This study examined more than 2,000 adolescents to explore how habitual smartphone use affects attention. While frequent habitual use predicted poorer attention regulation, smartphones also fulfilled psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness, which partially protected against these effects, suggesting that how adolescents use smartphones matters as much as how often.

My thesis examines how “bad actors” manipulate information and undermine knowledge through monitoring, adjusting, and restructuring people’s trust networks. By grounding theory in real-world examples, the research shows how misinformation exploits vulnerability and argues that understanding these tactics is essential to protecting autonomy and resisting manipulation.