Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I wish PowerPoint Designer would go back to the way it was. When it first came out there were so many designs to choose from and it would format all my content in a visually appealing way automatically and saved so much time. Now it's just garbage. 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Society has really done a number on the students of today. The stress and pressure they put on themselves to be perfect all of the time is hurting them. I wish they knew how much older adults mess up, need extensions, forget important things. It's not a moral failure on their part, just life. 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Having to work in between pick up and drop off and then adding in doctors appointments and sick days is exhausting. I just want a full 8 hour workday for Christmas. 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 24/09/2026In other news, it turns out it's really fun to tell people about the insanity that was Y2K. 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 24/09/2026My students do not know what Y2K was. So excuse me while I put myself out to pasture 😔 001
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 23/09/2026My lab from my PhD Program posted that they moved to a new building. I didn't recognize it so I looked it up. The school bought the hold hospital where my first son was born and now my old lab has moved into the same location! So my dev psych lab is researching babies where my first baby was born 😀 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Help us learn more about faculty well-being, burnout, and what is working/not-working as responses to well-being. All psychology faculty at any type of university are eligible. Takes about 15-20 minutes and you can access it here. tulane.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... 111
Reposted by Brittany AvilaDr. Sarah Gaither @sarahegaither.bsky.social · 10/09/2026📣 I’m considering PhD students for Fall 2027! We study how our identities shape the way we see ourselves, how others see us, and how we interact across group boundaries. Our work spans race, gender, multiracial experiences, and intergroup contact with kids and adults. sites.duke.edu/dukeidlab/ 01815
Reposted by Brittany AvilaSylvia Perry @sylviapperry.bsky.social · 08/09/2026I’ll be reviewing PhD apps for the 27-28 AY! My lab studies questions related to how people (1) talk and think about (their own/experiences with) racism, (2) have difficult conversations, (3) socialize their children about racism and identity. Learn more here: www.sciplab.com 02421
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Earlier this year I was interviewed about technology use in kids and the reporter kept asking questions that pathologized kids who didn't want to use AI. I felt so insane during the whole thing wondering when we got to the point that not wanting to use AI meant kids were bad. Happy to see this! 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Not quite my vision for the start of the semester with a raging fire, people being evacuated, and kids schools closing, but I'm still excited to see all the students back on campus and to get started! The hum of the first week is always my favorite :) 010
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 21/08/2026I don't really understand the argument that we need to teach students AI or they'll be left behind. No one ever taught us how to use AI and we're all doing fine. No one taught us how to use Workday or Outlook and we're doing just fine. I think they'll be ok if they learn some things on the job. 020
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 21/08/2026I was looking up generation information to talk about in social psych this semester, and I just want to warn everyone that we only have 2 more years of Gen Z as the entering college students and then we start to see Gen Alpha coming in! 010
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 20/08/2026For the first time in my career, my syllabi and Canvas courses are complete with 1 more day in the week before the semester starts on Monday. What will I do with all my time tomorrow? 010
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 18/08/2026I think "They knew it's products could hook kids" is a misnomer. They intentionally designed it that way. 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 17/08/2026You know what purses could really use? A dedicated spot for glasses. Nothing worse than rushing to put away classes in a case you can't find when the doctor's office calls your name. 010
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 14/08/2026I'm always amazed at how long it takes to get my classes ready. Every semester. I always think it's going to be shorter, especially when I have taught the class so many times. 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 12/08/2026This semester, I'm doing a book club in my Social Psych class. Students pick among selected books and then on certain days they meet with other students who chose the same one and discuss. I'm both nervous and excited! I hope it works 🤞 020
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Completely finished week 1 of my online class! All other weeks are mostly ready (I teach this class almost every semester). I change way too much every semester no matter how many times I tell myself not to. 010
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 23/06/2026London! I've dreamed of being in London since I was in high school and I finally made it here! 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 09/06/2026I know sometimes it seems our students are using AI all the time, but there are a lot of them that are skeptical about it and pushing back on it. And that's a great thing! Excited to have contributed to this article. www.parents.com/teens-are-pu...parents.comHere’s What to Know About The Teen Backlash Against AITeens are worried about the environment and a flailing job market, and they think AI is only making these problems worse. Here's why young people might be as excited to embrace new technology as you t... 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 08/06/2026Students kept asking me this semester: "Can you tell if a paper was written with AI?" And it gave me an unexpected realization: Many students don't actually know what their own writing voice sounds like. 🧵1/7 100
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 08/06/2026It's Monday, but my kids' last day of school has completely confused my internal calendar. Chaperoned a park trip, they get out at noon, and I'm convinced it's Friday. Summer mode has officially begun.😎 010
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 04/06/2026I love that feeling when you've been struggling to write for weeks, so you sit down to vent right your frustrations and suddenly it all comes together! 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 28/05/2026If the majority of students don't pass a freshman math sequence it's not a problem with test scores or with universities as a whole. Students are not being prepared well enough in K-12. A focus on allowing teachers (not admin or tech comp) to make more decisions in K-12 classrooms is the solution. 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 27/05/2026Our middle schools start at 7:30 AM and I've heard a lot of complaints about the kids, the age, and the schools from the community. All the complaints always seemed like symptoms of sleep deprivation to me. Looks like I might have been on to something... doi:10.1001/jama.2026.1717 000
Reposted by Brittany AvilaJamie Cockcroft @jamiecockcroft.bsky.social · 19/05/2026Paid Undergraduate Research Internship within the Department of Psychology at the University of York, funded by NIHR. An 8-week summer placement is open to undergraduate students in Psychology (or related disciplines) interested in memory research. You can find out more here: shorturl.at/flepxdrive.google.comNIHR Undergraduate Internship - Advert.pdf 0810
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 12/05/2026Went away on vacation and came back to a new library with a ladder! Been dreaming of this since I was a kid. 030
Reposted by Brittany AvilaJaclyn A. Siegel, PhD @jacasiegel.bsky.social · 26/04/2026Tomorrow, I’m participating in the Big Sur marathon (11-mile distance) in support of the ALS Therapy Development Institute. My run group is also sponsored by Hoka! Our team of 10 has already raised over $30,000 for ALS research. Help us reach $35,000! 🙏 fundraisers.hakuapp.com/jaclyn-siegel 1235
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 28/03/2026Accidentally used the wrong shortcut and increased the zoom on a word document. Hate to admit that it helped a lot in reading the document. So....40 here I come! 010
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 27/03/2026This will increase the wealth gap in our country. You can guarantee that the children of the rich, the elite, and of the people who made this tech won't be using it. 100
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 27/03/2026Aw man, are we going to need to start allowing Wikipedia to be cited as a source because I'm here for it! 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 23/03/2026I've been wanting to stop using Canvas for a while now. I see the value for my online courses, but for in person courses it just costs me invaluable amounts of time to build for no real value to my students. Maybe this is the sign to finally do away with it. www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...insidehighered.comCanvas Unrolls AI Teaching AgentThe new AI agent aims to save faculty time on “low-value tasks,” but stops short of fully automating grading. But some experts worry that the rise of agentic AI could lead to a dead classroom, where c... 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 22/03/2026First round of PhD applications I submitted 15 and was rejected from all. Second round of applying I submitted 12 and got into 1. 020
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 19/03/2026Yes, because tech companies have a solid history of succeeding every time they try to enter the education sphere. 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 16/03/2026Part of the problem is school start times. Teens have a natural circadian rhythm of staying awake later and waking up later in the morning, yet we go against that data and force them to wake up earlier than is natural for them. www.npr.org/2026/03/08/n...npr.orgTeens are sleeping less than ever and screens aren't primarily to blameNearly a quarter of teens sleep 5 hours or less per night and the majority sleep less than 8 hours. The problem is pervasive and technology doesn't seem to be the main culprit, according to a new repo... 011
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 09/03/2026Just signed the contract for my first book with Cognella! So excited to continue this project and get this book out to students in 2028. Look for How to Succeed in College: Being Successful and Avoiding Burnout Along the Way coming soon. 020
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 09/03/2026Are there any psychology graduate students planning to attend WPA in Tacoma, WA that would like to participate in a panel about graduate school? The panel is aimed at an undergraduate audience and panelists share their experiences and there is a Q&A session. 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 27/02/2026"Inevitably, they view learning as a problem of content delivery, failing to understand that learning is a social process, happening among and inside of people" Human connection is the center of learning. Tech has a place in ed, but never the main role. We should fund teachers over tech every time. 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 25/02/2026"The more institutions rely on measurable proxies for learning, the less they cultivate the conditions under which deep learning actually occurs." I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Our assessment tools are not built for creative thinking, intrinisic motivation, or critical analysis. 102
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 03/02/2026I have unzip with nowhere to play it and the kid wants to stop after the next turn 😭 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 22/01/2026Calling a child “it” is dehumanization—an easy way for groups to justify violence and give a sense of moral superiority. Milgram showed people aren’t just “following orders”; they convince themselves the ends justify the means. This will only get worse if we don't stop it now. 010
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 21/01/2026One reason (not the only one) that I went non-tenure track was to get off this train. I didn't want to be on it when it crashed. This isn't sustainable and it's not good science. Individual solutions like this can be good, but we need a wider systemic change first. www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comI’m going to halve my publication output. You should consider slow science, tooIf we don’t slow down, the research enterprise is going to crash, argues Adrian Barnett. 000
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 16/01/2026Wrote the very first 699 words of my book today! For years I've been trying to write a book. I've been outlining it, researching, but I never officially committed to writing it. Now, I finally did it. I started it and I couldn't be more excited. Here's to hoping it gets finished. 120
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 15/01/2026Haha it always makes me think of Skeet Ulrich then I start thinking about Scream then I can't stop saying "liver alone, get it" all day! 110
Brittany Avila @drbrittanyavila.bsky.social · 14/01/2026"The report describes a kind of doom loop of AI dependence, where students increasingly off-load their own thinking onto the technology, leading to the kind of cognitive decline or atrophy more commonly associated with aging brains." www.npr.org/2026/01/14/n...npr.orgThe risks of AI in schools outweigh the benefits, report saysA new report warns that AI poses a serious threat to children's cognitive development and emotional well-being. 010