Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

Leading Into An IPO, Airbnb Ranks #1 in Travel for Innovation, Creativity and Relevance According to Harte Hanks Behavioral Index – PRNewswire

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Despite the challenges related to COVID-19 that have severely impacted the hotel and travel industries, new research from the Harte Hanks Behavioral Index (HHBI) reveals that global home-sharing provider Airbnb is outperforming many leading hotel companies in key areas critical to building and maintaining long-term consumer loyalty and market share.

According to findings from the fourth wave of the Index, Airbnb, which is gearing up for its public debut this week, is outperforming traditional hotel companies in multiple areas measured by the HHBI, including Innovation, Creativity and Relevance, where it ranks first among all hospitality providers. Airbnb's performance in these areas is contributing significantly to their ability to grow their share of the hospitality marketplace.

The Harte Hanks Behavioral Index, which has been tracking consumer insights since the early stages of the pandemic, defines Innovation as being the first company in an industry to bring new innovations to the world; Creativity as helping consumers look at the world differently; and Relevance as a company's ability to understand and respond to what's happening in a culture.

"Airbnb overshadows traditional hotels by creating a personal experience that starts at the moment of your booking and lasts throughout your stay. Their hosts provide everything from customized restaurant recommendations to tips on the best local farmer's markets. That is meaningful personalization," says Gretchen Ramsey, Chief Strategy Officerat Harte Hanks. The secret to Airbnb's success may be in how they respond to behavioral needs. "Travelers now expect health and safety measures to follow the highest of standards and more than anything want financial protections built into their bookings. What the pandemic taught the traveler was to be more cautious about the small print, so transparency and financial innovation will be the trends going forward."

In addition to its strong performance in the areas of Innovation, Creativity and Relevance, Airbnb also scored highly in the category of a brand that consumers would consider in the future, ranking third just behind Marriott (#1) and Hilton (#2). In terms of travel brands that consumers would recommend, the top ten in order were Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Comfort Suites, Airbnb, Hard Rock, Intercontinental, Wyndham, Atlantis, and Wynn.

Interestingly, the HHBI revealed that no lodging provider measured scored highly across the attributes of Purpose, Authenticity and Responsiveness areas where major hotel brands have a lot of natural equity, but they're not getting credit for it. Hotel brands must make sure they leverage their legacy to ensure they are delivering on modern travelers' expectations. "Health and safety measures are expected in today's world. And "loyalty" through points programs is no longer relevant what travelers want to know is how your brand will make them feel."

According to Ramsey, we are living today in an "Epiphany Economy," where it's not enough to provide a product or service; brands must also demonstrate empathy and deliver meaningful action against consumer and cultural needs.

"For example, traditional hotel brands should double down on their founders' set of values, whether about caring for the guest, providing an upscale experience, or delivering against surprise and delight," says Ramsey. "They need to give travelers a customized experience, not just in terms of choosing a foam pillow over feathers but being able to express their travel occasion and having the hotel respond with appropriate options/upgrades."

TheHarteHanksBehavioral Index isaglobal initiative conducted on a quarterly basis to uncover emerging behavioral shifts that influence consumer behavior. The ultimate goal is to help brands understand how to best meet their consumers' needs.

The Index was developed using a proprietary method that evaluates brands on a set of criteria, such as Empathy and Action both ways to serve consumers.The latest wave is based on 700 million global social conversations with 11,000 people surveyed, 40,000 global stories and 2 million semantic artifacts.

View the webinar here, or for information on how to apply these learnings to your travel brand, please email [emailprotected].

About Harte Hanks:

Harte Hanks is a behavior-driven Customer Experience (CX) company uniquely able to partner with brands on everything from data to delivery. We marry our data-driven understanding of human behavior with a seamless connection to the consumer through a full suite of digital, direct marketing and eCommerce services, including fulfillment and customer care. Harte Hanks works with leading Fortune 500 companies, including Bank of America, BMW Group, Cisco, L'Oral S.A., Pfizer, Sony and Unilever. Headquartered inPhiladelphia, PA, Harte Hanks has more than 2,000 employees throughoutNorth America,Asia-PacificandEurope. For more information, visit Harte Hanks at hartehanks.com.

SOURCE Harte Hanks

https://www.hartehanks.com

Read more from the original source:
Leading Into An IPO, Airbnb Ranks #1 in Travel for Innovation, Creativity and Relevance According to Harte Hanks Behavioral Index - PRNewswire

Human Behavior

If a dance program at the University of Illinois can find a way to carry on, so can our country – Chicago Sun-Times

Dear Dr. Anthony Fauci,

I sympathize. It must be demoralizing to deliver scientific data daily and watch in horror as our country slips into nonsensical debates about personal freedoms. I could hear the exasperation in your voice in a recent New York Times interview in which you stated that practicing the rules of COVID-19 mitigation doesnt mean shutting down the country.

Unfortunately, the stories youve had to tell are about our countrys massive failures.

If I may be so bold, I think you need a success story. I have one and it comes from the most unlikely of places a dance program on a college campus.

Dancers on a college campus are the least likely folks to return to work during a pandemic. Sweat flies and germs spread as dancers rev up the body. Campuses are Petri dishes as young people, prone to parties and socializing, gather together in a bubble of contagion. As a recent New York Times survey found, U.S. colleges and universities have already reported more than a quarter of a million infections.

All these factors should have made us go home. At first, back in March, we did. As head of the Dance Department at the University of Illinois, I watched students gloomily pack up their dance bags last spring when Gov. J. B. Pritzker declared a stay-at-home mandate. As dancers struggled to jump, leap and roll in their kitchens and bedrooms, it was clear that dance classes over Zoom were less than ideal.

Come this fall, we had to try to come back.

Luckily, Illinois scientists had begun to build the COVID-19 Shield program, which would allow us to safely come back to in-person classes. This program includes multiple layers of protection: Target extensive modeling to guide how, who and when the community tests; Testing a saliva test, which is low cost, easy to use, with high accuracy and fast notification; and Tell an app called Safer Illinois, which provides fast notification and contact tracing.

Public health experts used an appropriate metaphor, Swiss cheese, to describe the plan: the more layers, the fewer holes.

As last summer wore on, building layers and adaptability were critical in gaining collective buy-in for students to return. In the dance department, we created ten-foot squares in studios, set up elaborate cleaning schedules and reserved an outdoor basketball court so we could dance freely when weather permitted. We built technology stations that allowed teachers and students to honor their choices, live or online, based on their health and their own sense of risk and safety.

Multiple layers of cheese were needed. Currently, the university conducts more than 10,000 tests per day and the Safer Illinois app has 40,000 users. Near the end of November, the campus seven-day positivity rate stood low at .5%, while surrounding Champaign County is at 9%, and the State of Illinois at 10.4%.

With everyone testing two or three times a week, and with measures to ensure compliance, we know that everyone entering our classrooms is, in all likelihood, free from COVID.

As our students returned to campus, human behavior was the wild card. Everyone hated wearing masks while dancing at high aerobic capacity, but it began to seep in that this was the only way to continue our lives and practice our art.

Our biggest challenge was presenting a live concert. Fortunately, artists, like scientists, embrace limitations as the doorway to creativity. Set designers built ramps and platforms that naturally separated the dancers, and costume designers learned to fit costumes while physically distancing.

At times, when we lost valuable rehearsal time to solve problems, adaptability came into conflict with our desire for excellence. But, Dr. Fauci, I heard your voice whisper, Dont let perfect be the enemy of good.

The students wrestled with the uncertainty of everything. But because they didnt know if they would ever perform, they embraced every moment as if it were the last dance. A life lesson like no other. Grit, determination and a sense of collective purpose settled into the sinews of our bodies.

In early November, we live streamed a concert to thousands of people, and 40 enthusiastic fans sat in the balcony of a 1,000-seat theater for each performance. Their cheers energized the performance, which sparkled with the enduring will of the human spirit.

I tell this story because if dance on a college campus can return to work, the nation can too.

Campuses are privileged environments, yes. They often have the economic and scientific resources necessary to invent and support coronavirus mitigation in a manner that the nation is not yet equipped to handle. Yet their inventions can lead the way, making it possible for our essential workers and most vulnerable citizens to gain access to best practices as quickly as possible.

Even once the vaccine has arrived, coordinated governmental actions, collective resolve and individual responsibility will be necessary. By engaging with the challenge, we have the opportunity to build a more resilient and creative nation.

Jan Erkert is a professor and head of the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois and the author of Harnessing the Wind. She is currently writing Drink the Wild Air, A Sensorial Journey Through Leadership. She is a 2020-21 Public Voices Fellow of the OpEd Project.

Send letters to letters@suntimes.com.

Read more here:
If a dance program at the University of Illinois can find a way to carry on, so can our country - Chicago Sun-Times

Human Behavior

It’ll be years before Colorado jobs bounce back from the coronavirus – The Colorado Sun

By Sarah Mulholland, CPR News

It will likely take several years for Colorado to fully regain the jobs lost during the recession brought on by the pandemic, according to a report from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The state is forecast to add 40,500 workers in 2021, for a growth rate of 1.5%, CU economists wrote in the report. In 2020, the workforce declined by 5.3% equating to 148,800 jobs lost.

The latest from the coronavirus outbreak in Colorado:

>> FULL COVERAGE

Promising news on several vaccines is boosting optimism that economic activity can return to some semblance of normalcy in 2021. But its unclear how effective the vaccines will be, or how long it will take to distribute them, said Brian Lewandowski, an executive director at the Leeds Business Research Division.

Moreover, its difficult to predict how people will respond.

How long does it take for human behavior to recover, and people start to travel to our resort communities again; get on planes, go to concerts, start commuting to the office again, riding public transit again, Lewandowski said during a conference call. Roughly one-third of Coloradans polled are not sure theyre willing to take the vaccine when it becomes available.

Even with a coronavirus vaccine on the horizon, many businesses wont survive.

Even as businesses and consumers hold out hope for a vaccine, the U.S. economy is reeling with COVID-19 cases surging across the country and new lockdowns. Employers added just 245,000 jobs in November, down from 610,000 in October.

Lewandowski predicts it could be 2023 before the economy is back to where it was at the start of 2020. Many businesses will never come back, said Richard Wobbekind, Lewandowskis counterpart at CU.

The amount of destruction youre going to see in terms of bankruptcies and restaurants closing and the amount of retail I think youre going to see closing is going to be significant, he said.

The toll on restaurants has been especially brutal. In April, restaurants in Colorado suffered $1 billion in lost revenue when dining was shut down, according to the report. Nationally, 1 in 6 restaurants could close in 2020, according to the National Restaurant Association.

Some structural changes to the business landscape may be permanent, Wobbekind said. The pandemic accelerated a shift to online shopping, hurting retailers that were already struggling to compete with the internet. Office landlords will take a hit to the bottom line if companies dont see a need to lease as much office space, he said. That will have a domino effect on downtown businesses that rely on office workers.

Some businesses are feeling the effects of the pandemic more than others.

While few sectors of the economy dodged the pandemic entirely, small businesses and low-wage employees have borne the brunt of the damage, the report found. Additionally, women have been disproportionately impacted. The labor participation rate for women was 55.9% as of October, the lowest in 34 years.

The leisure and hospitality industry will be one of the fastest-growing segments of the economy when gains do take hold, primarily because those businesses were hit hardest by the pandemic, the report found. Job losses in the sector are expected to total 71,200 this year, according to the report.

Colorados mountain communities were crushed early on. In April, counties with a large share of resort areas such as Pitkin, Eagle and San Miguel reported unemployment rates over 20%. Travel spending in Colorado was down 50% as of October, the report found.

Support local journalism around the state.Become a member of The Colorado Sun today!

More:
It'll be years before Colorado jobs bounce back from the coronavirus - The Colorado Sun

Human Behavior

‘The more who die, the less we care’ Why we’re growing numb to Covid-19 – malheurenterprise.com

Why do many people seem to relax their guard and dismiss concerns in the face of a clearly exponential spread of Covid? University of Oregon professors examine the psychological research to offer some explanations.

Psychic numbing, risk judgment and other concepts may explain why people seem to worry less as the pandemic grows and wears on. (CDC file art)

EUGENE University of Oregon psychology professor Paul Slovic has spent much of his time during the COVID-19 pandemic writing articles, talking to journalists and thinking about why the coronavirus is so out of control.

To explain why case counts are surging and the virus is growing so rapidly, Slovic has drawn on previous psychological research that he thinks is relevant to the pandemic.

Slovic said there are a few concepts in particular including reinforcement theory and psychic numbing that can help everyone understand why, while the virus is getting worse, it seems the community is becoming less worried.

Fast and slow thinking

Slovic said that given the curve of coronavirus cases since March, its clear the growth is exponential. This means it is growing more rapidly over time. This type of growth happens when one person gets infected, then infects a couple others, who in turn each infect more than one person and so on.

The human mind doesnt deal with exponential growth very well, Slovic said.

Behind this, he said, is psychological research that shows humans think in two ways: fast and slow. Fast thinking relies on intuition and gut feelings, while slow thinking is based on analysis, data and science.

We rely on fast thinking because usually it works for us, Slovic said. Its easy, it feels right and most of the time, it works for us. Except when it doesnt. And when things are happening exponentially, it doesnt work for us.

Exponential coronavirus data can also teach us about climate change, Slovic said. The overwhelming surge of sea level rise will alsocome sooner than expectedand the early exponential curve has been hard for the human brain to process.

If one isnt trained to think exponentially or rely on slow thinking, they underestimate data. Slovic said the overwhelming surge that follows the initial, steadier exponential growth comes sooner than expected.

This is why we need to rely on scientists and experts those who are trained to think slowly when they face data to make decisions regarding the coronavirus, Slovic said.

Listen to the experts, he said. Not the politicians.

Risk judgment

Another reason people misjudge the risks of the coronavirus and allow it to get out of hand is because its an invisible threat. Unless people see the virus right in front of them if they or a loved one gets sick they dont really think COVID-19 is there.

Were better at judging risk when we can see the evidence of it directly, Slovic said.

Because people cant see the virus itself, they are less likely to be careful about it and more likely to underestimate the risk of it, he said.

Reinforcement theory

Another factor that makes the virus hard to control is that everyone has to rely on behavior to curb the spread, Slovic said. Unfortunately, this means communities have to stop doing things they like and start doing things they dont.

When the pandemic first hit the United States in the spring, most people followed guidelines and took them seriously, Slovic said. Because of pressure to open the economy which resulted in relaxing restrictions people started to relax and stop following guidelines as closely.

Even now, when we have a tremendous amount of cases, he said, people are tired of doing the things theyre supposed to do.

The reason people are tired of practicing COVID-19-safe behaviors is because they dont feel the benefit from them, Slovic said. In fact, they feel like theyre being punished.

Slovic said people can understand these behaviors through reinforcement theory a concept that students might have come across in an introductory psychology class.

Reinforcement schedules are rules that state the relationship between a behavior and its consequences. With COVID-19, the reinforcement schedules are the opposite of what they need to be to keep people doing the right thing, Slovic said. People dont feel the immediate consequences when they do whats wrong, and they feel punished for doing whats right.

You dont see who youve been protected from or who youve been protecting. You dont see the benefit, he said. But you feel the cost that youre constrained and you cant do the things you want to do.

Slovic said those kinds of reinforcement schedules dont keep people motivated to keep doing the right thing and continue following COVID-19 guidelines.

So thats why you see people who are really good people and are concerned about COVID in general. They relax their guard, Slovic said. And thats inevitable.

This backwards reinforcement schedule means that the only way to get people to do the right thing during the pandemic is to enforce regulations and shut things down.

Psychic numbing and feelings of inefficacy

Another psychological concept that explains why the virus is out of control is called psychic numbing. When people are exposed to countless data and statistics, they become numb to the information, Slovic said.

Especially as numbers increase, he said, they become just that numbers. They dont carry emotion and they dont impact people as much.

A related concept is the feeling of inefficacy. Even if individuals are concerned about something, they feel as if they cant do anything about it.

As Slovic put it: Why make yourself miserable worrying about these horrible things if you feel you cant do anything about it?

An example of this occurred in a study regarding donating to children in need, Slovic said. Participants were shown two commercials: one of a single child they could donate to, and one of that same child next to statistics of millions of other children who needed aid.

Participants who saw the commercial with the statistics were almost 50% less likely to donate, even though the inclusion of the data was meant to get more donations.

This happened, Slovic said, because with the added millions of children, it felt like the problem was too big and a single donation wouldnt help.

People feel this sense of inefficacy often false inefficacy because their feelings mislead them.

David Markowitz is a professor at UOs School of Journalism and Communication. Markowitz and Slovic have collaborated on projects including exploring why people dehumanize immigrants in the United States.

Markowitz said he thinks psychic numbing is the most relevant concept on display during the pandemic.

As the number of cases and deaths surge, Markowitz said, our feeling system becomes numb and cannot respond compassionately.

Markowitz and Slovic agree that hearing stories about COVID-19 directly affecting people instead of just seeing numbers and data can make people care more about it.

The arithmetic of compassion

Slovic uses this term the arithmetic of compassion to explain why people care less when they should care more. Their feelings can only do arithmetic up to the number one, he said.

The arithmetic of compassion, Slovic said, is a mistake. In reality, people should care more about problems that are bigger. Everyone should work harder to stop them, he said, but they actually do less.

The more who die, Slovic said, the less we care.

Slovic said efficacy is a powerful motivator for peoples actions, and this also explains human behavior during the pandemic. Feelings of inefficacy can arise when people see others ignoring coronavirus guidelines or when they cant help but be exposed to others at their jobs, for example.

If we dont think our actions make a difference and theyre not pleasant to do, he said, we won't do them.

In addition to working for the university, Slovic is the founder and president of Decision Research, an institute that investigates human judgment, decision-making and risk, according to itswebsite.

Along with others from the institute and faculty from various universities including UO, Slovic has been working on a project titled theArithmetic of Compassion.

Slovic said the project goes from the basic science of things like psychic numbing and inefficacy and shows how those concepts play out in the world around us. The goal of the project is to make people aware of this mistaken arithmetic and other psychological factors that affect their behavior.

Maybe, Slovic said, the project can help people overcome the barriers and get the arithmetic right.

This article is republished with permission from the Daily Emerald, an independent news operation produced by and for students at the University of Oregon. Reporter Sally Segar is a UO senior studying journalism and environmental studies.

Read more here:
'The more who die, the less we care' Why we're growing numb to Covid-19 - malheurenterprise.com

Human Behavior

Global Video Analytics Market Trends, Opportunity and Forecasts 2020-2025 by Deployment Type, Component, Architecture, Organisation Size, End-user,…

Dublin, Dec. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Video Analytics Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global video analytics market grew at a CAGR of around 20% during 2014-2019. Looking forward, the global video analytics market to continue its strong growth during the next five years.

Video analytics refers to the computerized monitoring, processing and analysis of video streams in real-time to recognize spatial events. It usually involves software applications, multiple cameras and artificial intelligence (AI)-based programs that obtain insights about attributes, events and human behavioral patterns through videos.

These insights are used for surveillance, motion and intrusion detection, generating heat maps and observing traffic patterns on social media platforms. They are also used for dynamic blurring, 2D and 3D counting, facial recognition and license plate reading. As a result, video analytics finds extensive applications across various industries, such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), retail, critical infrastructure, traffic management, and transportation & logistics.

Significant improvements in public surveillance and security systems are among the key factors driving the growth of the market. Video analytics aid in improving public and perimeter safety by automatically tracking and gaining reliable insights from video frames of vehicles, individuals and other items, thus reducing the chances of human errors or negligence in gaining novel perceptions.

Furthermore, the widespread adoption of internet protocol (IP)-based surveillance systems for business intelligence (BI) is also supporting the market growth. For instance, video analytics is used in the retail sector for strolling recognition, footfall measurement and consumer behavior analysis, which aids in improving the overall production, distribution and maintenance processes. Additionally, various technological advancements, such as the utilization of the Internet of Things (IoT), AI and machine learning (ML) systems, are acting as other growth-inducing factors.

Video analytics processes the data using algorithms for accurate, reliable and critical insights and enables the organizations to make prompt and accurate decisions. This is creating a positive outlook for the market further.

Key Questions Answered in This Report:

Key Topics Covered:

1 Preface

2 Scope and Methodology 2.1 Objectives of the Study2.2 Stakeholders2.3 Data Sources2.4 Market Estimation2.5 Forecasting Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Introduction4.1 Overview4.2 Key Industry Trends

5 Global Video Analytics Market5.1 Market Overview5.2 Market Performance5.3 Impact of COVID-195.4 Market Forecast

6 Market Breakup by Component6.1 Software6.2 Services

7 Market Breakup by Deployment Type7.1 On-Premises7.2 Cloud

8 Market Breakup by Application8.1 Incident Detection8.2 Intrusion Management8.3 People/Crowd Counting8.4 Traffic Monitoring8.5 Automatic Number Plate Recognition8.6 Facial Recognition8.7 Others

9 Market Breakup by Architecture Type9.1 Edge-Based9.2 Server-Based

10 Market Breakup by Organization Size10.1 Small and Medium Enterprise10.2 Large Enterprise

11 Market Breakup by End User11.1 BFSI11.2 Retail11.2.1 Market Trends11.2.2 Market Forecast11.3 Critical Infrastructure11.4 Traffic Management11.5 Transportation and Logistics11.6 Hospitality and Entertainment11.7 Defense and Security11.8 Others

12 Market Breakup by Region

13 SWOT Analysis13.1 Overview13.2 Strengths13.3 Weaknesses13.4 Opportunities13.5 Threats

14 Value Chain Analysis

15 Porters Five Forces Analysis15.1 Overview15.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers15.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers15.4 Degree of Competition15.5 Threat of New Entrants15.6 Threat of Substitutes

16 Price Analysis

17 Competitive Landscape17.1 Market Structure17.2 Key Players17.3 Profiles of Key Players

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/12az7j

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Continued here:
Global Video Analytics Market Trends, Opportunity and Forecasts 2020-2025 by Deployment Type, Component, Architecture, Organisation Size, End-user,...

Human Behavior

From SWOT to FOAR: Teaching Your Brain to See the Positives – Entrepreneur

December7, 20207 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Within the broad world of human behavior we know that there is a tendency to see more of the negative than the positive in situations. Our brain processes about 60,000 thoughts a day. Many of them are negative, absurd, or repetitive. More than 90% are repeated and around 80 to 90% are negative, with the consequences that this represents in the reality of that person: negativity, judgments, disappointment, frustration, fear, stagnation, unhappiness.

The psychologist Martin Seligman, promoter of the so-called positive psychology, affirms in his book " Authentic happiness " that for every one hundred articles that talk about sadness, only one is published about happiness. A proportion similar to what happens with the news shown by most of the media.

There is a valuable tool as individuals and also for companies and teams, called appreciative inquiry , which allows focusing on the contributory aspects of the issues to be managed, instead of focusing exclusively on those that remain in the search for solutions.

To be clear: it is not a question of denying reality and what is lived, but of resignifying it and highlighting the aspects that do help to resolve it.

In the business world it is very common to use the SWOT matrix (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats; also known as SWOT) to analyze different aspects to solve.

Applying a similar model, here aimed at improving decision-making and enhancing human behavior, the appreciative inquiry process invites us to practice the FOAR method, consisting of the review of Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations and Results.

Image: Depositphotos.com

Appreciative inquiry draws on the contributions of Professor David Cooperrider from Case Western University in the United States, and defines it as the 4D's of appreciation: Discover, Dream ( Dream in English), Design and Plan ( Deliver in English) ). And we cannot change them, because the opportunity presents itself as it is and when it appears; although you do have the power to accept or reject it.

Let's review each of the aspects of the FOAR matrix:

It is the starting point, discovering the tools you have. Everything that is already good and that contributes to the success of the objective is detailed; even when applied to solve challenges.

To focus, it is important to use triggers, for example, what skills do you have, how much do you know about yourself or the topic to be addressed, what values influence your strengths; and also what contributory beliefs -those that we know as positive-, in addition to asking In what do I recognize that I have or have a lot of talent?

This quadrant of FOAR contemplates open-mindedness and the change of internal models to expand beyond the known. There are internal opportunities , for example, the permission you give yourself to experience the new, the predisposition, the encouragement and the enthusiasm to face your process of personal and professional improvement; and also external , where you learn to detect everything that the environment offers as opportunities for improvement - such as taking a course, accessing a contact to resolve a situation, a book that triggered a lateral thinking that you had not considered.

In this area of opportunities, imagination, creativity and innovation become strategic allies to be able to expand your power of perception to solve the different issues that previously concerned you and today you are sitting on them from new perspectives.

Everything that you cannot see yet does not mean that it cannot happen in the future. That is why the FOAR model relies on the world of possibilities .

Possibility is born from internal openness and predisposition for good things to happen. Everything that you aspire to, dream of, want to discover, and yearn to achieve, can find a way of realization through the opportunities you are visualizing, no matter how distant they may seem at the moment.

To determine your aspirations and those of a team, it is necessary to review the strengths and opportunities and specifically establish the goals you want to achieve. As triggering questions: What is really important and what am I passionate about? Where do I or do we want to go? How do I concretely envision the future? (Create a mental image as if it were in HD) How will the successful result of these aspirations be in the concrete? What emotions will be present?

There is an interesting exercise that I would like to propose: make a positive portrait of yourself, and you can also propose it to your team: take a photograph of your face -and it can also be of each member of a team- , and begin to write with a firm hand qualities in different places in that photo. For example, qualities related to vision where you want to go in the eye area; those of communication, in the area of the mouth; that of creativity, on the forehead; empathy and listening skills, in the ears, and so on, you will associate spaces in your photo with qualities that help in appreciative inquiry. You will be surprised by the result. If you need to develop any of these aspects further, view the photo for several weeks in a row daily for a few moments, and let your subconscious mind do the rest.

This is the final consequence of the actions you have taken to reach the goal. It is the concrete effect of an event activated in time.

In this quadrant of FOAR you will define the tangible and measurable indicators of what you want to obtain. Achieving the sale of a certain number of units of a product, opening a new business in a certain strategic location, successfully overcoming a challenge that can empower the person or company, or the conclusion of a negotiation, are some practical examples and concrete.

To achieve the results, it is necessary to draw up the action plan, establish goals using specific methodologies, develop the strategy, determine those responsible and the time in which this point will be reached, and measure partial progress.

It is known to all that results are not obtained without focused action, available energy and clarity to activate everything that is necessary to achieve it. Because just dreaming or imagining it, and even simply having it in a plane of aspiration without action, will not be enough to make them happen.

Image: Depositphotos.com

Discipline, clarity and permanent focus, adjusting deviations and correcting in a positive sense, will be other indispensable tools to achieve this.

Taking into account the structure of the FOAR model, you will be able to enhance the aspects that will help you move forward, and possibilities will arise that perhaps were not taken into account in the traditional SWOT model.

The invitation is to observe, always and permanently, the positive and contributory aspects in all situations. What will happen if you do? You will positively modify your mental model, turning towards one focused directly on what brings you closer to the results you want to obtain, in a more overcoming way, versus that old pattern of having the focus on what you lack or the obstacles.

Read this article:
From SWOT to FOAR: Teaching Your Brain to See the Positives - Entrepreneur

Human Behavior

Recommended Reading: The Psychology Of Money – Seeking Alpha

Behavioral finance is the study of human behavior and how that behavior leads to investment errors, including the mispricing of assets. The field has gained an increasing amount of attention in academia over the past several decades as pricing anomalies have been discovered. It being my favorite subject, I read everything I can get my hands on. Thus, I was excited to receive Morgan Housels new book, The Psychology of Money, and read it in one sitting.

Housels book is exceptionally well written, using stories and personal experiences to explore the strange ways people think about money, demonstrating that they are not economically rational. Instead, they are psychologically rational. Through his stories, he teaches us how to make better sense of many important issues, including how to think about saving, spending and investing.

Among the invaluable lessons are:

While planning is important, the most important part of planning is to plan on things not going according to plan. It must be able to survive reality - the unknown unknowns that are everyones reality. While history is mostly the study of surprising events, it is too often used by investors as unassailable guides to the future (see above). A financial plan is like a good diet: You must stay disciplined, adhering to it. You need a strategy whose goal is not to maximize your expected wealth but to maximize your ability to sleep well at night, so you can enjoy your life. Good investing is not necessarily about making good decisions. Its about consistently not screwing up. While getting money is about taking risks and being optimistic, keeping money requires humility (accepting that at least some of what you have accumulated is attributed to luck) and frugality, as the past cannot be relied upon to repeat itself indefinitely. Unexpected events and random luck can lead to good decisions having bad outcomes and poor decisions having good outcomes. Success is a lousy teacher because it can seduce us into thinking we cannot lose. Thus, we should not become overconfident in our judgments when things turn out well. Similarly, failure is a lousy teacher because it can seduce smart people into thinking their decisions were poor, when failure was just the unforgiving reality of risk showing up. Most things are harder in reality than in theory, sometimes because of overconfidence in our abilities. Some lessons must be experienced before they can be understood. For example, bear markets are much more difficult to live through than to observe in a backtest. The trick with failure is arranging your financial life in such a way that a bad investment here and a missed financial goal there wont wipe you out so you can keep playing until the odds fall your way. Poor people irrationally buy most of the lottery tickets, despite having little savings. The psychological explanation is that they are investing in a dream. Having enough is realizing that an insatiable appetite for more will push you to the point of regret. Less ego equals more wealth as you save more. Comfortably living below what you can afford, without much desire for more, removes an immense amount of social pressure that many people in the modern First World subject themselves to. Use your money to gain more control over your time - the ability to do what you want, when you want, and with whom you want, for as long as you want, pays the highest dividend in finance. The simplest way to be a better investor is to increase your time horizon, putting the odds in your favor and allowing compounding to work for you.

Perhaps the most important lesson Housel teaches is that the highest form of wealth is the ability to wake up every morning and say, I can do whatever I want to today. That is priceless. Once you have achieved that level of wealth, there is no longer a need to take risk. Yet so many have lost their fortunes trying to grow them beyond their need. Housel provided several examples, including that of legendary investor Jesse Livermore. At one time, he was one of the richest people in the world; however, at the time of his suicide, his liabilities exceeded his assets. The lesson is that, past a certain level of income, what you need is what sits just below your ego (keeping up with the Joneses and showing off your ability to spend).

Housels book is a must-read. Ive added it to my list of the best behavioral finance books:

The Honest Truth About Dishonesty Ariely Predictably Irrational Ariely Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes Belsky and Gilovich The Psychology of Money Housel Thinking, Fast and Slow Kahneman The Drunkards Walk Mlodinow Behavioural Finance Montier Behavioral Finance and Wealth Management Pompian Beyond Greed and Fear Shefrin Finance for Normal People Statman What Investors Really Want Statman Misbehaving Thaler Nudge Thaler and Sunstein Your Money and Your Brain Zweig

I also recommend Investment Mistakes Even Smart People Make and How to Avoid Them," my own book on behavioral finance, which covers 77 mistakes investors make.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Follow this link:
Recommended Reading: The Psychology Of Money - Seeking Alpha

Human Behavior

Dobie: The willing suspension of disbelief – Newsday

The suspension of disbelief is a powerful human behavior.

The concept dates at least to Aristotle, who saw it working its magic in the theatergoing experience. When faced with the surreal or the unreal, according to Aristotle and others who followed him, humans stop thinking critically and simply accept the otherworldliness to enjoy the experience.

Nowadays, we suspend disbelief when watching "The Matrix," "The Mandalorian" or a Marvel movie. We often engage in a similar exercise when rooting for our favorite sports underdog and we stop thinking critically to enjoy the fiction that our team has a chance to win the game. There seldom are any real consequences for these kinds of suspension of disbelief; the letdown you feel when the movie stinks or your team loses is not all that consequential.

Thats not the case when the suspension of disbelief crosses the thin line that separates it from delusion, as is happening with many of us with COVID-19.

The virus is certainly surreal. Invisible and silent, restive and relentless, it infects and kills. Combating it requires critical thinking about masks, about distancing, about the size of our groups, about being indoors or out. Yet many of us have stopped thinking critically about this surrealness and simply accepted it in order to enjoy the life weve been leading, even as the virus spreads around us.

What are we doing?

Remember the two Boeing 737 MAX passenger planes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that crashed five months apart in 2018 and 2019? They killed a total of 346 people, because of a malfunction in the flight control system, and within days of the second crash all 387 Boeing 737 MAX planes worldwide had been grounded.

Go inside New York politics.

By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy.

In the United States alone, were now losing the equivalent of 16 to 18 plane loads of people to COVID-19 every day and by not masking up its like were still getting on the darned planes.

We know better.

Californias Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom knows better and he still went to a maskless indoor birthday party with more than 10 people at the exclusive French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley. Steve Adler, the Democratic mayor of Austin, Texas, knows better but he flew to Mexico for his daughters wedding even as he was advising Texans not to travel to avoid getting or spreading the virus.

Republican Secretary of State Mike Pompeo knows better but hes inviting 900 people to one of several indoor holiday parties hes hosting even after the department sent a notice to employees advising them to change "any non-mission critical events" from in-person gatherings to virtual ones.

Republican President Donald Trump and White House officials know better but theyre planning to hold a string of indoors in-person holiday parties over the next three weeks, the first taking place last week, masks apparently optional.

We all know by now that the chances of getting the virus skyrocket when we engage in these behaviors, and we all know there are growing numbers of people in our communities, including on Long Island, who have the virus, and we all know that this clearly is a surreal situation, and still someone plans a party for hundreds of people in a mansion in Brookhaven, and hundreds of people protest the closing of a Staten Island bar that violated COVID-19 measures, and some maskless parents still stand in lines among other parents to pick up children after school.

We all should know by now that we cant get away with acting this way, and that suspending our disbelief about the consequences by failing to wear a mask and keep our distance is like continuing to board that plane.

Michael Dobie is a member of Newsday's editorial board.

Read more from the original source:
Dobie: The willing suspension of disbelief - Newsday

Human Behavior

This Pro-Trading Secret Could Have Caught the 2020 Crash – DailyWealth

"I'll give you $1,000 if you burn that book right now."

I was 22. Sitting at my desk, I had been lost in my reading studying for my Chartered Financial Analyst ("CFA") exam.

I had started at the hedge fund just a few weeks before. My boss had trained under a trading legend. It was a huge opportunity to work with him. I was excited, but aware of the pressure. I wanted to learn as much as I could as quickly as possible.

But I was startled when my boss walked up and told me to burn my books. What the heck was he talking about?

It turned out this would be the beginning of an obsession. This boss would lead me down an entirely different path than I had imagined. And I never did end up getting that CFA certification...

Today, I want to share the path I chose instead. It taught me an entirely different way of looking at the markets. And once you understand this, you can start learning to trade like the pros do...

Let me first tell you what my boss said next that day (I'm paraphrasing a bit)...

Look, if you want to understand risk, if you want to understand trading, if you want to understand portfolio management... you can't just focus on fundamentals. It's not that fundamentals don't matter. But to get really high returns and really exceptional trading results, you have to understand... how markets move and what markets move, and the psychology behind why markets do what they do.

You probably know there are two schools of thought when it comes to looking at the market. There's fundamental analysis and technical analysis... And he wanted me to focus on the technicals.

The CFA exam and materials focus almost entirely on fundamental analysis. They go deep into the weeds of debt, profits, and management teams. And while all that is important... what my boss was trying to tell me was that he followed a different path.

I'm not saying that fundamental analysis doesn't matter... It does. Great businesses with a history of making money and paying good dividends through both good times and bad times are vital for "buy and hold" strategies. But when it comes to trading and understanding why price behaves the way it does, technical analysis rules the roost.

Technical analysis focuses on the price behavior of a stock or asset through various indicators and price patterns.

As my boss said... "Technical analysis focuses on now, fundamentals on what was."

To be clear, fundamental analysis works for a lot of people. But it's not how I invest...

I spent more than a decade on Wall Street trading multimillion-dollar portfolios across multiple asset classes.

Gold, crude oil, foreign exchange ("FX"), stocks, futures, options, copper... I traded all of it.

Within weeks of joining the hedge fund, as I told you about earlier, my boss taught me the greatest lesson of my career.

Eventually, after years of intense studying, and a formal examination in front of the board of Chartered Market Technicians, I received my "CMT" designation.

Technical trading became my bread and butter. And I realized that this approach to the markets helps the pros trade with one thing in mind... "History repeats itself."

The ups and downs of the market are nothing more than the graphic representation of human behavior... expressed on a chart of buyers and sellers. And this market behavior tends to repeat.

Here is a perfect example a type of technical analysis called "intermarket analysis." This served as a warning at the start of the financial crisis in 2007... And it repeated earlier this year, before the COVID-19 crash.

Intermarket analysis is based on correlations between asset classes... When one of these asset classes turns down, it may be a warning sign for other asset classes (stocks, in this case).

We know this because these chart patterns have shown up before... and other assets have fallen. Take a look...

The S&P 500 Index (blue line) and U.S. 30-year interest rates (black line) traded in tandem at the end of 2019. The "trade war" with China was calming down, and both asset classes were moving in the same direction. All was well.

But then, as you can see, the correlation broke down early this year.

Now, look at the red lines... See how stocks made new highs, while interest rates failed to do the same? That was a warning.

The "fundamentals" looked fine. But I could hear my boss's words in my head... The only thing that mattered was what prices were signaling.

This is an extreme example, given the crash that followed. But it was a warning... and one that worked well.

This is the essence of technical analysis understanding how history repeats in the markets. This concept is lost on many investors. They simply don't understand and aren't willing to put in the time and effort that's necessary. But pro traders know that you can use this approach to make outstanding returns.

That's why technical analysis is much more than trendlines and charts... It is understanding the past to profit in the future.

Good investing,

Greg Diamond, CMT

Editor's note:By following Greg's recommendations this year, you could've doubled your money nine different times without buying a single stock. And now, he's making another bold prediction. On December 23, Greg expects a huge move that could either hand you one of the biggest, fastest payouts of your life... or set your retirement back by years. Get the full story here.

Further Reading

"For traders, volatility equals opportunity," Greg says. December is usually a decisive time for traders. And technical analysis tells us that two stocks should provide excellent opportunities this month... Read more here: Watch These Two Stocks as December Unfolds.

"If you're in doubt that tech stocks can keep going higher, you might be surprised," Greg writes. During the tech bubble of 1999 and 2000, this sub-sector led the way. And this indicator says that we're in for even more gains in the months ahead... Get the full story here: This Sector Is Signaling the Tech Rally Isn't Over Yet.

A 'BAD TO LESS BAD' RALLY FROM THIS RIDE-HAILING GIANT

Todays chart shows a big-name company that has shot up from its crash in the spring

As Steve has noted before, you can often find the biggest gains in stocks that are going from bad to less bad. A bad situation doesnt have to turn all the way around Even a little good news can spur on a major rally. And thats what were seeing with todays company

Uber Technologies (UBER) is a $95 billion ride-hailing giant. This company gets people from place to place, and also delivers food with its Uber Eats platform. But in mid-March, its shares plunged as the coronavirus swept the U.S. The company continues to see declining revenues But with news of a COVID-19 vaccine in the works, investors are hopeful that returning customers will spark a demand for services like Uber and Lyft again. And the stock has gone from bad to less bad on the news

As you can see, shares are up an incredible 260% since their March lows And they recently hit an all-time high. It goes to show that when investors forget their fears, beaten-down stocks can climb higher than anyone expects

Read the rest here:
This Pro-Trading Secret Could Have Caught the 2020 Crash - DailyWealth

Human Behavior

Living Life Online: Adolescent Mental Health and Social Media – Psychiatry Advisor

For many adolescents, more time at home during the ongoing coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown has meant more time glued to a screen. Social distancing and limitations on daily life during the pandemic have left social gaps to be filled by the constantly evolving offerings of the internet.1-2

Even before the pandemic, the starry-eyed optimism about social medias ability to connect people across space and time was beginning to wane, even among Silicon Valley insiders. A sense of exploration and possibility has been reduced to anxiety about our rising reliance on technology, especially its effects on child and adolescent development.

Concerns about social media have been infused with a growing sense of unease and vulnerability brought on by the pandemic with the Centers for Disease Control promoting both breaks from social media to reduce stress and using social media to connect with others.3 Early studies from China appeared to show links between social media exposure and poor mental health, including depression and anxiety.4-5 Studies based on social media posts have allowed researchers to identify elevated psychosocial and support seeking expressions online this year compared to the preceding year.6 However, this finding could point to either increased use of social media to convey personal feelings or rising rates of psychological distress.

A recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation noted that adolescents may be at a higher risk for poor mental health outcomes during the pandemic due to increased loneliness and isolation, as well as a lack of access to mental health resources while schools are closed.7 Being stuck at home could compound parental stress and lead to confrontation.

Vicki Harrison, MSW, Program Director, Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, stated in an interview, Many activities that are good for mental health are difficult to engage in under shelter-in-place orders, such as spending time with family and friends, milestones and celebrations, engaging in extracurricular interests, exercising, and interacting with nature.

She also noted, While young people are resilient and adaptable as a whole, their wellbeing is somewhat dependent on the circumstances of their family life and who they are engaging with during the shutdown. In other words, some adolescents may escape negative experiences at school, whereas others may be forced into difficult situations at home.

During the pandemic, social media may provide a healthy substitute for regular social interactions and a break from home confinement. Furthermore, it may be difficult to separate the effects of social media from the multitude of stressors related to COVID-19, from loss of life to economic decline.8 Adolescents are likely to spend more time online as a result of COVID-19, and coming to terms with societys reliance on online platforms during this time may help parents, adolescents, and others use them in more healthy ways.

A Sisyphean Struggle?

Social media can be a double-edged sword, and concerns about social media may in fact reveal how little we know about emerging platforms of social connection and the inventive ways that young people use them.2,8-10

The relationship between social media use and poor mental health may have been more robust in the 1990s and early 2000s, when less adolescents used them, according to Candice Odgers, PhD, a developmental psychologist at Duke University and the University of California-Irvine. As these platforms have become ubiquitous, findings have become more modest, pointing to little or no negative effects with moderate use.9-10

Amy Orben, DPhil, of Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, refers to recurring societal anxieties about adolescent social media use and mental health as the Sisyphean cycle of technology panics and argues that psychology plays an integral role in fostering them.11 By analyzing historical responses to other forms of media, Dr Orben noted that panics often lack an overarching theoretical paradigm, recommending that researchers transform their approach to focus on styles of use particular to certain technological modalities, as well as effect sizes and their directionality.11 This new methodological framework would be less reactive and prone to paranoia about the activities of teenagers.

In a similar vein, Dr Odgers promotes looking at transition periods, when adolescents start using social media regularly. She noted that finding control groups may be difficult, as few adolescents are offline, and behavior may change while abstaining for short periods to facilitate studies.10

Online But Not Nave

Although adolescents are often portrayed as unwitting participants in a dangerous social process, they frequently understand the risks of using social media and play an important role in shaping how emerging platforms are used and constructed. Studies based on the perspectives of adolescents reveal that teens are often consciously aware of social media as a potential threat to mental wellbeing, including through cyberbullying and smartphone addiction.12-13

Harrison noted that adolescents are often frustrated by the negative aspects of social media, including hate speech and bad behavior, emphasis on highly curated images and narrow standards of beauty, notifications, ads, triggering content, and design features promoting endless scrolls and viewing. She adds, Many older adolescents have adopted strategies to manage their mental health and balance their usage, whether by taking social media breaks, changing their settings, or avoiding certain apps.

In some cases, life online can offer adolescents healthy opportunities to engage with each other about their mental health. Patricia Cavazos-Rehg, PhD, a professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri and principal investigator for the iCHASM research team, stated in an interview, Online communities do help teens vent and network with others anonymously, which can be very important, especially when communicating about highly stigmatized topics including mental illness.

In a paper, Dr Cavazos-Rehg performed a content analysis of depression-related tweets and found that supportive or helpful tweets were highly common, followed by tweets disclosing depressive symptoms.14 These expressions of poor mental wellbeing may open the door to treatment or facilitate links to care, either through formal resources or online communities.

Online spaces create many exciting opportunities for youth to experiment with creativity, self-expression, and play, said Harrison, They can also be places to find support for mental health, including connecting with others who share similar struggles and experiences affording anonymity.

During the pandemic, social media may offer adolescents a place to discuss their challenges, and openness about mental health online is better than bottling their distress. In these challenging and stressful times, Dr Cavazos-Rehg noted that social media can be fun and distracting.

However, Dr Cavazos-Rehg also harbors some concerns, acknowledging that it can be easy for young people to engage with potentially harmful content and/or to immerse oneself in distracting and time-consuming online activities that could lower emotional wellbeing, including excessive engagement, avoidant coping strategies, and compulsive checking. During a critical neurodevelopmental period, Harrison noted, adolescents may be vulnerable to risk taking, impulse control, fluctuating self-esteem, and peer pressure.

A Mentalizing Approach to Adolescent Struggles Online

Mentalizing, a multidimensional concept rooted in attachment theory and the psychoanalytical work of Peter Fonagy, OBE, PhD, Chief Executive of the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families in London, United Kingdom, may offer some insights into understanding life online. Briefly, mentalizing involves the perception and interpretation of behavior based on intentional mental activity, an imaginative capacity that determines how we relate to others as well as ourselves.15-16

According to Dr Fonagy, poor mentalizers often focus on the surface and lack curiosity. They cannot conceptualize the thoughts, feelings, and desires that underpin another persons communication. In social interactions, they may take something seriously that others would discard or perceive as a mild joke. Social media offers considerable opportunities for misunderstanding and a lack of insight into others motivations and true meanings.

On the whole, with any media including social media, if you are a vulnerable individual, you are much more likely to be negatively affected by it, Dr Fonagy stated in a Zoom call. If you have mental health problems before using it, you will suffer from it. If you have no mental health problems, it may affect you less.

Joint attention and epistemic trust lie at the heart of Dr Fonagys notion of mentalizing. Social media often provides highly individualized content that fractures users collective experiences, and online platforms draw users attention in unique ways.

Dr Fonagy noted that skilled teachers can develop epistemic trust, and social media masquerades as if it is a teacher that recognizes you; that recognition of individual agency opens your mind, allowing you to be influenced. This phenomenon leads to an abuse of epistemic trust, and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to social influences, according to Dr Fonagy.

These concepts not only allow for an understanding of online life on a larger level, but also for successful interventions in clinical settings. Adolescents psychological challenges are increasingly entangled with their experiences online and virtual interactions with their peers on social media. As a result, providers need to take into account the unique aspects of these interactions and online adolescent culture.

I see a lot of people who have problems associated with social media, Dr Fonagy stated. People that I see are massively bothered at the extreme by cyberbullying. And,at the minor level, by not getting enough likes.

To alleviate these problems, Dr Fonagy deploys a mentalizing approach to develop better epistemic trust and discernment, which can involve stopping automatic thinking and getting a more reflective stance, a balance of cognition and emotion. For adolescents concerned about a lack of likes or a friend not responding to their messages, a mentalizing approach can help them think about what motivates other people. Could the friend be busy doing something else and still care about the relationship? Should I determine my self-worth based on likes? Why do I jump to conclusions about not getting positive attention?

An important starting point involves validating adolescents perspectives, even if they are flawed, to develop clinician-patient trust. For example, a provider can validate that interactions online can be upsetting in a sincere way and that peers may be acting in an unfair manner. Then, by clarifying and getting into the details, Dr Fonagy said, You gradually help them recover a more sophisticated mentalizing stance.

Immediately offering a contrary perspective can result in adolescents pushing back and building up a barrier. However, as Dr Fonagy stated, Once they feel comfortable that you can see the world how they see it, then you can take a different perspective on board. Then, clinicians can demonstrate that anxieties or judgments about others behavior may be a projection of the patients insecurities and assumptions.

Conclusion

Providers should be aware of the multitude of stressors that their adolescent patients are currently facing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and social media may play a relatively minor role overall. Given the literature linking problematic social media use to suicidal behavior, self-harm, psychological distress, and psychiatric disorders, providers should also pay attention to potential warning signs.17-19 However, they ought to consider that their adolescent patients are equally cognizant and concerned about these problems.12

Moving forward, developing a culture of healthy social media use requires more than self-awareness on the part of adolescents or restrictions by watchful parents. Harrison believes that much more focus needs to be placed on minimizing harm on platforms and it should not be left up to users or the conscience of platforms to figure this out and manage it. She added, As a society, we need to demand that positive impacts on mental health and wellbeing be a driving force behind design and growth within the technology sector.

Participating in this wider social conversation, however, should not play into technology panics or reactive fears.10-11 Problems experienced online are often experienced offline as well, and the impacts of technology are not equally distributed, with some adolescents being more affected than others.10,20 To explore the multifaceted relationship between social media and adolescent mental health, researchers should design better studies that move beyond mere correlations and analyze how technologies are actually experienced.

References

1. Fischer S. Social media use spikes during pandemic. Axios. https://www.axios.com/social-media-overuse-spikes-in-coronavirus-pandemic-764b384d-a0ee-4787-bd19-7e7297f6d6ec.html. Published online April 24, 2020. Accessed November 16, 2020.

2. Ghaffary S. The pandemic is raising concerns about how teens use technology. But theres still a lot we dont know Vox Recode. https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/7/29/21346005/technology-social-media-impact-teenagers-research-common-sense-report. Published online July 29, 2020. Accessed November 16, 2020.

3. Centers for Disease Control. Coping with stress. CDC Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Your Health. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/managing-stress-anxiety.html. Last updated July 1, 2020. Accessed November 16, 2020.

4. Zhong B, Huang Y, Liu G. Mental health toll from the coronavirus: social media usage reveals Wuhan residents depression and secondary trauma in the COVID-19 outbreak [published online August 15, 2020]. Comput Human Behav. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2020.106524

5. Gao J, Zheng P, Jia Y, et al. Mental health problems and social media exposure during COVID-19 outbreak (published online April 16, 2020). PLoS One. 2020;15(4):e0231924.

6. Saha K, Torous J, Caine ED, Choudhury MD. Social media reveals psychosocial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic [published online August 11, 2020]. medRxiv. doi: 10.1101/2020.08.07.20170548

7. Panchal N, Kamal R, Orgera K, et al. The implications of COVID-19 for mental health and substance use. Kaiser Family Foundation. https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/the-implications-of-covid-19-for-mental-health-and-substance-use/. Published online August 21, 2020. Accessed November 16, 2020.

8. Orben A, Tomova L, Blakemore SJ. The effects of social deprivation on adolescent development and mental health. Lancet Child Adolesc Health. 2020;4:634-40.

9. Orben A, Przybylski AK. The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use [published online January 14, 2019]. Nature Human Behavior. doi: 10.1038/s41562-018-0506-1

10. Odgers C. Smartphones are bad for some teens, not all [published online February 21, 2018]. Nature. doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-02109-8

11. Orben A. The Sisyphean cycle of technology panics. Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2020;15(5):1143-1157.

12. OReilly M, Dogra N, Whiteman N, Hughes J, Eruyar S, Reilly P. Is social media bad for mental health and wellbeing? Exploring the perspectives of adolescents. Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2018;23(4):601-613.

13. Barry CT, Sidoti CL, Briggs SM, Reiter SR, Lindsey RA. Adolescent social media use and mental health from adolescent and parent perspectives. J Adolesc. 2017;61:1-11.

14. Cavazos-Rehg PA, Krauss MJ, Sowles S, et al. A content analysis of depression-related tweets. Comput Human Behav. 2016;54:351-357.

15. Bateman AW, Fonagy, P. In: Handbook of Mentalizing in Mental Health Practice. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association Publishing; 2019.

16. Fonagy P, Luyten P, Allison E, Campbell C. Mentalizing, epistemic trust and the phenomenology of psychotherapy. Psychopathol. 2019;52(2):94-103.

17. Marchant A, Hawton K, Stewart A, et al. A systematic review of the relationship between internet use, self-harm and suicidal behaviour in young people: The good, the bad and the unknown [published online August 16, 2017]. PLoS One. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181722

18. Marino C, Gianluca G, Vieno A, Spada MM. The associations between problematic Facebook use, psychological distress and well-being among adolescents and young adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis [published online January 15, 2018]. J Affect Disord. 2018;226:274-281

19. Andreassen CS, Billieux J, Griffiths MD, et al. The relationship between addictive use of social media and video games and symptoms of psychiatric disorders: A large scale cross sectional study. Psychol Addict Behav. 2016;30(2):252-62.

20. George MJ, Odgers CL. Seven fears and the science of how mobile technologies may be influencing adolescents in the digital age. Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2015;10(6):832-851. doi: 10.1177/1745691615596788

Original post:
Living Life Online: Adolescent Mental Health and Social Media - Psychiatry Advisor