Postdoctoral Position on the Effects of Digital Media on Youth
Job
This project proposes a fundamentally new view on media effects. The core idea is that media effects stabilize over time and are therefore difficult to detect with traditional methods. The project will test this new framework with innovative (controlled) field trials that employ a unique mix of subjective and objective measures. This project will test the impact of digital technologies on first-time users – that is, children who receive a smartphone or video game console for the very first time. Specifically, the project will examine to what extent acquiring a smartphone or game console changes the way children spend their time, and its impacts on attention and well-being. This four-year project is funded by a NWO Vidi grant awarded to Susanne Baumgartner and is part of the Youth and Media Entertainment Programme Group of the Department of Communication Science. In our programme group, we explore the role of communication technologies in everyday life studying traditional and new forms of entertainment media. Building on a media psychological orientation, the programme group focuses in particular on children and adolescents. You will be part of a larger project that investigates the effects of digital technologies on children and adolescents who use these technologies for the first time. Specifically, the project will examine whether and how these technologies influence children’s attention and well-being. In this project, data collection will be based on 1) a randomized controlled field trial among novice video game players, and 2) a longitudinal field study among novice smartphone users. As a Postdoc you will be involved in the data collection of both projects and will work in close collaboration with the other team members.
Initiator(s):
University of Amsterdam
Deadline: 30.04.2025
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Post created by: Lymor Wolf Goldstein