Research & Sources
This page compiles peer-reviewed studies, major institutional reports, and large-scale data analyses referenced on the Learn page.
Mental health
- “No more FOMO: Limiting social media decreases loneliness and depression.”
Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 2018. [link] - “The welfare effects of social media.”
American Economic Review, 2020. [link] - “The Facebook experiment: Quitting Facebook leads to higher levels of well-being.”
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 2016. [link] - “Increases in depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide rates among U.S. adolescents after 2010 and links to increased new media screen time.”
Clinical Psychological Science, 2018. [link] - “Association of screen time and depression in adolescence.”
JAMA Pediatrics, 2019. [link]
Sleep research
- “Screen time and sleep among school-aged children and adolescents: A systematic literature review.”
Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2015. [link] - “Association between portable screen-based media device access or use and sleep outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.”
JAMA Pediatrics, 2016. [link] - “Evening use of light-emitting eReaders negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness.”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2014. [link]
Attention & cognition
- “Brain drain: The mere presence of one's own smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity.”
Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2017. [link] - “Cognitive control in media multitaskers.”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009. [link] - “The attentional cost of receiving a cell phone notification.”
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 2015. [DOI link not available]
Loneliness & social effects
- “Passive Facebook usage undermines affective well-being: Experimental and longitudinal evidence.”
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2015. [DOI link not available] - “Facebook use predicts declines in subjective well-being in young adults.”
PLOS ONE, 2013. [link] - “Social media use and perceived social isolation among young adults in the U.S.”
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2017. [link]
Body image research
- “Social comparisons on social media: The impact of Facebook on young women's body image concerns and mood.”
Body Image, 2015. [link] - “Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, company documents show.”
The Wall Street Journal, 2021. [link] - “A systematic review of the impact of the use of social networking sites on body image and disordered eating outcomes.”
Body Image, 2016. [link]
Algorithmic amplification & polarization
- “Emotion shapes the diffusion of moralized content in social networks.”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2017. [link] - “Exposure to opposing views on social media can increase political polarization.”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018. [link] - Testimony of Frances Haugen before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
U.S. Senate, 2021. [DOI link not available] - “Asymmetric ideological segregation in exposure to political news on Facebook.”
Science, 2023. [link]
Data centers & ecological impact
- “Recalibrating global data center energy-use estimates.”
Science, 2020. [link] - “The carbon footprint of streaming video: Fact-checking the headlines.”
International Energy Agency, 2020. [DOI link not available] - “Making AI less thirsty: Uncovering and addressing the secret water footprint of AI models.”
arXiv preprint, 2023. [DOI link not available] - “The Energy Hunger of AI: Large Language Models as Challenges and Enablers for Sustainable Energy”
Energies, 2025. [link]