Tech and Society Lab at NYU Stern
Rigorous and actionable research for human flourishing in the digital age
The Tech and Society Lab conducts research to help the public understand the social and psychological effects of the technological changes reshaping our lives
Our Focus
The Tech and Society Lab is Jonathan Haidt’s lab group at NYU Stern
Meta’s Internal Research: What The Company Learned About Social Media and Harms to Mental Health from Dozens of Internal Studies
The T&S lab analyzed thousands of documents from whistleblowers and state lawsuits, and identified 31 internal Meta studies that show the company knew their products were harming adolescents — and concealed it.
Visit metasinternalresearch.org →Social Media is Harming Young People at a Scale Large Enough to Cause Changes at the Population Level
This near-final essay for the 2026 World Happiness Report, published as a working paper, synthesizes seven independent lines of evidence showing that social media is not safe for teens and has been a substantial contributor to declines in adolescent mental health since the early 2010s.
View pre-print →How three studies by Vuorre and Przybylski may have obscured the impact of social media
Sigaud, L., Rausch, Z., McClean, A., & Haidt, J.
Read pre-print →What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones
Skenazy, L., Rausch, Z., & Haidt, J.
Read on The Atlantic →TikTok is harming children at an industrial scale
Haidt, J., & Rausch, Z.
Read on After Babel →Toolkit for Assessing Phones in Schools (TAPS)
Stanford Social Media Lab & Tech and Society Lab at NYU Stern
Access toolkit →The Lab
Jonathan Haidt
Author of The Anxious Generation
Zach Rausch
Chief Researcher and Editor of After Babel
Ravi Iyer
Research Partner
Carmen Hui Jing Lim
Research Scientist
Nathan Witkin
Research Writer
Nikolaus Greb
Research Associate
Emma Park
Research Associate
Anum Aslam
Research Associate
Bennett Sippel
Research Assistant
Jason Lu
Research Associate
Jakey Lebwohl
Research Intern
Mckenzie Love
Assistant Editor, After Babel
Academic Publications
Popular Press
Haidt, J.
Published in The Free Press
November 25, 2025
Skenazy, L., Rausch, Z., & Haidt, J.
Published in The Atlantic
August 4, 2025
Haidt, J., Johnson, W., & Rausch, Z.
Published in New York Times
June 18, 2025
Haidt, J., & Rausch, Z.
Published in The Free Press
March 27, 2025
Featured After Babel Posts
Visit After Babel →A selection of featured articles available on the After Babel Substack, highlighting important research related to youth mental health and the impacts of a phone-based childhood.
McClean, A., & Lebwohl, J.
October 6, 2025
Roberts, Y. P., & Haidt, J.
September 22, 2025
Lebwohl, J., Park, E., & Rausch, Z.
July 29, 2025
Cohen, J. D., & Rose-Berman, I.
July 24, 2025
Polling & Toolkits
Surveys and toolkits to better understand the impact of smartphones and social media on youth mental health.
Ongoing Research
The Evidence
The Anxious Generation begins by examining adolescent mental health trends. What happened to young people in the early 2010s that triggered the surge of anxiety and depression?
See the evidence →
Collaborative Review Docs
Publicly visible “collaborative review” documents to acquaint yourself with the research literature.
Read documents →
The Lab on the Shores of Academia
A technical Substack by our collaborator, David Stein, discussing research methods, statistics, and psychology related to the lab.
Read the Substack ↗Our Collaborators
