362: Carrie James & Emily Weinstein | What Teens Are Facing “Behind Their Screens”

How are teens navigating a networked world? What are they doing on their smartphones, and what does their response say about the current moment? Is there something more than addiction to screens and connectivity going on? On episode 362, I discuss these topics with Dr. Emily Weinstein and Dr. Carrie James, co-authors of Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (and Adults Are Missing).

Dr. Emily Weinstein is a senior researcher at Project Zero and a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dr. Weinstein studies the intersections of networked technologies with the social, emotional, and civic lives of adolescents and emerging adults. Her research on digital technologies draws on a variety of methodological approaches, including digital post analyses, interviews, surveys, focus groups, and experiments.

Dr. Weinstein’s published work appears in interdisciplinary journals, including New Media & Society, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Adolescent Research, and International Journal of Communication. In Spring 2022, she is teaching the new course, Digital Dilemmas: Adolescents Behind Their Screens (T510A).

Outside of her academic research, Emily regularly works with schools and families to reimagine supports for digital life. She is also a longtime collaborator of Common Sense Education, where she has worked on the development of free programs and resources related to digital citizenship. She holds a Master’s degree (Ed.M.) in Prevention Science and Practice and a Doctorate (Ed.D.) in Human Development and Education, both from Harvard University, and a B.S. from Cornell University.

Carrie James is a Research Associate and Principal Investigator at Project Zero. A sociologist by training, her research explores young people’s digital, moral, and civic lives. Over the past decade plus, Carrie has led research and educational initiatives focused on ethical issues in digital life, civic engagement and participatory politics in a connected age, and cross-cultural online learning experiences. 

For many years, Carrie worked closely with Howard Gardner and colleagues, conducting research on digital ethics. Past projects include: The Good Play Project, a MacArthur Foundation-Funded initiative focused on digital ethics and the Good Participation Project, a MacArthur Youth and Participatory Politics Research Network study of youth civic participation and civic education in a networked age.

Carrie co-directs Digital Dilemmas and Reimagining Digital Well-Being With and For Youth with Emily Weinstein. These initiatives emphasize approaches that center teens’ perspectives and experiences, and involve them as co-designers of interventions to support their digital well-being. In collaboration with Common Sense Education, we have produced new classroom resources, including a core set of thinking routines and dilemmas for digital life.

Carrie’s publications also include Disconnected: Youth, New Media, and the Ethics Gap (The MIT Press, 2014), and numerous articles in peer-reviewed education and media journals. She holds a M.A. (1996) and a Ph.D. (2003) in Sociology from New York University.

Links: Carrie’s Bio | Emily’s Bio | Behind Their Screens