Social Media: Friend or Foe?

Julia Brailovskaia currently works at the Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr-Universität Bochum. As member of the "Bochum Optimism and Mental Health (BOOM)" team she investigates risk and protective factors of mental health. Her main research focus is on the relationship between mental health, personality and media use, especially (social) media addiction.

Susanne Baumgartner is an assistant professor at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, at the University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on the role of digital media in adolescent development. Specifically, she is interested in media multitasking and how this affects the cognitive development of youth. Moreover, she studies the effects of smartphones on stress and sleep. To study the impact of digital media, she employs innovative methodological approaches, such as experience sampling, smartphone tracking data, and eye-tracking.

Alexander Schouten is an assistant professor of Business Communication & Digital Media at the department of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg University. His research and teaching interests include social media use, online collaboration, and online impression management. Besides teaching & research, he developed and initiated the New Media Design track within the Communication and Information Sciences department. He also serves as an associate editor for Cyberpsychology, Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace.

Piia Varis is an associate professor with the Department of Culture Studies of the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences. She is an expert in digital ethnography. Her work concerns the study of new social and cultural processes on the internet, focusing especially on processes of authenticity articulation and performance in social media and on the social-theoretical implications of new subjectivities in a globalized and super-diverse virtual environment.

Annemarie van Oosten is an assistant professor Communication Science and researcher in the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, at the University of Amsterdam. She studied child & youth psychology and social- and health psychology. She received her PhD at the department of Communication Science, at the University of Amsterdam. She is currently investigating the role of social media and digital technology in relation to young people's sexuality, as well as young people’s resilience to stereotypical or biased sexual messages in the media.

Chris Aalberts has written books on Dutch and European politics. He has written about right wing populist parties such as Forum for Democracy and PVV, the role of social media, media relations and young people's political engagement. Chris is a political reporter for ThePostOnline and a columnist at Noordhollands Dagblad, Haarlems Dagblad en de Gooi- en Eemlander (e.a.). He also writes for De Kanttekening. He lectures on political communication at the master of media and journalism at Erasmus University Rotterdam and is a researcher in the research group on the changing role of Europe at The Hague University.