Monthly Archives: June 2020

University Business: “Social media offers students a ‘lifeline’ in age of anxiety” (Mimi Ito cited)

June 25, 2020

College students have turned to social media—not to cut themselves off from current events—but to seek connections that boost mental health during this age of coronavirus-induced anxiety and isolation. Young people “see social media as a lifeline to social support,” says a new report from the Connected Learning Lab at the University of California, Irvine.

Read the full story at University Business.

Cision PRWeb: “Teens’ technology use and mental health: New report from the Connected Learning Lab provides insight into Youth Connections for Wellbeing”

June 23, 2020

With or without physical separation due to COVID-19, youth are using social media to connect and support each other, according to a report released today. Three leading researchers have just published Youth Connections for Wellbeing, an integrative review paper that illuminates how teens support each other through digital media during times of stress and isolation.

Leveraging their expertise across the fields of cultural anthropology, developmental psychology, and clinical psychology, scholars Mimi Ito, Candice Odgers, and Stephen Schueller discuss the potential of digital media to support youth wellbeing.

Read the full story at Cision PRWeb.

NPR: “Get A Comfortable Chair: Permanent Work From Home Is Coming” (Judith Olson quoted)

June 22, 2020

Judith Olson is a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine who has been studying what she calls “distance learning” for about 30 years. She has some warnings. Collaboration with colleagues can suffer. You can feel lonely and isolated. “The hardest thing for somebody to deal with long distance is silence,” she says.

Read the full story at NPR.

Ph.D. Student Mayara Costa Figueiredo Receives 2020 Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant

Informatics Ph.D. candidate Mayara Costa Figueiredo is the recipient of a 2020 Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant, earning her $24,000 for the 2020-2021 academic year along with an invitation to present her research at a virtual two-day Ph.D. Summit later in the year. Microsoft awards the grant to Ph.D. students at North American universities who are underrepresented in the field of computing. Of the 225 proposals received, only 10 were selected.

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UCI Podcast: Melissa Mazmanian on work and parenting in the digital age

June 18, 2020

“Dreams of the Overworked: Living, Working & Parenting in the Digital Age” is a new book by Melissa Mazmanian, UCI associate professor of informatics, and Christine Beckman, professor of public policy at the University of Southern California. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Mazmanian, who holds appointments in the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences and the Paul Merage School of Business, discusses her process of writing the book and how it relates to our lives in this time of global pandemic.

A New Perspective on Technology and the Realities of Work-Life Balance

June 11, 2020

Melissa Mazmanian and Christine Beckman’s new book detailing technology use by nine families explores how working parents navigate today’s digital world. Yet their findings move well beyond the role of technology, portraying a cultural landscape in which exhaustion is the norm, work seems never-ending and family is all consuming — even before a global pandemic started making everything more challenging.

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University of California News: “Newly funded COVID-19 research aims to protect the most vulnerable” (Sean Young quoted)

June 5, 2020

This week, UC announced the successful completion of a whirlwind effort to award $2 million in seed funding to research across the state aimed at mitigating the impact of COVID-19, particularly among those at greater risk for infection and adverse outcomes. Sean Young of UC Irvine, who was awarded seed funding, has been working on health interventions for a long time, most recently among African American and Latinx men at high risk for AIDS. His project, HOPE (Harnessing Online Education), is a 12-week online community intervention designed to change risky behavior. With funding from UC, Young’s goal is to go back to this most recent HIV awareness cohort, and offer them a chance to take a survey to address some of their concerns and risks around the coronavirus, and learn how to create a new online community intervention to reduce their risks about COVID-19.

Read the full article at University of California News.