Tag

Screen time

Close-up of two hands holding and scrolling a smartphone

Likes drove more posting in people with depression

Analysing 17 million posts from 7,736 Twitter users, researchers in JAMA Psychiatry found people with depression were more strongly reinforced by likes, the opposite of what laboratory reward tests usually show.

Aug 3, 2026

A group of teenagers sitting on a staircase looking at a phone

News

Australia banned under-16s from social media. Most kept using it.

Three months after the world's first national minimum age law took effect, a BMJ study found more than 85% of under-16s were still on the restricted platforms.

Aug 1, 2026

A teenager lit by a phone screen in a dark bedroom

News

Getting a phone at 13 cost sleep, not mood

A JAMA Pediatrics study followed 1,959 teenagers from age 13 to 14 and found that getting a smartphone tracked with less sleep, while depression and obesity tracked with how much it was used.

Jul 28, 2026