Emotional Well-Being in a Wired World
Smartphones and social media are making our emotional lives “choppier” by speeding up and intensifying the information we receive, stress researcher Emma Adam said during a recent Northwestern University conference on social and emotional well-being in a digital world.
Our brains and bodies are built to handle and even crave “small to medium waves of experience,” said Adam, a developmental psychologist and the Edwina Tarry Professor of Human Development and Social Policy. But large, unpredictable swings in stress can be overwhelming and even dangerous.
Adam, who studies the biology of stress and sleep in teenagers, urged adults to help young people “surf” life’s waves by reducing stressors, strengthening support systems, and designing technologies that support, rather than undermine, human well-being.
The half-day conference, “Social and Emotional Well-Being in a Digital World,” held at the Hilton Orrington in Evanston, brought together Northwestern researchers, students, parents, therapists, and community leaders to examine how digital tools and artificial intelligence are reshaping emotional health. It was jointly sponsored by the School of Education’s Center for Responsible Tech, Policy, and Public Dialogue and Well-Being Initiative.
“Socioemotional well-being is a critical part of the health and longevity of our communities and democracies,” said faculty member Claudia Haase, conference organizer, co-director of the Center for Responsible Tech Policy and Public Dialogue, and associate dean of well-being at the School of Education and Social Policy. “It’s fundamentally important for how we learn, connect, and contribute to the world."
Several speakers raised alarms about the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence in schools despite limited research on long-term impacts.
“So far, the evidence suggests the harms outweigh the benefits,” said Sepehr Vakil, co-director of the Center for Responsible Tech, Policy, and Public Dialogue and senior advisor to the AI Initiative at the Spencer Foundation. “But we’re going full speed ahead. There’s a disconnect between what the research evidence is suggesting and the actions we’re taking."
What’s in Your Feed?
In the student voices panel, senior Sanad Alshubbak highlighted how social media algorithms shape Gen Z boys’ and young men’s understanding of success, work, and identity. Drawing on his honors thesis, Alshubbak described how young men increasingly turn to short, repetitive videos that offer simple, confident answers to complex questions.
“They tell you what to value. What to avoid. What a ‘good life’ is supposed to look like,” said Alshubbak, who studies learning and organizational change and will join McKinsey & Co. as a business analyst.
For some, those messages create clarity and motivation; for others, they fuel pressure, comparison, anxiety, and rigid views of masculinity and politics. He encouraged adults to ask young people, “What is social media teaching you about success?” and urged Gen Z to reflect: “Do I actually believe the information, or did my feed repeat it until I did?”
Parents like Beth Garino, a member of the School of Education and Social Policy’s Board of Advisors, has seen the types of messaging boys are getting firsthand. The mother of a college junior, a high school junior, and a sixth grader, Garino said she regularly asks her sons whether women, scientists, or non-athletes appear in their feeds and presses them to consider whose voices they are hearing.
She sees her role as helping her children develop judgment: evaluating information, noticing who is influencing them, and deciding what is real and trustworthy.
Garino named three core challenges for parents: monitoring use and protecting safety and privacy, helping children develop independent thinking instead of outsourcing to AI, and countering the addictive design of many platforms. Families cannot meet these challenges alone, she added, and need stronger research, regulation, and policy.
Privacy and Policy
Graduate student Zoe Lewis-Woodson, a member of the inaugural cohort of the Masters in Technology, People, and Policy program, presented capstone research, showing that federal policies designed to protect children’s privacy and ensure online safety remain fragmented and limited. Lewis-Woodson and classmates Michaiah Ligon, and Lily Ng are working on the project with the Brookings Institution.
Platforms such as YouTube Kids reveal how algorithms built to maximize screen time can erode children’s privacy and well-being, Lewis-Woodson argued, calling on regulators and industry to question why they mass-distribute technologies that many creators would hesitate to give their own children.
Relational AI—tools and robots designed to build ongoing emotional relationships with users—emerged as another area of promise and concern. First-year learning sciences doctoral student Kachi Onyeador described how AI tutors and companions could expand access to personalized learning and health support but warned that offloading “deeper thinking” to AI risks replacing crucial parts of the learning process.
A fawning chatbot, she noted, can flatten the messy, complex work of real human relationships. Onyeador advocated for stronger AI literacy, media literacy, and reimagined computer science education so future generations can form healthier relationships with increasingly personal technologies.
Digital Spaces and Fairness
Communication scholar Ágnes Horvát shared long-running research showing that, despite promises to “level the playing field,” digital platforms often reproduce or widen inequalities in jobs, creativity, and opportunity. Her Lab on Innovation, Networks and Knowledge works to make digital tools more effective for scientists, entrepreneurs, and artists and examines how marginalized communities are more exposed to misinformation yet less supported by current AI systems.
Race, technology, and well-being were central themes for Rayvon Fouché, professor and associate dean for graduate education at the School of Communication. He pointed to tensions between high AI adoption and low representation of Black boys at elite institutions such as Howard University, raising questions about identity, opportunity, and futures shaped by technology.
Through the Humanity and Technoscience Lab and the Mellon-supported DISCO Network (Digital Inquiry, Speculation, Collaborative Optimism), Fouché is building cross-sector collaborations among academics, technologists, artists, investors, and community leaders.
Clinician Claudia Rosen, clinical director of Connections Health, described technology as part of today’s “emotional ecosystem” and said many clients have a “love-hate” relationship with it. People increasingly use TikTok and AI tools to self-diagnose conditions such as ADHD, trauma, anxiety, and neurodivergence. Having language for their experiences can reduce shame and bring relief, Rosen noted, but can also solidify narrow self-images too early.
Others use scrolling to calm down or seek reassurance, which may help in the moment but can make it harder over time to tolerate uncertainty, process complex emotions, and stay curious about their inner lives.
“Technology often steps into the roles that were once built by people or by capacities within ourselves,” Rosen said, noting that digital feedback can crowd out richer, if less tidy, human feedback and lived experience.
While she sees real benefits—connection, community, and belonging, particularly for those who feel isolated—she also warned that avoiding conflict through screens can thin out dialogue and stunt opportunities for growth and deeper closeness.
For now, she views AI as a useful supplement rather than a replacement for “alive, in-depth” therapeutic relationships. “I find myself cautious, curious, but ultimately hopeful,” she said, “because I’m inspired every day by how much the people I work with want to grow, reflect, and build meaningful lives, even in a world that’s changing this fast.”
Other speakers included Susan Davis, vice president of student affairs at Northwestern, Mike Horn, the Charles Deering Professor of Teaching Excellence; Vijay Mittal, chair of the psychology department and director of the Institute for Adolescent Mental Health and Well-Being at Northwestern; community member Geneva Norman, a Chicago vocalist, songwriter, musician and music arranger; David Rapp, the Walter Dill Scott Profesor; Mike Horn, the Charles Deering Professor of Teaching Excellence Award; Karen Smilowitz, associate provost for undergraduate education and the James N. and Margie M. Krebs Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Science at the McCormick School of Engineering; and professor James Spillane, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Professor in Learning and Organizational Change.