Matt Field

This plot shows the number of users in the Study 1 sample that self-described as 'addicted' to Instagram versus those who were 'at risk' of clinical addiction. The ratios for the addiction symptom scale are 9:371 and for the perceived addiction 69: 311, suggesting a much greater proportion of users self-perceive as addicted than are actually addicted to Instagram

Excited to see these studies (finally) published in Scientific Reports! 🚨

S1: More social media users perceived themselves as addicted than met clinical addiction criteria.

S2: Increasing perceived addiction hurt perceived control over use and increased self-blame for overuse.

Thread below... 🧵

Oliver Burkeman on the value of pursuing what interests you, cultivating a sensitivity to your own personal response to topics, and using it as a filter on what to attend to

https://ckarchive.com/b/92uzhnh695dods3roomrdfzod7d33hwh9nk2g

"to follow the lead of interestingness is to accept that […]

Survey administration schedule across the 12-week study period. Participants completed biweekly surveys (orange) every two weeks, with US participants additionally completing daily surveys (blue) for the first 30 days. Cognitive tests (green) were administered during biweekly surveys at weeks 1, 5, and 9. Gray circles indicate days with no scheduled surveys. Retention percentages show the proportion of baseline participants (N=1978) who were still active at each measurement week (defined as having completed either a daily or biweekly survey at any time after that week)

Diurnal play across Xbox, Nintendo, Steam.

Sample of daily gaming patterns and mental wellbeing for three representative participants. Stacked bars represent total daily playtime across platforms. Orange line shows biweekly mental wellbeing scores (short WEMWBS) measured at six study waves. Participants were selected from those closest to the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of total playtime, prioritizing those with the most varied multi-platform gaming behavior. Participant IDs: p9009984081 (25th percentile), p8809196928 (50th percentile), p7162729307 (75th percentile)

We released a pretty cool dataset/preprint today looking at video game play, cognition, time-use and a ton of self-reported psych measures at osf.io/preprints/ps... with @nballou.bsky.social @matti.vuorre.com @thomashakman.bsky.social @rpsychologist.com and @shuhbillskee.bsky.social RRs coming soon

A morbidly inclined sheep, who likes to hang around in graveyards, detests parties and owns original pressings of the entire classic run of Leonard Cohen LPs from 1967-1974.

THREAD. A collection of photographs of excellent sheep I have met on walks.

You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.

Utility of Substance-Free Alternatives in Treating and Preventing Harmful Substance Use: A Narrative Review of the Translational Research Spectrum Interventions primarily focused on constraining access to substances have largely failed to reduce substance use and associated problems. Alternative …

Utility of Substance-Free Alternatives in Treating and Preventing Harmful Substance Use: A Narrative Review of the Translational Research Spectrum

This is an important literature review on a crucial topic in the prevention and treatment of addictions.

1/2

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Professor John Holmes contributes to major new report outlining actions to tackle alcohol harm - Sheffield Addictions Research Group SARG Director Professor John Holmes was part of an expert panel that supported the development of 'A Healthier Future: A long-term vision to tackle alcohol harm in the UK', a significant new report pu...

SARG Director @jholmessheff.bsky.social was part of an expert panel that supported the development of 'A Healthier Future: A long-term vision to tackle alcohol harm in the UK', a significant new report published by the Institute of Alcohol Studies @ias.org.uk this week. @fohsheffield.bsky.social

🌍 Alcohol causes 2.6 million premature deaths each year, yet remains the world’s favourite drug. 🍺

A major Lancet Public Health study shows most countries are far off WHO’s 2030 target to cut drinking by 20%.

🧵 THREAD

#PublicHealth #Addiction #AlcoholPolicy #GlobalHealth

And what’s your take on the viewpoint in that article?

@victimofmaths.bsky.social Seen this? I didn’t know economics could be interesting (but now I do)

Voters in Hamburg have rejected universal basic income. Many economists would agree with them Voters in the German city of Hamburg recently rejected the idea of a free payment for all residents.

Voters in the German city of Hamburg recently rejected the idea of a free payment for all residents.

Listening to Tommy Robinson What did I learn by giving the right-wing activist my ears for 90 minutes?

Listening to Tommy Robinson

What did I learn by giving the right-wing activist my ears for 90 minutes?

https://tomstafford.substack.com/p/listening-to-tommy-robinson

Train hero who saved passengers during attack confuses racists by being a Muslim Samir Zoutini, a heroic GNER staff member whose incredible bravery saved lives during the mass stabbing on Saturday, has confounded racists by being a Muslim.

🚨NEW - Train hero who saved passengers during attack confuses racists by being a Muslim

Click for more:

open.substack.com/pub/mrhenrym...

How Online Sports Betting Is Fueling a New Wave of Addiction Here’s what clinicians—and everyone else—need to know about treating gambling disorder and protecting those most vulnerable.

Great article on the spread and impact of gambling in the USA in @psychologytoday.com. Thanks for inviting me to contribute.

www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/...

@uofgsps.bsky.social @uofgussp.bsky.social
@psychologytoday.com

THREAD
A week ago, we published this statement by the Greater Manchester Asylum Hotels Group. The response has been overwhelming. The group has had many messages of support from our local area and beyond, and people have been inspired to share the message far and wide in their own communities.

📣 Introducing new funding schemes from the SSA and Office for Life Sciences tinyurl.com/mrxwrh8k | Applications for PhD studentships and fellowships open on 3 November

Our experimental alcohol administration study on the tension reduction hypothesis has been published in Addiction! 🎉 See preprint thread below for a summary :)

Https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70213

The SSA are running several webinars about key stages of a research career, including applying for a PhD, fellowship and research grant. These have a great speaker line up -I highly recommend to any addiction researchers!

High street slot machine shops pay staff bonuses linked to how much gamblers lose Exclusive: MPs and campaigners condemn ‘appalling’ reward scheme for Merkur venue managers

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Self regulation in action

Its almost too egregious to be true

Ill have it on loud repeat at every licensing committee meeting Im at

Pubs to stay open until early hours in push for UK growth Exclusive: Plans for England and Wales would help the ailing hospitality sector but have attracted criticism from health experts

Lots of coverage today on these new government proposals to reform the alcohol licensing system.

I can see an inherent popular appeal to allowing pubs to stay open later, but I have a lot of thoughts about why these plans are an extremely bad idea..

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Why people are watching livestreams of influencers gambling – and how it could be fuelling addiction A new study finds gambling livestreams, where influencers bet to huge audiences, are normalising risk and fuelling addiction among young viewers.

My GREAT Centre colleague, Jamie Torrance, has written this piece about the worrying rise in influencer-led gambling on livestream platforms theconversation.com/why-people-a...

Investigating the relationship between reasons for gambling and different gambling activities  

Gambling Survey for Great Britain 2024 report now live! Findings
include associations between in-play betting & gambling harms; socio-economic disparities btw weekly gamblers. Data in UK Data archive soon! www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/statistics-a...

@uofgsocsci.bsky.social @uofgussp.bsky.social

The ACTUAL truth about moderation
substack.com/@jamesmorris...

It's odd that Republicans can do the mental gymnastics to link Tylenol to autism, but not link gun deaths to guns.

Does Dry January change how we drink? - Institute of Alcohol Studies A new study finds that Dry January does show up in national alcohol sales data – people drink less and buy more no/lo options during the month. But most return to old habits by February, raising quest...

Sober months like Dry January have become increasingly popular in recent years, but do they actually change how we drink?

In this blog, @aishamoolla.bsky.social outlines the findings from recent @sarg-scharr.bsky.social research on the short and long-term impacts.

www.ias.org.uk/2025/09/23/d...

Matthew McConaughey says he wants a private LLM, fed only with his books, notes, journals, and aspirations, so he can ask it questions and get answers based solely on that information, without any outside influence.

this exists it is called thinking

So that’s the end of my 10 day trip - solo travelling around Andalucia (Seville, Cádiz, Granada) ending with a conference in Almeria where I caught up with old friends and made some new ones. It’s a really lovely region to visit, couldn’t pick a favourite, but I do want to come back!

This is good - to add to my daily Wordle and Worldle (yes, two different things)

laugh then think that’s the spirit of the Ig Nobel Prize! 🎉

Our study on alcohol and foreign language skills was honored yesterday. Study team: Jessica Werthmann, Inge Kersbergen & @fieldmatt.bsky.social

Here is a link to the full show for everybody who missed it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1cP...

Other exciting news - my brilliant colleague Lucy Burke has had her 1st PhD paper published in BMJ Public Health.

It looks as associations between the reasons why we drink alcohol and whether we drink no- and low-alcohol drinks and has some important implications for the NHS 10-year plan.

Meet the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize winners The annual award ceremony features miniature operas, scientific demos, and the 24/7 lectures.

Extremely proud and a bit jealous that my excellent colleagues @fieldmatt.bsky.social and Inge Kersbergen have won this year's Ig Nobel Peace prize for showing that being a bit tipsy makes you better at speaking Dutch.

arstechnica.com/science/2025...