Rosa Li tries to find different ways to illustrate a salient point to students in her Psychology 180 course on social media, technology and the adolescent brain: “Research is really complicated. The real world is highly nuanced.”
That’s why Li, teaching assistant professor in the department of psychology and neuroscience, felt compelled to respond to U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s call for warning labels on social media. She wrote an opinion piece for Slate that called the analogy between Big Tobacco and Big Tech misleading.
“It’s a very complicated issue,” said Li, a member of Carolina’s Winston National Center on Technology Use, Brain and Psychological Development. “I think technology and screens are so deeply embedded in our society that you can’t just slap a warning on it and be done with it.”
Li shared that a comparison between a healthy diet and social media consumption is a better comparison. She said correlational studies exploring social media and well-being support “a Goldilocks hypothesis.”
“Using a little bit of screen time or a little bit of social media leads to the best outcomes, while too much can be harmful,” Li said. “In general, I think there’s good evidence suggesting that it’s not like cigarettes — that a little bit can be OK and might even be beneficial.”
She suggests getting “the whole community onboard” — from pediatricians to teachers — to help educate parents and children on the topic.
Published in the Fall 2024 issue | The Scoop
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