Workshop on "Social Media and Well-Being: A multi-disciplinary dialogue"

Social media are an integral part of people's lives, and the way social media are used may influence, and be influenced by, their well-being. The study of social media and well-being is complex and depends on different cultural, contextual, sociological, methodological, and practical factors. Between 26th and 28th June 2023, 19 scholars from different disciplines and cultural backgrounds have discussed pressing conceptual, methodological, and practical issues during a workshop on “Social Media and Well-Being: A multi-disciplinary dialogue”, which was hosted by the Università della Svizzera italiana and jointly organized by the USI Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society, the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, and the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The workshop followed up on a previous workshop on "Social media use and well-being” hosted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in April 2022 at the Harvard Faculty Club (Cambridge, MA, U.S.).

During nine workshop sessions, the scholars have discussed key questions concerning:

1. What do we (not yet) know about the cultural, contextual, and socio-economic factors related to social media use and well-being?
2. What kind of research designs, including data collection, measures, analysis, and outcomes are appropriate to study social media and well-being?
3. How can we translate research into practice through interventions and policymaking?

The workshop received financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation and IBSA Foundation for scientific research.