Jonas Fegert

A Call to Action: New Paper on Youth Online Mental Health

The World Health Organization (WHO) has put forward guiding principles on online mental health for young people. In a newly published study, TWON-researchers integrate the WHO framework into a European context. They emphasize the impact of digital platforms and online social networks (OSNs) on mental health. The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified both the usage of digital technologies and a mental health crisis that is affecting young people in particular. Traditional services are increasingly losing touch with the young target group. Substantial challenges arise from the need to provide accessible and flexible mental health support while ensuring adherence to evidence-based guidelines.

The authors stress the special character of the European context: Typically, most young Europeans are growing up as digital natives, given the broad accessibility of advanced technology. Yet, there are important regional differences concerning the approach to mental health and the influence of social stigma related to the concept. Taking into account socioeconomic discrepancies and varying degrees of media literacy across Europe, this stresses the need for culturally sensitive mental health support. So far, online mental health services are often provided by independent organizations. But like other health-related services and products, the sector is in need of a sound regulatory framework to ensure both the quality and accessibility of services.

This highlights the need to gain a better understanding of platform mechanisms and the effects of algorithmic hyper-personalization and, therefore, the importance of our joint project TWON. Based on their research, the authors developed five core recommendations:

1. The specific European context must be considered.

2. Quality and accessibility of services must be balanced carefully.

3. Involving young people and families, leveraging their knowledge while enhancing digital literacy, is key.

4. The rise of AI must be addressed, concerning both the potential of AI for developing mental health support and the risks of biases and misinformation.

5. A regulatory framework must be developed to ensure safety, effectiveness, and ethical standards.

If you want to learn more about the issue, you can access the full article here!

New Publication on the Theoretical Foundations of Building a TWON

In a study recently published in the European Journal of Futures Research, Ljubiša Bojić (JSI) and his team explored a multidisciplinary approach to testing and aligning artificial intelligence (AI), with a special focus on large language models (LLMs). They investigated a simulation-based multi-agent system replicating a real-world environment. In this case, the paper focuses on a digital replication of a city, populated by “digital citizens” that are simulating complex social structures and behaviours. This theoretical work is vital for our joint research project and provides valuable insights for the construction of a Twin of an Online Social Network (TWON).

The article identifies theoretical perspectives from diverse disciplines that can contribute to developing AI that is socially responsible and aligned with human values. The strength of the article lies in its ability to bring together theoretical perspectives from fields as diverse as sociology, social psychology, computer science, physics, biology, and economics. In this multidisciplinary approach, the study resembles the TWON project as a whole – bringing together researchers from across Europe and from diverse academic backgrounds.

If you want to learn more, you can access the full article here.

Consortium Meeting in Karlsruhe in October 2023

Six months after our project kick-off in Amsterdam, the TWON consortium gathered for its second consortium meeting in Karlsruhe on October 5^th and October 6^th of 2023. The hosts, FZI and KIT, planned two jam-packed days of workshops, presentations and activities to catch each other up-to-speed on the different developing pieces and work packages comprising TWON.

We spent the majority of the day on Thursday learning from each other about the progress and challenges of each work package. Thursday morning, Prof. Michael Mäs (KIT) presented his progress on the modelling of TWON based on social network theory and computational sociology, and Simon Münker (University of Trier) layed out his preceding and upcoming work regarding the data collection to estimate our TWON. Krisztian Buza and Abdul Sittar (both JSI) then presented to us their progress on actually building the digital twin of an online social network (OSN), which will be the backbone of the project.

In the afternoon, Sjoerd Stolwijk and Michael Heseltine from the University of Amsterdam presented the metrics they are developing for the evaluation of democratic debates in OSNs. They also gave their insights on how they will be examining the impact of filter bubbles and disinformation campaigns on opinion dynamics and the spread of disinformation. Collectively, we then brainstormed ideas on how to best implement the case studies. We ended the day with a delicious dinner at Il Caminetto in Karlsruhe.

The consortium brainstorms case study implementation

On Friday, our work mostly revolved around the question of how to communicate our results with the public and specific stakeholders, and how to disseminate findings effectively in the scientific community. Jonas Fegert (FZI) kicked us off with a presentation of the strategies developed by the FZI-led work package on dissemination activities, and presented strategies for reaching citizens, social actors, stakeholders and politicians at different levels and through different channels. We subsequently broke out into groups to garner feedback from the consortium members – each contributing to the workshop by providing their own unique scholarly, regional, and personal perspectives.

Dr. Jonas Fegert presents the dissemination strategy

The consortium meeting ended on a high note, namely the Renaissance 3.0 exhibition at Karlsruhe’s Center for Art and Media (ZKM). The exhibition – all about the interconnectivity of research, artistry, and their social impacts – was an inspiration to the consortium, and we left Karlsruhe ready to hit new milestones in our work packages. The next consortium meeting will take place in Trier in March of 2023 – until then, make sure to follow us on Twitter and Mastodon and check our blog for updates on the progress of the project.

We got started!

In April of 2023, our international consortium – comprised of eight partner institutions from various European countries – gathered to mark the launch of TWON in Amsterdam. The project will use digital twins of social networks to explore the impact of social media platform mechanisms, such as content filtering or personalization, on democratic debates.

Hosted by the University of Amsterdam, we were able to get a productive head start on the project. Over the course of three days, we begun mapping out the work in various work packages, identified potential challenges and tapped into our collective wisdom in beginning this highly complex research undertaking.

The members of our consortium returned to their respective countries with lifted spirits, and are looking forward to reunite for our second consortial meeting in Karlsruhe in October of 2023. Check out our press release for more details on TWON and the people behind it.