Craig Sewall
LightNews LightNews
banner
cjsewall9.bsky.social
Craig Sewall
@cjsewall9.bsky.social
210 followers 100 following 67 posts
Former academic, current clinical data scientist in industry. Occasionally has things to say about the whole social media panic. You can read those things here: https://open.substack.com/pub/craigsewall
Posts Replies Media Videos
cjsewall9.bsky.social
This encapsulates what’s been making me anxious lately (from www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...)
November 1, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
pettertornberg.com
Is social media dying? How much has Twitter changed as it became X? Which party now dominates the conversation?

Using nationally representative ANES data from 2020 & 2024, I map how the U.S. social media landscape has transformed.

Here are the key take-aways 🧵

arxiv.org/abs/2510.25417
October 30, 2025 at 8:09 AM
cjsewall9.bsky.social
Anyone aware of resources (blogs, articles, etc) that estimate/simulate power for DiD with staggered adoption estimators (e.g., Callaway and Sant'Anna)?

Bat signal @stephenjwild.bsky.social
August 7, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
peteetchells.bsky.social
When it comes to screens, everyone seems to have an opinion - but how much of what we hear is actually true? Episode 7 of Screen Sense is out now, and we take on some of the most common myths and misconceptions around screen time:

screensensepodcast.substack.com/p/episode-7-...
Episode 7: Screen time myths and misconceptions
Mythconceptions?
screensensepodcast.substack.com
July 25, 2025 at 9:49 AM
cjsewall9.bsky.social
Is it a hot take to say: If you have control variables in your analysis, you are doing causal inference, whether you realize it or not
July 9, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
leoroe.bsky.social
Happy to share my new study, publ. in Social Science Research 🎉 Bottom line: Yes, adolescents use their phones a lot 🤳 But I find no support for the notion that this use displaces reading, homework, hobbies, physical act., sleep... Instead: Changing media preferences 📺 ->📱. doi.org/10.1016/j.ss...
July 7, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
peteetchells.bsky.social
Episode 4 of Screen Sense is out now! This week, we explore why our public conversations about tech often get stuck in fear, and how we might move toward more helpful ways of thinking and talking about screens, wellbeing and family life:

screensensepodcast.substack.com/p/episode-4-...
Episode 4: Why do we find it so difficult to talk about tech effects?
We often have a very real sense that digital technology can do damage to our wellbeing, and sometimes in ways that feel seriously worrying.
screensensepodcast.substack.com
July 5, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
dougaparry.bsky.social
New in JCMC with @bronwynec.bsky.social: People who feel more in control of their social media use tend to use it less and report better well-being. Seeing social media as positive was associated with more use, but not well-being. 👉 doi.org/10.1093/jcmc...
Abstract: Building on the idea that subjective evaluations of social media use (SMU) may shape well-being effects, this study investigated how two “social media mindsets”—agency (perceived control over SMU) and valence (perceived effects of SMU)—relate to self-reported and logged SMU, and four well-being indicators (depression, anxiety, stress, and life satisfaction) in a South African sample of young adults (N = 1,858; M age = 21.01). Agency mindsets were negatively correlated with SMU and positively with well-being, while valence mindsets were associated with higher SMU but not with well-being. Logged SMU showed weaker associations with mindsets and well-being than self-reported SMU, suggesting differences between perceived and actual behavior. The findings replicate, extend, and in some cases contradict prior research, emphasizing how users’ sense of control is more important for well-being than SMU duration or perceptions of its effects, and that more work is needed to understand whether the “mindsets” concept is fruitful. Lay summary: This study investigated how young adults’ feelings about social media—whether they feel in control of their use (agency) or view it positively (valence)—relate to their actual use and mental well-being. The study involved 1,858 participants from South Africa using both self-reported and actual logged social media usage data. The results show that people who feel more in control of their social media use tend to use it less and report better mental well-being. In contrast, those who see social media as more positive spend more time on it, but this mindset did not directly relate to well-being. The data collected from logs of actual usage show weaker relations with well-being compared to people’s estimates and to their mindsets. These findings suggest that a person’s sense of control over social media plays a more important role in their mental health than how much time they spend on it.
June 30, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
drandreahoward.bsky.social
Here’s a screenshot of the “addictive use” trajectories from the JAMA paper cited below. My educated guess from the details of the measure is that none of these lines comes close to bona fide “addictive” use

🧵
Chart from a manuscript showing low, increasing, and high trajectories of so-called addictive social media use across ages 11 to 15. All lines are clustered near the bottom of the range of scores.
June 20, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
peteetchells.bsky.social
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...
Episode 1: Why does (digital) parenting feel so hard?
Listen now | How should we think about parenting in a digital age?
open.substack.com
June 13, 2025 at 8:30 AM
cjsewall9.bsky.social
Not sure if science has advanced this far yet to answer this question, but here goes: Why the hell do my plastic plates/cups NEVER dry out in the dishwasher?
June 8, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
peteetchells.bsky.social
🎙️Screen Sense - new podcast with me and @shuhbillskee.bsky.social, is launching next week! Two psychologists (and dads) talking honestly about what it means to raise a family in a screen-filled world - with science, real stories and zero guilt. Launching 13th June. screensensepodcast.substack.com
June 5, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
ruben.the100.ci
Scientists like to blame poorly communicated results on science journalists.
This case shows the double standard:
1. When I exaggerate, it's a joke. When you do, it's 'misinformation'.
2. JvB's own tweets about the project didn't explain the methods, highlighted preliminary vibe check results.
jayvanbavel.bsky.social Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · May 26
BTW, we are going to write a response to those media reports. Both failed to explain the methods in question and one journalist is sharing misinformation about the project. I've never had to deal with this before from a journalist (in 100s of encounters) and not quite sure how to respond 🫠
May 26, 2025 at 6:35 AM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
ruben.the100.ci
New article by @cathleenogrady.bsky.social on the social media 'consensus' characterises the preprint as a failure of science communication — because many got the impression the consensus was much stronger than it is.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Durham University philosopher of science Peter Vickers, who studies scientific consensus, agrees. The paper shows strong agreement on weak statements, which is an inevitable outcome of the method the authors used, he says—but the abstract makes bolder claims. Much of the nuance, meanwhile, is buried in the nearly 200 pages of supplementary material, says Julia Rohrer, an expert on causal inference at the University of Leipzig. “The result here is not responsible science communication,” Rohrer says. “In retrospect, I think we should have been much more careful,” Capraro says. He and his team will probably revise the paper to make the nuances clearer. “Because obviously if many people were misled, it’s our fault, of course.”
May 22, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
jacobtfisher.online
As someone who is actually on this paper, this critique (and many others) is absolutely spot-on. I can't speak for other authors, but this process has left me with far more questions than answers. The gap between what the data say and how it's being framed publicly is...notable to say the least.
ruben.the100.ci Ruben C. Arslan @ruben.the100.ci · May 22
New article by @cathleenogrady.bsky.social on the social media 'consensus' characterises the preprint as a failure of science communication — because many got the impression the consensus was much stronger than it is.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Durham University philosopher of science Peter Vickers, who studies scientific consensus, agrees. The paper shows strong agreement on weak statements, which is an inevitable outcome of the method the authors used, he says—but the abstract makes bolder claims. Much of the nuance, meanwhile, is buried in the nearly 200 pages of supplementary material, says Julia Rohrer, an expert on causal inference at the University of Leipzig. “The result here is not responsible science communication,” Rohrer says. “In retrospect, I think we should have been much more careful,” Capraro says. He and his team will probably revise the paper to make the nuances clearer. “Because obviously if many people were misled, it’s our fault, of course.”
May 22, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
peteetchells.bsky.social
It's been a disappointing week. www.science.org/content/arti...
Social media consensus paper causes social media uproar
Preprint reporting common ground among researchers on smartphones and teen mental health is premature and flawed, critics say
www.science.org
May 22, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
dougaparry.bsky.social
Amidst all of this, @jacobtfisher.online & I have a new paper in @jmp-hogrefe.bsky.social! We discuss theoretical, methodological, & practical concerns with the media multitasking (MMT) index & lay out an agenda for better research on MMT

📄 doi.org/10.1027/1864...
📝 OA osf.io/preprints/ps...
Is It Time to Abandon the Media Multitasking Index? | Journal of Media Psychology
doi.org
May 21, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
ruben.the100.ci
Addendum: The graph that is being shared on social media (Figure 2) is from Survey 1 before the Delphi method. The Survey 4 result is in the supplement. I changed that graph a little so
a) the claims aren't abbreviated
b) people who skipped claims are shown
c) claims are ordered by agreement
Plot visualizing agreement with the claims in the consensus statement
May 21, 2025 at 1:15 PM
cjsewall9.bsky.social
If you’re going to @psychscience.bsky.social conference this weekend in DC, I’ll be talking about this paper on Sat. at 1pm in a symposium called “The Relationship Between Social Media and Mental Health: It's Complicated, Or Is it?”
Hope to see you there!
#APS25DC
aidangcw.bsky.social Aidan Wright @aidangcw.bsky.social · Apr 21
Coming in at #2 of all downloaded articles, is "Social media and youth mental health: Simple narratives produce biased interpretations" by @cjsewall9.bsky.social and @dougaparry.bsky.social

Congrats Craig and Doug!

2/

psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-...
APA PsycNet
psycnet.apa.org
May 21, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
aidangcw.bsky.social
Who's going to be a APS this weekend?

Got stuff you are excited about presenting? Know of stuff you are excited to go see!

Let me know, reply here with it, I'll repost it!

Let's get some chatter going! Keep science going!
May 21, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
briannosek.bsky.social
If I am reading this correctly, this version with a rational x-axis provides evidence for a different conclusion than the paper seems to offer:

A (slight) majority of experts say that there is any evidence at all for only one of the 26 claims investigated.

bsky.app/profile/rube...
ruben.the100.ci Ruben C. Arslan @ruben.the100.ci · May 20
Here's a graph I made what it would look like if we took the maximal level of evidence everybody endorsed.
alternative plot with max level endorsed, including those who didn't rate claims
May 20, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
ruben.the100.ci
New post: I was curious about the consensus statement on social media effect and wondered how the sausage gets made.
rubenarslan.github.io/posts/2025-0...
One lives only to make blunders: Consensus: How the sausage gets made
What can we learn about the experts involved in the recent social media effects consensus preprint and what does that say about the consensus.
rubenarslan.github.io
May 20, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
cjferguson1111.bsky.social
Article by Darren Laur explores the recent false "consensus" paper on social media, how it got "hacked" to support a moral panic, and how it sowed hard feelings rather than clarity: thewhitehatter.ca/blog/youth-t...
Youth, Technology, Past History, Selective Amplification, and the Oz Effect: – The White Hatter
thewhitehatter.ca
May 20, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Craig Sewall
jjaron.bsky.social
Are smartphones and social media harmful to teenagers? The evidence is mixed, but a group of researchers have published a paper attempting to reach a consensus view. The trouble is, a bunch of other researchers disagree with their consensus www.newscientist.com/article/2480...
Attempt to reach expert consensus on teens and phones ends in argument
There are a range of competing views on whether smartphones and social media are harmful to adolescents, and an attempt to settle the debate has instead sparked more disagreement
www.newscientist.com
May 19, 2025 at 4:00 PM