Tom Hollenstein

There is no evidence that social media harms children’s mental health Far from ‘drowning in evidence’, real researchers – not pop psychologists – are scouring a great desert looking for puddles

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...

I listened to this episode this morning and Julia, I must thank you for your sane and incisive approach to this, at work and at home. I am a developmental psych researcher and it is infuriantingly bonkers how discussed.
Issues mostly generated by naive assertions of causation in child development.

Great use of state space grids!

or there is the EU of North America...CANADA!
rescuing PhD students and postdocs
nserc-crsng.canada.ca/en/news/laun...

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

Yes, they were soooo close with 100 days and DSEM and then just neglected the one direction/path that would have given them an iota of leverage in interpretation. Could never get published if only WB-->SM path analyzed.
And then the follow-up schlock balloons to sure, it ain't an RCT.

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...

Whoah! I will contact them (as I did the 5 other autghors whose papers that had cited it so far).
Thanks for highlighting this.

Agreed, though I am finding it easier to get the warning across to students with these egregious examples. Somewhat deflates the "he's just an out of touch old man against anything new" tune out.

I JUST posted about another one. A meta-analysis. Zero reality.

On the plus side, great teaching tools.

bsky.app/profile/tomh...

As an expert, it really was not difficult to catch the bs. But students I gave it to all took it as real.
I am using this paper in all my classes as a cautionary tale.
The good news is, it makes another argument for critical thinking skill development.

scientiapsychiatrica.com/index.php/Sc...

Yup. You guessed it. NONE of the 45 references are real!

In journal, Scientia Psychiatrica, is out of Indoinesia, other papers seem legit. Editor did not respond to my email inquiry.

This is the AI age we live in.

there is a pattern. All with 3 authors. All titles have colons. Most had sequential alphabetical first initials.

all studies were from the past 5 yrs w/ very large samples N>800). I know this literature, recognized none.

I did not notice 1-45 superscript in table title indicating that the 45 studies were referenced numerically.

and citations in text were just those 45

ok, let's look at the references.

I had not really looked at the paper, was just helping undergrad. Table 1 seemed weird

The email (gmail) to the first author immediately bounced back. No such address.

Weird.

Ok, so I looked up the author at her institution in Ghana.

No such institution exists anywhere in the country.

Thus began a modern adventure in scientific research...

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...

Such a great paper. I use it in my classes.

Worksheet called "Check-in and warm-up" with these questions: 1. Name and date 2. Check in asking about attendance and preparation with readings 3. Write 1–2 paragraphs about (1) what you most want to talk about from the readings today, and (2) why. 4. Write 1–2 paragraphs connecting this week’s topic and readings to a recent or current event.

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)

New figures quantify teenagers’ self harm. Once again, we’re hearing social media is to blame. See if you can spot another reason why teens might be more depressed.

mikemales.substack.com/p/new-figure...

Liminal Learning Liminal Learning offers a comprehensive “world-readiness” program that prepares young people (ages ~18–24 years) to thrive. Young people need strong friendships, a sense of agency, and trusted mentors...

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 Liminal Post | Liminal Learning | Substack News and community updates from Liminal Learning — a collective launch into purposeful adulthood. Click to read The Liminal Post, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.

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

Liminal Learning — Quests A communal launch into purpose-driven adulthood. Immersive communal experiences built on evolutionary principles of play and experimentation.

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...