Research
How mindsets shape the effects of social media and emerging technology on well-being.
I am a media psychologist studying how news and mass communication shape psychological well-being and belief in (mis)information. My work uses rigorous mixed methods and community-engaged practices to investigate how diverse audiences perceive, use, and respond to technologies such as social media, personalized algorithms, and AI.
Partnership is central to how I work. Rather than studying communities from a distance, I collaborate directly with community organizations — including My Digital TAT2 and PEN America — to co-design and evaluate interventions that help people obtain the benefits of new technologies while staying aware of, and resilient to, their potential harms.
Research Areas
Social media mindsets & well-being
How the mindsets and subjective construals people bring to their social media use — more than raw time spent — shape its effects on psychological well-being, and how measurement choices themselves influence what we conclude.
Community-engaged interventions
Co-designing and evaluating interventions in partnership with community organizations — from digital resilience and media-literacy programs with My Digital TAT2 to misinformation-resilience efforts with PEN America and community leaders across AAPI, Black, Latino, and Native American communities — that help diverse audiences navigate digital challenges and misinformation.
Emerging technology & society
How people perceive and relate to new technologies, including how we make sense of AI, the dynamics of video-conferencing and "Zoom fatigue," and the algorithmic personalization that shapes identity on platforms like TikTok.
Designing digital interventions
Developing and rigorously evaluating interventions — from mindset-based approaches and digital resilience training to tailored media-literacy programs — that help children, adolescents, and adults obtain the benefits of new technologies while navigating digital challenges and misinformation more effectively.
Selected Publications
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