Should teenagers put their phones down? Not so fast.

Matt Minich: My goal is to help us better understand, collectively, how emerging digital media technologies shape what happens inside our heads. I'm particularly interested in the relationships between media and our emotions — how digital messages and experiences influence our moods, for example, or the ways that advertising or other persuasive messages leverage our emotions to change our behaviour. 

Minich: Yes! I appreciate that interpretation. The public conversation around smartphone and social media use is almost always framed around potential harms or risks, but the actual research literature is much more nuanced. Both smartphones and social media are multifaceted platforms that allow users to engage in wide variety of different experiences. There is certainly evidence that some of those experiences can be harmful for some people, but there are also uses that have real benefits.

Minich: It's absolutely correct that people have diverse experiences with smartphones, and it's also the case that sometimes those experiences make us feel good and that sometimes they make us feel bad. But our results suggest that on average, the effect of most smartphone uses on mood is positive. We asked participants to categorize the activities they were engaging with on their smartphone (sending messages, watching videos, playing games, etc.), and we found a positive association with mood for most of those different activities.

The one activity that really stuck out was listening to music, which was associated with both larger mood boosts and with lower levels of mood before use. This aligns with a pattern of use in which adolescents use their smartphones to listen to music when they are feeling down.

Minich: Our work into the relationship between smartphone use and mood teases some interesting questions. It certainly looks like a benefit at first read — who doesn't want a better mood? — but it’s not totally clear whether a positive association between smartphone use and mood is necessarily a good thing. If this does mean that smartphone use has a temporary 'mood-boosting' effect, for example, that could play a role in behavioural addictions. I hope to really dive into this question in Vienna, and to uncover what happens when people rely on social media scrolling or AI companions to manage their moods and emotions. 

Minich: In my view, the current science does not suggest that social media bans are sensible or necessary. We don't have solid evidence that social media or smartphones are harmful to teens' mental health — and that's not for a lack of looking. This remains a controversial and contested area of social science, and policies like social media bans are definitely getting ahead of the available evidence (or even going against it).

With that said, I think we should take the possible risks of social media seriously. Media effects can be very difficult to measure, especially in a survey, but that certainly doesn't mean they aren't there. When parents and teachers consistently say that they are seeing behavioural problems associated with digital media use, I think it's very important that we listen. It’s possible (I think likely) that some component of social media is having effects that we haven't yet been able to observe. Ultimately, I think policymakers need to do a better job listening to the science. But we as scientists must find ways to bring clarity to these issues much faster. 

Minich: I think the word 'addiction' gets tossed around a lot in the conversation about social and digital media, and I definitely think it's often overused. There are certainly some patterns of digital media use that resemble behavioural addictions (such as compulsive pornography use or gambling), but truthfully I think we need to know a lot more before we can call problematic smartphone use 'addictive' in a clinical sense. I appreciate that that isn't a very satisfying answer, though. Many people feel like they’re not fully in control of their digital media or smartphone use, and they often describe themselves as 'addicted'. I'd say that if digital media use is seriously impacting your ability to manage your time or your energy, it's worth taking that seriously — whether or not your use meets a clinical definition of 'addiction'.

Minich: When I think about using smartphones and other digital media to prevent and reduce substance use, I'm really talking about using the phones as platforms for health messages or interventions. Digital media plug us into a huge and diverse universe that's full of different messages — and those messages can shape what we want or what we see as normal. So as we seek to create a digital media environment that supports human health, part of that process is just making sure the pro-health messages we distribute are as effective as possible. 

Minich: Yes, that's the other 'pillar' of my research. In our increasingly digital world, people are fully awash in messages aiming to influence their behaviour — nudging them to buy a car, join a gym, or pick up a cigarette or drink. I want to better understand what makes these messages succeed or fail, with the hope of improving those messages that argue for healthy behaviours (or against unhealthy behaviours like substance use). I do that by showing people some of these messages and observing what happens in their brains.

Minich: The focus of my research has mostly been a cluster in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex — a region just behind and above our eyes. Scientists often observe more activity in this region when people recognize something as being relevant to them personally, and messages that elicit more activity in this region tend to be more successful at persuading their audiences.

My work tries to understand how specific features of persuasive messages affect this region (as well as some others). For example, my work has found that messages elicit more activity in this region when they focus on gains rather than losses (e.g., stressing the strength benefits of exercise), and that advertisements for dangerous products elicit less activity in this region when they are paired with health warning labels. 

Minich: This work has certainly attracted the attention of some folks in the industry, and I don’t think industry applications would necessarily be unethical or problematic. But for now, I take great comfort in knowing that the results of my research are shared with the scientific community through peer-reviewed publications.

Minich: All of my research applies the science of media effects to the goal of protecting human health and well-being. We live in an increasingly digital world, and my goal is to make sure that this new world is a place where human beings can flourish. Both of these 'pillars' support that goal.

Minich: We not only can harness digital media for good, we must!  Digital media platforms have already radically changed the way we live, and advancements in machine learning and large language models are only going to make these changes more pronounced. Our minds increasingly occupy a digital world, and it’s essential that we design that world to support our health and well-being. These technologies can make our lives easier, safer, and more rewarding — and we should insist that they do.