Topic: social media

Digital Minds: Brain Development in the Age of Technology examines how our increasingly connected world shapes mental and cognitive health. From screen time and social media to virtual interactions, this seminar delves into the latest research on how technology influences brain development, relationships, and emotional well-being. Join us to explore strategies for harnessing technology's benefits while mitigating its potential challenges, empowering you to thrive in a digital age.

In our rapidly evolving digital world, there is increasing concern about the impact of digital technologies and social media on the mental health of young people. Policymakers and the public are nervous. Psychologists are facing mounting pressures to deliver evidence that can inform policies and practices to safeguard both young people and society at large. However, research progress is slow while technological change is accelerating.My talk will reflect on this, both as a question of psychological science and metascience. Digital companies have designed highly popular environments that differ

The talk will detail work drawing on behavioural results, formal analysis, and computational modelling with agent-based simulations to unpack the scale of the challenge humans face when trying to work out and factor in the reliability of their sources. In particular, it is shown how and why this task admits of no easy solution in the context of wider communication networks, and how this will affect the accuracy of our beliefs. The implications of this for the shift in the size and topology of our communication networks through the uncontrolled rise of social media are discussed.

In recent years, communicating one’s research to audiences outside of academia has grown in importance and time commitment for many researchers. Science Slams or University Open Days reliably draw large crowds, and the potential of social media to amplify any message has made it possible to reach interested recipients without the traditional press as a middleman. In this presentation, I will provide insights into science communication from my perspective as a neuroscience researcher, who enjoys spreading the word about how amazing insect brains are. We will have a look at the What?, Why? and H

Concerns about the impact of social media use on adolescent well-being and mental health are common. While the amount of research in this area has increased rapidly over the last 5 years, most outputs are still marred by a multitude of limitations. These shortcomings have left our understanding of social media effects severely limited, holding back both scientific discovery and policy interventions. This talk discusses how developmental, cognitive and neuroscientific approaches might provide a new and improved way of studying social media effects. It will detail new studies in support of this