Amy Orben

Yes 🙈 didn’t know I am not a proper researcher because of this fml

Our need to belong
increases our dependence on social media feedback.

Check out @bcdavidson.bsky.social's preprint (w/ @georgiaturner.bsky.social @orbenamy.bsky.social @livia-tomova.bsky.social and co.) about the (computational) consequences of social isolation in social media use during covid!

So excited this is now out!

Are you a potential, current, or past ReproducibiliTea organizer? ✨

Join our upcoming networking event!

📅 October 2, 2025 (16:00 CEST) on Zoom
👉 Register for the Zoom link: forms.gle/iH6sHt3dB4Wf...

Everyone is welcome!

Great time in London watching intern @sineadcleary.bsky.social and research assistant Brandon Davidson give a fantastic presentation to the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology - what superstars I get to work with!

Congratulations!! ❤️❤️❤️

An abbreviation (ABB) in a journal article (JA) or Grant Application (GA) is rarely worth the words it saves. Every ABB requires cognitive resources (CR) and at my age by the time I'm halfway through a JA or GA I no longer have the CR to remember what your ABB stood for.

Oh wow! Well glad to be of help in spotting those students 😅

I know right 😅😅 full story below

Weather was mixed, but not too bad! But I had a wonderful time. We will need to share stories next time we meet 😊

Can confirm it was a fantastic 250+km across 10 islands ... when I was not miserable with wet feet, knee deep in bog, or waking up with 50+ seed ticks invading my tent 😅! Disturbed by only one Radio 4 Today interview and a phone call with a senior govt official.

BRB solo hiking the Outer Hebrides (south ➡️ north) over the next 2 weeks. 👋 No big news when I am away please, thanks.

The rest of 2025 promises to be exceptionally important for advancing social media data access for UK researchers.

📣 UK social media researchers! Join us at the event below to hear directly from Ofcom and UK government on current ideas, next steps, and to also share your own perspectives ⬇️

We have a ✨NEW PREPRINT✨! Using data from the @clscohorts.bsky.social Millennium Cohort Study and linked healthcare records, we tested the association between social media use and psychiatric diagnoses in secondary care in young people in England. This is still a work in progress - feedback welcome!

Job 2+: still being finalised (opening: late summer, closing date: autumn, starting date: ~early 2026). If you have delivered exciting research in relevant areas, and do not fit the role above, please feel free to get in touch directly with your CV and overview of background/interests to discuss.

I'm hiring 2+ 2.5-year postdocs over the next few months.

Job 1: looking for someone with deep expertise in computational modelling (reinforcement learning, agent based modelling) on real-world/complex data (closing: 18 August, starting: October-December), www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52059/

Now I’m jealous

Crazy coincidence how often [thing that will fix science of all of its ailments] coincides with [thing the speaker considers themselves an expert in]. Makes you think

🚨New preprint 🚨

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐬: 𝐀 𝐋𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞-𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨-𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲

osf.io/preprints/ps...

🧵

Using a novel micro-narrative method, we collected ~ 900 first-person accounts of social media harms from young people across the UK and US.

Thanks for inviting me Anna, and the rest of the History and Philosophy of Science department 🙏

Episode 1: Why does (digital) parenting feel so hard? Listen now | How should we think about parenting in a digital age?

Screen Sense: Parenting in a Digital World, the new podcast from @shuhbillskee.bsky.social and I - first episode is now live. We hope you enjoy it. open.substack.com/pub/screense...

Very excited and grateful to receive the 2025 Psychology of Technology Dissertation Award for my PhD thesis!

A special thanks to the Institute, the organisers and my wonderful PhD supervisors @orbenamy.bsky.social & @tamsinford.bsky.social.

More info: psychoftech.substack.com/p/congratula...

Interested in improving researcher's access to social media data? Kate Dommett and myself are hiring for a Research Fellow (1 year; based at Sheffield) for an exciting new project to be announced soon: jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Research...

🔷New in Biological Psychiatry🔷

**Old Strategies, New Environments: Reinforcement Learning on Social Media**

In this Review, we argue that the computational framework of Reinforcement Learning can help us understand social media behaviour:

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

I might just have missed something ... but... in other news, last week, my team went on a lovely retreat in North Norfolk and we had a lovely time unwinding and re-centring after an exceptionally hectic few months/year! Photographic evidence attached; more waffling on LinkedIn.

🚨 Job opportunity! 🚨 @sheffielduni.bsky.social with @profkatedommett.bsky.social and @orbenamy.bsky.social, Research Fellowship seeking to advance researcher access to social media data in the UK, apply here by 9th of June 👉👉 jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Research...

So glad to see this out as a preprint!

Congratulations to @amiraskeggs.bsky.social for leading on this thoughtful and deeply considered piece of work. Interested in social media research? Amira is one to watch!

I am so excited that this is now out. An absolutely **mammoth** amount of work, please give this thread a read ⬇️💪💪