay in my research lane (and in theme with #Pride): The effects of social media on mental health is mixed. But we know that social media can be an avenue for 2SLGBTQ+ kids to find community and support where it otherwise does not exist.

A brilliant rebuttal to that NYT opinion piece from earlier in the week (Yes, THAT one) "We don’t need fewer games – we need better ones, and a deeper commitment to designing learning experiences that invite students to not simply respond, but to think" www.gamesforchange.org/blog_posts/t...

Really great #SRA2026 roundtable session this morning by @mitchprinstein.bsky.social , @evatelzer.bsky.social , Brinleigh Murphy-Reuter and Sunny Liu all about advancing responsible social media research. Heartening to hear so many thoughtful perspectives, and no moral panic about teens and screens!

The DSEC Lab is in Pittsburgh for #SAS2026! 🎉 We’re excited to present some of the latest findings from the lab and to learn from the incredible work being shared by others at the conference! Our team will be presenting on Friday and Saturday, so stay tuned for some conference highlights!

#ICYMI As we get closer to March Break, our friends at The Screening Room are making some family-friendly and wallet-friendly plans! Read more: www.kingstonist.com/news/the-scr...

In my essay today for @spectator I argue that #socialmedia bans such as in place in Australia, and being considered in the UK are doomed to fail. The evidence just isn't there that they would help. spectator.com/article/ther...

Great use of state space grids!

Lazy Scholar is available on Chrome: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/lazy-... and Firefox: addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo...

Agreed, Andrea. That direction is never considered by the pre-convinced crowd. aaannnndd....PANAS is not a wellbeing measure. Feeling negative emotions is NORMAL. Please please please MAKE THE SCHLOCK STOP!

@affectscience.bsky.social notices are out! 🎉 If you’re going to #SAS2026, consider attending its very first Developmental Affective Science pre-conference too! @eriknook.bsky.social and I hope to see you there. 🤞🏻 Spread the word!

If only adults could pay attention to something other than teenagers’ phones…

Our department is hiring! We’re looking for a new colleague (Assoc/Full) in Social/Affective Neuroscience to join us at Queen’s starting July 2026. Amazing people, great facilities, supportive community. Please share!! Full ad here: www.queensu.ca/psychology/n...

I JUST posted about another one. A meta-analysis. Zero reality. On the plus side, great teaching tools. bsky.app/profile/tomh...

So...my undergrad thesis student is doing a quality analysis of studies found in meta-analyses. She identified a few and we contacted the authors to request their effect sizes and other variables for the studies in their papers. Here's what happened: scientiapsychiatrica.com/index.php/Sc...

Updating my comparative public admin seminar class—which was decimated by AI last year—to maybe be a little more LLM-proof by adding a 20–30 minute start-of-class writing & discussion activity. Will it work? Who knows! Full details and PDF here: governancef25.classes.andrewheiss.com/assignment/c...

Not surprisingly I have lots of thoughts on this. But in a nutshell, Yes, we should support teachers and no students should not be on their phones in class (unless they are integrated into the class plan or supporting learning), but, most teachers and schools had already solved this problem...

with phones in backpacks, lockers, or in holders at the back of the room. So the bans are doing little to change access to phones, are costing us lot of money (with these bizarre yonder pouches), time, and resources and are not solving any of the real problems that young people are facing - so...

the danger is that adults claim victory and believe they have saved the children, when in reality they have just kicked down an already open door and did nothing to support youth mental health (oh, and by the way, we are in the midst of an adult mental health crisis but keep pointing only at youth)

More details on [the program here](liminal-learning.com/program). Liminal Learning is a nonprofit, aiming to provide 30% of its places on scholarship over its lifetime.

The yearlong program helps young people find their way in work, study, and life. We start with a weeklong retreat in the wilderness (Quest), and continues with online and offline programming. Check out some of the testimonials from our last cohort: liminallearning.substack.com

We've got 5 scholarship places open for Liminal Learning's next cohort, starting October 19: liminal-learning.com/upcoming-que...!

‼️Academic job alert‼️ Our dept at Queen's University (Canada!) is looking to hire a TT assistant prof in clinical psychology... Applications due end of Sept! Re-posts very much appreciated www.queensu.ca/psychology/n...

Graduate students who have an offer to study in the US but are reconsidering or have been denied entry or current grad students who want to leave, then consider coming to Western University in Canada. Our University just launched a US-CAN Doctoral Excellence Program : grad.uwo.ca/finances/wes...

It's a distinction from @kph3k.bsky.social's Genetic Lottery. I used it before even without talking about genetics; it catches a lot of the misconceptions that student have about what it means to call something a cause. Those misconceptions also led to a blog post: www.the100.ci/2024/06/26/s...

…yes, AND we have also known that young people with mental health problems often report spending more time gaming and online. Instead of calling them addicted because of it, we should ask what they are searching for and what we can do to help them find what they need.

#ICYMI The non-profit organization Liminal Learning is an educational response to the challenges faced by young people as they navigate towards adulthood, according to Kevin Bowers, co-founder and teacher at LCVI. #YouthSupport #YGK Learn more: www.kingstonist.com/news/liminal...

Thrilled to share how Liminal Learning is helping young people launch into adulthood. Here, I explain the rationale of our hybrid (offline/online) learning model. www.youtube.com/watch?v=47nS... If you're interested in joining us on a Quest, get in touch here: liminal-learning.com/upcoming-que...

Visionary, timely, effective, AND based on well-known developmental principles! Youth need something else beside multiple choice and status quo if they are going to thrive and work collectively on solutions we/they desparately need over the next generation. Highly recommend. 5 stars

HELLO! Here's what I've been up to for the last 2 years! If you're 18-24 years old, come join us for a Quest! Liminal Learning is preparing young people to thrive in a world in flux, together. We are focused on collective flourishing and it shows 🥰. Come see what's on offer: liminal-learning.com

My Canadian university, Queen's, is offering TWENTY 4-year funded PhDs (40k CAD/yr) for a student of ANY citizenship who has been accepted at a top 100 US university but have had offer rescinded OR are reconsidering offer due to US policy. Details found here👇 www.queensu.ca/grad-postdoc...

Like others, I dropped out of the process because it was bonkers. Beyond the specific topic, it illustrates major meta-scientific problems that include, but are not limited to, wasting resources and drawing inaccurate conclusions from the available data. www.science.org/content/arti...

If I am reading this correctly, this version with a rational x-axis provides evidence for a different conclusion than the paper seems to offer: A (slight) majority of experts say that there is any evidence at all for only one of the 26 claims investigated. bsky.app/profile/rube...

This was a top-notch analysis!

Now out in Current Directions in Psychological Science-- The Wobbly Bits of Development: Variability, Fluctuations, and Synchrony as Temporal Markers Linking Temperament and Psychopathology With @aliciavallorani.bsky.social & @kgunther.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... 1/2

made my day, Jim. Looking forward to it!

I do wonder to what degree that the people supporting technology moral panics (politicians, scholars, professional organizations) really are just outright lying about the science, or just are completely clueless. The distortions are amazing to behold sometimes.

Unfortunately, since there are people crying wolf about all kinds of things, as brilliantly documented by the Pessimists Archive project (@pessimistsarc.bsky.social), the enterprise of alarm-raising defeats its own aims, because it ends up desensitizing people to predictions about risks and harms.

In case you needed more evidence that social media may not be the thing we should be obsessing about when it comes to wellbeing…another meta-analysis of experimental data showing no link.

super proud of my post-doc Xiaomei Li's new paper: mom-adolescent affect flexibility at 11-12 predicts trajectories of conflict and relationship quality over 5 years psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-...

thanks for the clue. Will investigate.

dammit! I hate when that happens! thanks, Andrea

Hive mind: I cannot seem to find a source that discusses the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological chaos that characterizes sudden, new research domains in the early stages (e.g., COVID-19). Got any recommendations? thanks

I am hoping to find out if Fred and Sally hook up at the end!