Social Media | Penn Today

Australia’s social media ban for children has left big tech scrambling

Pinar Yildirim of the Wharton School comments on the Australian ban on social media use by those younger than 16.

Analyzing feminism and traditional gender roles on social media

In a new paper, Annenberg School for Communication Dean Sarah Banet-Weiser and doctoral student Sara Reinis analyze popular “tradwife” social media accounts, which embrace traditional gender roles and the rejection of “the rejection of hustle culture.”

2 min. read

Six people stand on a set of parallel, converging arrows, illustrating the concept of collaboration or moving forward together.

A road map to reduce firearm harms by 2040

Three Penn faculty members are among more than 40 experts to author a report addressing the persistent challenge of gun violence and proposing solutions stemming from a JAMA Summit convened last spring.

2 min. read

Instagram says it’s safeguarding teens by limiting them to PG-13 content

PIK Professor Desmond Patton of the Annenberg School for Communication and the School of Social Policy & Practice discusses Instagram’s limits on teenagers’ access.

Many Gen Zers deal with higher rates of mental health challenges and firearm suicides, according to a new report

PIK Professor Desmond Patton says that more young people are speaking openly about mental health, especially on social media. College of Arts and Sciences first-year Anvesha Guru says that cultural attitudes about guns and mental health need more than a simple shift.

Addressing the ‘catch-22’ academics face on social media

The Annenberg School for Communication’s Center for Media at Risk and Center for Digital Culture and Society brought together scholars to analyze the interconnected benefits and risks that academics face using social media.

People with a large compter screen and oversized magnifying glasses searching for something online.

How information spread on Facebook during and after the 2020 election

Annenberg School for Communications’ Sandra González-Bailón and colleagues analyzed the spread of over one billion Facebook posts to reveal how information flowed on the social network.

An epidemic of vicious school brawls, fueled by student cellphones

PIK Professor Desmond Upton Patton says that many schools don’t have a playbook for addressing student violence or helping pupils engage more positively online, in part because few researchers are studying the issue.

Social media misinformation is scaring women about birth control

In an opinion essay, postdoc Emily Pfender of the Leonard Davis Institute and Perelman School of Medicine cautions that social media can set back women’s health by perpetuating fear and misinformation instead of empowering informed choices.

Illustration of different types of political campaign activity.

How the U.S. presidential campaigns are targeting digital ads by zip code

Andrew Arenge of the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies has created dashboards showing geotargeted issues and spending amounts looking at the Harris and Trump campaigns.

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