I am Chris Chambers

It’s a scam Helen. I’ve had the same email from them.

Article on impact of voice assistants on children is not ‘new research’ – Full Fact An article which suggests voice assistants may hinder children's cognitive and social development is not based on original research, and has been criticised by experts.

It was picked up by Full Fact at the time:

fullfact.org/health/voice...

NEVER. My next book will be 88% footnotes.

Wait, what..? Oh no.

Meta and YouTube Found Negligent in Landmark Social Media Addiction Case

This verdict seemed very likely the moment that TikTok and Snap settled rather than go to trial. A landmark moment for Big Tech www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/t...

UK teenagers to trial social media bans and digital curfews The government will interview the young people and their parents before and after they try the limits to assess their impact.

Hiring! 🙌 Communications and Operations Coordinator to help share mu team's research and support a fast-moving, high-impact group.
Major rebrand ahead + real chance to build things from scratch in an area where there is high media interest ⬇️.
Closes 14 April. www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/communi...

Do You Think Before You Open Your Phone? YouTube video by Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

Super interesting presentation on smartphone habits, automatic behavior, user perceptions, logged smartphone use, measurement gaps, and responsibility by Matt Sharpe at the @oii.ox.ac.uk

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmDx...

Saw someone recently refer to Blink 182 as “late 20th century music”

BBC Radio 4 - The Briefing Room, Should the Government ban social media for young people? What evidence is there that social media is harming young people?

Thank you to @davidsonofaaron.bsky.social for hosting a thoughtful discussion about social media ban proposals in the UK. It was a pleasure to contribute to this: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Free PR.

Bristol!

A picture of the aurora borealis above a house.

Unexpected joy this evening:

Goodreads is *the worst*, no reviews are worth reading there!

Nothing personal taken! I really appreciate the feedback - and in this context I’m interested in how the message might be taken. If nothing else, thanks for taking the time to read the letter (even if it was just the first sentence 😄)

That’s really useful to know, thank you - I’d never thought of it in that sense. Whenever I’ve used it, I’ve done so with sincerity, and I guess to signal good intentions. I’ll rethink that though.

Why, out of curiosity?

Of course! Always happy to chat through the evidence.

Clearly seems to be a waste of postage though.

The UK has some of the best social media and digital tech effects researchers in the world. I find it mind-boggling they haven’t been considered first.

About 18 months ago I sent this letter, along with a copy of my book, to a number of MPs and peers, including Wes Streeting. I never got a response (which to be fair was my baseline expectation), but it’s still disheartening to see today’s news about Haidt’s invitation to speak to policymakers.

Genuinely deflated by this.

Same. We need a coordinated effort to support science communicators so it’s not just individual people vainly trying to make a difference in a very big, messy, noisy system.

Works the other way around too.

“If I was Jonathan Haidt, how would I destroy the next generation?”

More displeased at the eviction, I think!

A picture of a long-haired cat

Unauthorised student turned up to today’s research methods class, I guess they wanted to brush up on their meow-tiple regression skills?

Two exciting ERC-funded PhD positions on attention and technology use with @matti.vuorre.com

I’ll be an (external) part of the supervision team and can highly recommend this department @tilburg-university.bsky.social

tiu.nu/22989

Thanks Kate! Always happy to chat, Richard.