Students using and providing feedback for Social Media TestDrive

January 2024: Social Media TestDrive has officially passed 1 million users! We’re excited to continue to prepare young people for the online world.

December 2023: We celebrated the end of another great semester with two lab celebrations – one with our graduate students and staff and another with our undergraduate RAs. Great work, everyone!

 December 2023: Congrats on the two new NSF grants that SML has been awarded: NSF HCC Medium: Leveraging Conversational AI for Cultivating Bystander Interventions to Teens’ Cyberbullying and NSF RETTL: Research on Emerging Technologies for Teaching and Learning: Social Media Co-Pilot: Developing a Chatbot to Foster Empathy and Shape Prosocial Behaviors among Teens.

September 2023: We have a new publication in Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Congratulations to Pengfei, Natalie, and Natercia on their new paper: “Digital parenting divides: the role of parental capital and digital parenting readiness in parental digital mediation.”

August 2023: Congratulations to our lab director, Natalie for being appointed to a one-year term as the Associate Vice Provost in the Office of the VP for Research and Innovation! 

August 2023: Congratulations to Pengfei Zhao for passing her A-exam!

August 2023: We’re excited for the start of another academic year! We welcomed two new students to our lab, Julia Sebastien and Haesoo Kim.

August 2023: One of our undergraduate RAs, Amber Arquilevich, has been accepted to the Rawlings Cornell Presidential Research Scholar Program! This prestigious program provides Cornell students with resources and mentorship to promote sustained engagement in research.

July 2023: Two of our doctoral candidates–Diana Freed and Aparajita Bhandari–have successfully defended their dissertations! Congratulations Dr. Diana Freed and Dr. Aparajita Bhandari!

July 2023: We have a new publication in Journal of Children and Media. Congratulations to Mandy, Phillipp, Natalie, Ellen, and Janis on their new paper: “The youth social media literacy inventory: development and validation using item response theory in the US.”

May 2023: Our lab had 3 papers accepted to the 73rd Annual International Communication Association Conference. Congratulations to everyone for their hard work!

May 2023: Natalie and Pengfei’s chapter, Individualistic Privacy Theories, in the Routledge Handbook of Privacy and Social Media is now out. Congratulations!

April 2023: Our recent study on Youth Digital Safety, published in CHI, was featured in the Cornell Chronicle! Congratulations to Diana, Natalie, and Eunice and our collaborators at Google and Dan!

March 2023: We have a new publication in Social Media + Society! Congratulations to Philipp, Natalie, and Dominic on their new paper: “The Impact of What Others Do, Approve of, and Expect You to Do: An In-Depth Analysis of Social Norms and Self-Disclosure on Social Media.”

January 2023: We have a new publication in JMIR (Journal of Medical Internet Research): Young Adults’ Perceptions of 2 Publicly Available Digital Resources for Self-injury: Qualitative Study of a Peer Support App and Web-Based Factsheets.” Congratulations to Aparajita and Natalie as well as our SML collaborators Kaylee Kruzan, Janis Whitlock, and Julia Chapman!

November 2022: Natalie and Qian Yang, SML collaborator, have officially founded the Digital and AI Literacy Initiative at Cornell. The initiative aims to develop digital tech and AI literacy resources for underserved communities. You can visit the official webpage here and read more about the news here! 

October 2022: One of our exciting, recent research projects on content moderation, published in Big Data & Society, was featured in the Cornell Chronicle! Congratulations to Aparajita and Natalie, and our collaborators Marie and Dominic!

October 2022: Aspen will be co-presenting at a QuIRI seminar on October 7th at 1-2pm. The presentation is titled “Big Data Meets Thick Description: Thinking Interpretively with Computational Data!”

September 2022: The SML is looking for a new postdoc to help develop digital literacy interventions for older adults. Applicants with a background in educational technology, HCI, and/or gerontology should apply! For more information, see https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/22563

July 2022: Join us in congratulating Dr. Mandy Purington for successfully defending her dissertation!

July 2022: We have a new publication in Big Data & Society: “Shall AI moderators be made visible? Perception of accountability and trust in moderation systems on social media platforms.” Congratulations to Aparajita and Natalie as well as our SML collaborators Marie and Dominic!

May 2022: Congratulations to our post-doc, Ellen, who accepted an offer for a faculty position at Penn State University. She will be starting in her role as an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Educational Psychology and the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences.

April 2022: Congratulations to our graduate student, Aparajita Bhandari, for being awarded the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship! 

March 2022: Our Asylum Seekers Team (Aparajita, Natalie, Diana, Tao, and Winice) has been working together with Weill and the BCTR on a project to help refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants claim and understand their health care rights. The project was featured in the Cornell Chronicle!

February 2022: Diana is an invited panelist at an upcoming talk titled “When the Internet Surrounds Us,” hosted by the Center for Long Term Cybersecurity at Berkeley on February 23rd at 12pm PST.  Please register here if you are interested!

February 2022: The SML is partnering with other organizations such as NYC Mayor’s Office to ENDGBV, OneLove, and NYS Office to Prevent Domestic Violence to host an event about technology’s role in the lives of young people. Diana will be presenting at this event on February 15th! Please register if you are interested, through the link on our twitter page.

February 2022: Congratulations to our graduate student, Pengfei Zhao, for being selected as a new Meta Fellow from over 2,300 applicants! https://www.cs.cornell.edu/information/news/newsitem12175/three-cornell-doctoral-candidates-win-meta-research-fellowships

January 2022: We have a new publication in the Journal of Medical Internet Research! Congratulations to Kaylee, Janis, and Natalie on the publication: “Use of a Mobile Peer Support App Among Young People with Nonsuicidal Self-injury: Small-scale Randomized Controlled Trial.

January 2022: Congratulations to Samuel, Pengfei, and Natalie for their new publication in Current Opinion in Psychology: “Social Media and Close Relationships: A Puzzle of Connection and Disconnection.” 

December 2021: We wrapped up our fall semester with a general lab meeting, where the undergraduate RAs presented their blog posts and work from the semester. Check out our Medium site to read their insightful blog posts that touch on a variety of relevant topics in social media ranging from privacy policies, TikTok algorithms, to generational gaps in knowledge. We also said goodbye to our post-doc, Natercia, as she began her new STEM Instruction Librarian Position at the University of Florida.

November 2021: Congratulations to Natalie and her collaborators for being published in The Emerald Handbook of Group and Team Communication Research: How Has Technology Changed Group Communication? A Keyword Analysis of Research on Groups and Technology.”

October 2021: Social Media TestDrive, our interactive social media educational platform, has reached over 400,000 users! We are excited to continue to help prepare young people for the online world through experiential learning.

October 2021: Congratulations to Kaylee, Natalie, and Janis! Our paper was accepted to CSCW 2021: “Investigating Self-injury Support Solicitations and Responses on a Mobile Peer Support Application.” In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW2).

September 2021: We have two new papers in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication! Congratulations to Aparajita, Natalie and SML collaborators Marie Ozanne and Dominic DiFranzo on the new publication: “Do You Care Who Flagged This Post? Effects of Moderator Visibility on Bystander Behavior.” Congratulations to our former grad student Samuel Hardman and lab director, Natalie on the publication: “Always Available, Always Attached: A Relational Perspective on the Effects of Mobile Phones and Social Media on Subjective Well Being.”

August 2021: Diana Freed and Amanda (Mandy) Purington presented Social Media TestDrive to the NYS BOCES District Superintendents at their meeting in Saratoga, NY!

July 2021: Natercia Valle presented “Promoting Social Media Literacy and Digital Citizenship with Social Media TestDrive” along with Daniel Vargas Campos at the Connected Learning Summit 2021.

July 2021: Very proud of the SML alumna Shruti Sannon for being selected as a Computing Innovation Fellow. She will be working with Tawanna Dillahunt at UM School of Information and continuing her research on marginalization in the gig economy. Congratulations, Shruti!

July 2021: Congratulations to Natalie and SML collaborators Philipp Masur and Dominic Difranzo on the new publication in Plos One: “Behavioral contagion on social media: Effects of social norms, design interventions, and critical media literacy on self-disclosure.”

June 2021: Congratulations to Natalie and her collaborators on the new NSF award for Deterring Objectionable Behavior and Fostering Emergent Norms in Social Media Conversations. You can read more about this grant in the Cornell Chronicle. The work is already way, with the SML grad Aspen Russell already making headway on the project this summer.

May 2021: Diana Freed was featured in a report by North Country Public Radio covering two suicides related to social media. Check out what she had to say here.

May 2021: Join us in congratulating both Aparajita Bhandari and Diana Freed for passing their A-exams!

April 2021: Catch Natercia Valle at the American Educational Research Association (AERA)’s 2021 Annual Meeting as she presents a variety of her research. On Saturday, 4/10, from 9:30-10:30am EST she will present “Learner-Facing Learning Analytics Dashboards: A Systematic Literature Review Focusing on Domain Measures and Evaluation.” On Sunday, 4/11, from 10:40-11:40am EST, she will present, “Investigating the Influence of Task-Value Scaffolding in a Predictive Learning Analytics Dashboard,” and from 2:30-4:00pm EST she will present, “A Meta-Analysis on the Influence of Gamification in Formal Education on Affective and Behavioral Outcomes.” On Monday, 4/12, from 9:30-11:00am EST, catch her presenting, “The Impact of Gamification in Educational Settings on Student Learning Outcomes: A  Meta-Analysis.” Register here.

March 2021: Congratulations to the SML on receiving the Facebook Privacy Research Award for Developing Novel Interventions for Digital Transparency and Control for Diverse Populations, Context, and Data Types!

March 2021: We are excited to welcome the newest members of our lab: Natercia, our new post-doctoral research associate, and Amanda, our new lab manager.

January 2021: Our new JMIR publication, Examining the Relationship Between the Use of a Mobile Peer-Support App and Self-Injury Outcomes: Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study, is out. Great work by Kaylee Kruzan PhD, Janis Whitlock PhD, and Natalie Bazarova PhD!

December 2020: We’re proud to announce: Dr. Shruti Sannon for earning her PhD and starting her post-doctorate position with the Social Computing Research Group at Drexel University!

November 2020: Join us in congratulating Amanda (Mandy) Purington for passing her A-exam!

October 2020: Catch Yoon H. Choi co-presenting at our partner’s, Common Sense Education’s, sponsored webinar on Helping Kids Use Social Media Responsibly: An Educator’s Guide to Social Media TestDrive on October 20th from 3:00PM-4:00PM EDT. Information and registration link here.

September 2020: Congratulations to our post-doc Yoon H. Choi on being selected for the Cornell’s Postdoc Achievement Award for Excellence in Community Engagement! She plays a pivotal role on  Social Media TestDrive, which has 12 modules and has recently reached 100,000 users.

August 2020: Welcome to our our old lab members and many new members joining in Fall 2020! Our new PhDs are Aspen Russell and Pengfei Zhao, check out their bios to learn more their research areas. We are  excited to have our new staff members Leslie Park, our lab manager, and Ellen Wenting Zou, our incoming post-doc. We would  also like to extend a warm welcome our new research assistants joining the team: Cid Decanter working with Aparajita on projects related to pro-social behaviors and Parker Murphy, Khaliq Jolly, and Martha Brandt working with Yoon, Mandy, and our broader team on Social Media TestDrive projects. We are looking forward to our first all-remote semester.

June 2020: Congratulations to former SML graduate student Kaylee Kruzan on accepting a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Northwestern University’s Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies, as well as for being awarded, along with Janis Whitlock, The Global Qualitative Nursing Research 2019 Best Paper Award for Processes of Change and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: A Qualitative Interview Study with Individuals at Various Stages of Change!

June 2020: SML graduate student Shruti Sannon was awarded a prestigious Microsoft Dissertation Award for 2020 (award rate 4%), for her work on understanding privacy, security, and safety risks for people with disabilities in the gig economy. She is the first communication scholar ever to be awarded this fellowship, and the only Cornell scholar for this year. Congratulations, Shruti!

May 2020: Philipp Masur presented “Behavioral contagion in social media: Effects of social norms, design interventions, and critical media literacy on self-disclosure,” and was awarded the Top Paper Award for the Communication and Technology Division of ICA, along with Natalie Bazarova and Dominic DiFranzo, at the 70th Annual International Communication Association Conference.  Click here to watch the virtual presentation!

May 2020: Congratulations to SML graduate student Shruti Sannon on her Anson Rowe Award, and also to undergraduate Kelly Stone on her Merrill Presidential Scholar Award!

April 2020: We would like to recognize the dedication and continued effort of our undergraduate research assistants amidst all of the recent challenges. Michael Huang, Tianke Zhao, and Lily Lin are working on the Social Media TestDrive project; Annika Pinch and Suzanne Lee are working on the Content Moderation project; and Billie Sun is working on Privacy and Technology. Thank you all for your hard work!

March 2020: The Social Media Lab TestDrive team has launched three new Social Media TestDrive modules on topics including media balance, targeted advertisements, and phishing! These modules are live on the newly revamped TestDrive website now (a special thank you to Anna Spring and Michael Huang for their efforts on the website redesign!). You can also find more information about what’s new in the TestDrive curriculum, as well as how to make social media a positive experience for young users, in our Psychology Today blog post written by Dr. Yoon Choi and Dr. Bazarova.

March 2020: SML Lab Director Natalie Bazarova has written a blog post for Psychology Today on “Staying Connected Via Social Media in the Age of COVID-19.” You can find the blog post here.

March 2020: Congratulations to the The Social Media TestDrive team led by the SML Director Natalie Bazarova for being awarded a $300,000 NSF Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) for their research proposal, “Addressing Social Media-Related Cybersecurity and Privacy Risks with Experiential Learning Interventions.” The project will address privacy and cybersecurity risks at scale through the use of the Social Media TestDrive platform.

January 2020: The SML has had a paper accepted to GROUP 2020! Sannon, S., Stoll, B., DiFranzo, D., Jung, M., & Bazarova, N. (2020). “I just shared your responses”: Extending Communication Privacy Management Theory to Interactions with Conversational Agents. In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (GROUP ’20).

January 2020: The year has gotten off to an exciting start! The SML has had two papers accepted to ICA 2020! Taylor, S. H., & Bazarova, N. N. (2020). Always Available, Always Attached: A Relational Perspective on The Effects of Mobile Phones and Social Media on Subjective Well-Being. To be presented at the 70th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Gold Cost, Australia. The other paper is  Masur, P., DiFranzo, D., and Bazarova, N. N. (2020). Behavioral contagion in social media: Effects of social norms, design interventions, and critical media literacy on self-disclosure. To be presented at the 70th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Gold Cost, Australia. Congratulations to Philipp, Dominic, and Natalie for winning the Top Paper Award for the Communication and Technology Division of ICA!

December 2019: Congratulations! Our paper has been accepted to CHI 2020! Kruzan, K., Whitlock, J., Bazarova, N. N., Miller, K., Chapman, J., & Won, A. S. (2020). Supporting self-injury recovery: The potential for virtual reality intervention. Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors and Computing Systems. ACM

August 2019: The SML is excited to announce the nationwide launch of Social Media TestDrive! TestDrive is an interactive social media educational platform developed in collaboration with Common Sense Education. You can find more information about Social Media TestDrive here.

July 2019:  The SML has some exciting updates! Graduate student Sam Taylor has accepted an Assistant Professor position in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Post-Doc Dominic DiFranzo has accepted an Assistant Professor position in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Lehigh University! Congratulations to you both! The SML will miss you!

June 2019: June has been an exciting month in the SML! Two of our doctoral candidates–Sam Taylor and Kaylee Kruzan–have successfully defended their dissertations! Congratulations Dr. Kaylee Kruzan and Dr. Samuel Hardman Taylor!

March 2019: The SML is celebrating Shruti Sannon passing her A-exam and becoming a doctoral candidate! We are also celebrating our Director, Dr. Natalie Bazarova, being this year’s recipient of the Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award! Congratulations to both!