Carrie James & Emily Weinstein: Behind Their Screens: What Teens are Facing

In Behind Their Screens: What Teens are Facing (and Adults are Missing), Emily Weinstein, Ed.D. and Carrie James, Ph.D., researchers at Project Zero at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education who are experts on teens and technology, explore the complexities that teens face in their digital lives, and suggest that many adult efforts to help—“Get off your phone!” “Just don’t sext!”—fall short.

Drs. Weinstein and James, whose work has been covered in Time, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic, warn against a single-minded focus by adults on screen time. Teens worry about dependence on their devices, but disconnecting means being out of the loop socially, with absence perceived as rudeness or even a failure to be there for a struggling friend.

Drawing on a multiyear project that surveyed more than 3,500 teens, the authors explain that young people need empathy, not exasperated eye-rolling. Adults should understand the complicated nature of teens’ online life rather than issue commands, and they should normalize—let teens know that their challenges are shared by others—without minimizing or dismissing.

Drs. James and Weinstein will be in conversation with Merve Lapus, vice president of education outreach and engagement at Common Sense Media.