Pete Etchells

Free PR.

Bristol!

A picture of the aurora borealis above a house.

Unexpected joy this evening:

Goodreads is *the worst*, no reviews are worth reading there!

Nothing personal taken! I really appreciate the feedback - and in this context I’m interested in how the message might be taken. If nothing else, thanks for taking the time to read the letter (even if it was just the first sentence 😄)

That’s really useful to know, thank you - I’d never thought of it in that sense. Whenever I’ve used it, I’ve done so with sincerity, and I guess to signal good intentions. I’ll rethink that though.

Why, out of curiosity?

Of course! Always happy to chat through the evidence.

Clearly seems to be a waste of postage though.

The UK has some of the best social media and digital tech effects researchers in the world. I find it mind-boggling they haven’t been considered first.

About 18 months ago I sent this letter, along with a copy of my book, to a number of MPs and peers, including Wes Streeting. I never got a response (which to be fair was my baseline expectation), but it’s still disheartening to see today’s news about Haidt’s invitation to speak to policymakers.

Genuinely deflated by this.

Same. We need a coordinated effort to support science communicators so it’s not just individual people vainly trying to make a difference in a very big, messy, noisy system.

Works the other way around too.

“If I was Jonathan Haidt, how would I destroy the next generation?”

The man who inspired Australia's teen social media ban literally did this:

More displeased at the eviction, I think!

A picture of a long-haired cat

Unauthorised student turned up to today’s research methods class, I guess they wanted to brush up on their meow-tiple regression skills?

Two exciting ERC-funded PhD positions on attention and technology use with @matti.vuorre.com

I’ll be an (external) part of the supervision team and can highly recommend this department @tilburg-university.bsky.social

tiu.nu/22989

Thanks Kate! Always happy to chat, Richard.

I had the vaccination Tuesday. Tested positive yesterday 🤦‍♂️ rank bad timing.

Is Jonathan Haidt right about smartphones? In ‘The Anxious Generation’, Haidt makes the case that social media and smartphones have ‘rewired’ today’s teenagers, but his critics say the evidence tells us something very different - and that bann...

“It’s really difficult to craft a story that explains the complexity of the research literature, but still gives people something to take away with them to do. And that’s what parents are craving' @peteetchells.bsky.social
@jonsevers.bsky.social @tesmagazine.bsky.social
www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

I believe the blue one’s name is Leonardo.

So it turns out I'm on the editorial board for a scam journal (news to me!). "Istoriya" is a SCOPUS-indexed journal apparently, but it's not this one: istoriya.ac. Two journals with the same name and ISSN, but different editorial boards - one entirely fabricated but using real academics.

I have a very deep distrust of IAI and how they set up debates. If nothing else, they run paid ticketed events and don’t offer fees.

I broke so many joysticks playing this game. The wiggle you had to do to activate a power up 🫠

@taylorlorenz.bsky.social hi Taylor, where’s the best place to send a message or email? I have a book coming out in the US next week and I was wondering if you’d be interested in a copy.

Thanks Ali!

Episode 8: Ask Pete and Andy Listen now | Keeping kids safe online, the movement against ed tech, the biggest challenges to research, and more

Episode 8 of Screen Sense is now available wherever you get your podcasts. We’re taking a break for a while, & we thought it would be fun to finish off with a listener Q&A.

In this last episode (for now), we cover Qs around VR, online safety & more: screensensepodcast.substack.com/p/episode-8-...

When the Right Tried to Cancel the Turtles In the 1980s and '90s, successive moral panics about hooliganism and violence on TV culminated in a right-wing campaign against a dangerous social phenomenon: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Have seen a few mentions on here lately about the 1980s ninja panic in the UK, so am reposting my piece about how this led to the BBC broadcasting the Teenage Mutant HERO Turtles in 1990

tribunemag.co.uk/2021/04/when...