iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

The official 3 month report has some MH measures (no change): www.esafety.gov.au/sites/defaul...

esafety.gov.au

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

And so you should be! Writing when you’ve lost the motivation is such a miserable trudge.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Ridiculously late to this, but congrats prof! Very much deserved.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I feel like I had a similar conversation at home recently, but with “replica proton pack” instead of “doughnut maker” 😬

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

5/ So, early days. But emerging data on potential unintended consequences reinforces to me why it’s so important to evaluate any social media restrictions. They’re new territory, and we need to be humble enough to say that we don’t know what will work and what won’t in the long term yet.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

4/ There also isn’t much shift in parental support provided to children, which worries me. Parental awareness of children’s social media use appears to be declining too. Something that I am hoping will be monitored in future waves.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

3/ and around 65% of children reporting that they think the restrictions are having no impact, up from 29% at baseline. Fewer children think there are negative impacts, and fewer think there are positive impacts.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

2/ there are early indications that platform compliance isn’t great, and lots of children still on social media - around 80% reporting that they had used an age-restricted platform in the past month.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

1/ This is based on data collected pre-restrictions, and around March/April this year. Too early to tell what’s working, and this wave of data collection wasn’t intended to answer that question.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

The data report from the first three months of the Australian social media ban has now been released: www.esafety.gov.au/research/soc... Some thoughts:

esafety.gov.au

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

This is a brilliant interview with the psychologist that everyone should actually be listening to on social media effects:

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Andrea Howard @drandreahoward.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

The real tragedy of this whole debacle is that we’re allowing people with bestseller cachet to peddle one-cause narratives when an excellent nuanced book that understands individual differences matter is *right there* (go read @peteetchells.bsky.social book)

Quoted text: Pete Etchells, a professor of psychology and science communication at Bath Spa University, also pushed back on the idea that Common Core is the primary cause of mental-health problems among American kids. “This is a common trap that we fall into when trying to figure out what’s going on with those declines,” he told me. “We try to answer the question of ‘What one big thing can explain this?’ The answer, in my view, is that there isn’t one big thing.” This was generally the thesis of Etchells’s own book Unlocked: The Real Science of Screen Time (And How to Spend It Better), which came out the week before The Anxious Generation did, sold only a few thousand copies, and received hardly any attention at all.

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Candice Odgers @candiceodgers.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Scary stories about teens sell. The data tells a different story. After decades studying adolescent mental health, here's what I found: This isn't an anxious generation. It's a resilient one. Let's start treating them that way. go.ted.com/candiceodgers

go.ted.com

What we're getting wrong about teens and tech

For years, the warning has been: smartphones are destroying a generation. But developmental psychologist Candice Odgers says that decades of data on teens tells a different story — violence, alcohol u...

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Are they using klinik? Our GP moved to that a year or two ago. It’s the most infuriating form I’ve ever come across. “Please list all ailments and then write 5000 words for each”.

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Dr Dean Burnett @drdeanburnett.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

This Monday, May 11th, it's our brain-based panel at the RI, London www.rigb.org/whats-on/our... Me, @peteetchells.bsky.social Nathalia Gjersoe, @soozaphone.bsky.social and a (fingers crossed) very enthused audience with many neuro questions they want answered. [Books available afterwards]

rigb.org

Our idiot brain - 10 years of learning

Neuroscientist Dean Burnett and special guests return to the Ri for a tour of the brain.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

It’s a scam Helen. I’ve had the same email from them.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

NEVER. My next book will be 88% footnotes.

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Casey Newton @caseynewton.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

This verdict seemed very likely the moment that TikTok and Snap settled rather than go to trial. A landmark moment for Big Tech www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/t...

nytimes.com

Meta and YouTube Found Negligent in Landmark Social Media Addiction Case

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Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Hiring! 🙌 Communications and Operations Coordinator to help share mu team's research and support a fast-moving, high-impact group. Major rebrand ahead + real chance to build things from scratch in an area where there is high media interest ⬇️. Closes 14 April. www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/communi...

bbc.co.uk

UK teenagers to trial social media bans and digital curfews

The government will interview the young people and their parents before and after they try the limits to assess their impact.

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Reposted by Pete Etchells

Doug Parry @dougaparry.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Super interesting presentation on smartphone habits, automatic behavior, user perceptions, logged smartphone use, measurement gaps, and responsibility by Matt Sharpe at the @oii.ox.ac.uk www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmDx...

youtube.com

Do You Think Before You Open Your Phone?

YouTube video by Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Saw someone recently refer to Blink 182 as “late 20th century music”

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Thank you to @davidsonofaaron.bsky.social for hosting a thoughtful discussion about social media ban proposals in the UK. It was a pleasure to contribute to this: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4 - The Briefing Room, Should the Government ban social media for young people?

What evidence is there that social media is harming young people?

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Goodreads is *the worst*, no reviews are worth reading there!

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Nothing personal taken! I really appreciate the feedback - and in this context I’m interested in how the message might be taken. If nothing else, thanks for taking the time to read the letter (even if it was just the first sentence 😄)

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

That’s really useful to know, thank you - I’d never thought of it in that sense. Whenever I’ve used it, I’ve done so with sincerity, and I guess to signal good intentions. I’ll rethink that though.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Of course! Always happy to chat through the evidence.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Clearly seems to be a waste of postage though.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

The UK has some of the best social media and digital tech effects researchers in the world. I find it mind-boggling they haven’t been considered first.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

About 18 months ago I sent this letter, along with a copy of my book, to a number of MPs and peers, including Wes Streeting. I never got a response (which to be fair was my baseline expectation), but it’s still disheartening to see today’s news about Haidt’s invitation to speak to policymakers.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Same. We need a coordinated effort to support science communicators so it’s not just individual people vainly trying to make a difference in a very big, messy, noisy system.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

More displeased at the eviction, I think!

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Unauthorised student turned up to today’s research methods class, I guess they wanted to brush up on their meow-tiple regression skills?

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Doug Parry @dougaparry.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

Two exciting ERC-funded PhD positions on attention and technology use with @matti.vuorre.com I’ll be an (external) part of the supervision team and can highly recommend this department @tilburg-university.bsky.social tiu.nu/22989

tiu.nu

Job opening: PhD candidate on attention and technology use (full-time, 4 years) (22989)

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Thanks Kate! Always happy to chat, Richard.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

I had the vaccination Tuesday. Tested positive yesterday 🤦‍♂️ rank bad timing.

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