The Programme on Adolescent Well-Being in the digital age investigates how the Internet, social media platforms, and video games influence the mental health and psychosocial functioning of young people. This ambitious research programme is pursued by a team of behavioural scientist’s keen to collect, collate, and analyse the best possible data to gain evidence-based insights that are useful for health policymakers and technology regulators.
Our team is studying individual, national, and international trends in the mental well-being of young people to determine for who, how and why health is changing over time. Our goal is to determine what role, if any, the introduction, and adoption of digital technologies shape well-being dynamics.
Our work has three main components: (1) The collation and analysis of dozens of datasets including data on technology use and health spanning many decades and countries. (2) Meta scientific research to determine the reliability of existing evidence and creating new tools to draw robust causal inferences about technology effects. And (3) generating and evaluating the scientific value of large-scale datasets leveraging the power of open datasets with objective data shared by technology platforms.
Professor of Human Behaviour and Technology
Project role: Principal Investigator
Professor Przybylski is a psychologist who studies how online social media and video games platforms influence users’ mental health. His research focuses on how data from these platforms can inform regulation, policymaking, and expert advice.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Project role: Researcher
Karen is a Postdoctoral Researcher working on the research programme on 'Adolescent Well-Being in the Digital Age' with Prof. Andrew Przybylski.
Research Associate
Project role: Research Associate
Niklas Johannes is a behavioural scientist. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Adolescent Well-Being in the Digital Age programme, where he studied effects of technology on well-being and performance.
Research Associate
Project role: Research Associate
Matti Vuorre is an experimental psychologist. He applies his expertise in cognitive psychology and Bayesian modelling as a postdoctoral researcher in the Programme on Adolescent Well-Being in the Digital Age.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Project role: Researcher
Sakshi Ghai is a Postdoctoral Researcher working on the research programme on ‘Adolescent Well-Being in the Digital Age’, where she investigates the effects of digital technologies on adolescent well-being in global young populations.
30 November 2023
Sakshi Ghai, Postdoctoral Researcher, Oxford Internet Institute, has been awarded a Women of the Future Award in the Science Category.
28 November 2023
No ‘smoking gun’ mental health harm from internet: landmark Oxford survey
9 August 2023
The largest independent scientific study ever conducted investigating the spread of Facebook across the globe found no evidence that the social media platform’s worldwide penetration is linked to widespread psychological harm.
21 September 2022
A new study finds that engaging with arts and culture online can improve mental health in young people.
Oxford Mail, 28 November 2023
Health researchers in an Oxford study have stated that mobile phones do not have a "blanket negative effect" on wellbeing and health.
The Times, 28 November 2023
We looked for a smoking gun linking technology and wellbeing and we didn’t find it, say researchers
Independent, 28 November 2023
Researchers say that if the link between internet use and poor health were as universal and robust as many think, they would have found it.
