Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Myths of the Screen

A principal investigator and senior research associate at Harvard’s Project Zero, Carrie James ’92 (right) returned to campus this spring to participate in the President’s Forum Series and discuss her recent book, Behind Their Screens: What Teens are Facing (and Adults are Missing). Here, she breaks down six common misconceptions about social media and technology — and the complex social and emotional stakes teens are managing.

1. SCREENTIME

The obsession with screentime misses important context.

“A lot of public discourse is about monitoring and minimizing screentime, but screentime is pretty limited as a measure of value and a crude way of helping kids in a complicated world. It doesn’t account for what they’re actually doing on their devices. An hour of browsing recipes or watching book reviews on TikTok doesn’t feel as detrimental or scary as an hour spent browsing friends’ Instagram highlight reels when you’re home alone. Also, teens are differently susceptible to the opportunities and risks of what they engage with in the media. Reactions to content will vary across teens and their interests, and in any given moment for an individual teen. Measures like screentime don’t get at those nuances.”

2. EMPATHY

Rather than dulling compassion, tech can amplify it in unexpected, sometimes counterproductive ways.

“There’s a common idea that technologies undercut human empathy: when you’re communicating with someone in a mediated fashion, you can’t see their emotional responses; there’s the absence of tone; text conversations can be brusque. But we learned that empathy is a key reason why teens feel pulled to their screens — and that it can create big dilemmas for setting boundaries in a way that preserves friendships. We heard a lot about the pressure they feel to comment on someone’s Instagram post immediately and to be sufficiently flattering and complimentary, especially for close friends. The stakes are higher when teens have friends struggling with mental health issues; they feel like they need to stay connected to save their friends, which can become overwhelming.”

3. CONFLICT

Cyberbullying is a problem, but there are subtler destructive social dynamics at play online.

“Adults tend to focus on explicit acts of aggression that are pretty unambiguous. There’s plenty of that online, but so much of what teens told us they struggle with looks benign or accidental to someone who doesn’t know the context, especially to adults. Going through someone’s feed and liking every post seems like neutral-to-positive behavior, but aggressive liking can send a message that “I’m watching you.” We heard about cropping someone out of a photo, or tagging every person in a photo except one. There’s more and more data that gives teens markers of their friendship status, of their popularity, of their relationships with others — all of these things are really important to their sense of self and identity. And they can check them around the clock.”

4. SEXTING

It’s not that teens don’t understand the risks; they’re navigating a fraught social landscape.

“Sexting is a spectrum. Adults tend to use just the one word, but it’s much more complicated: there’s consensual sexting in the context of a relationship; there are sexts shared without permission; there’s also the social pressure component, with boys feeling pressure to ask for nudes and girls feeling pressure to send them (these pressures play out in pretty gendered ways, though a lot of research still needs to be done regarding queer youth and teens along different parts of the gender spectrum). Effective interventions will look different in different sexting scenarios, but generally, teens want deeper conversations and practical, tactical skills for dealing with these situations.“

5. POLITICS

The political is interpersonal — and increasingly inescapable.

“In 2010 and 2012, we studied civically active teens and asked how social media was part of their civic participation. At the time, teens felt like they had a choice: if the tensions around posting about their civic commitments were too high, they would just go quiet on social media. In our most recent research, we heard from teens — both those who are civically active and those who aren’t — that they feel pressure to post about timely issues on social media, and that if they don’t, they’ll be judged by their peers. Some feel like it’s an important, productive space for sharing stories and perspectives, but there’s a sense of obligation to show they care and are alert to these issues, as well as an anxiety about the impact these posts actually have.”

6. PRIVACY

Teens are adapting to the permanence of digital life.

“Teens are aware that content lasts forever. They live with this sense of risk, heightened by digital-footprint and internetsafety lessons from adults basically saying their lives will be ruined because of something they posted. In our past research, a big reason why teens who were civically active on social media went quiet is they felt that the risks of a politicized digital footprint were too high. Teens are figuring out ways to manage some of the risks though, making very intentional decisions about what they share with close friends, acquaintances and the general public (a lot of app features like private stories are helpful in this regard). Some friends also form social pacts to check in with one another for approval before posting. They’re recognizing that privacy is a social matter, not just about individual choice.”

CARRIE JAMES ’92 is a senior research associate and principal investigator at Project Zero. A sociologist by training, she explores young people’s digital, moral, and civic lives. With Emily Weinstein, she co-directs projects that engage teens as co-designers of interventions to support their digital well-being. James, who coauthored Behind Their Screens with Weinstein, is also the author of Disconnected: Youth, New Media, and the Ethics Gap. She holds a B.A. in sociology from William Smith and an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from New York University. She is the parent of two technology-loving kids, ages 13 and 17. Follow her on Twitter at @carrie_james.