{"id":1199,"date":"2026-03-27T13:16:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T13:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biconnect.psicologia.unimib.it\/?p=1199"},"modified":"2026-03-27T17:16:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T17:16:05","slug":"balancing-engagement-and-mental-health-biconnect-labs-ongoing-mission-in-the-wake-of-landmark-social-media-trials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biconnect.psicologia.unimib.it\/index.php\/balancing-engagement-and-mental-health-biconnect-labs-ongoing-mission-in-the-wake-of-landmark-social-media-trials\/","title":{"rendered":"Balancing Engagement and Mental Health: BiConnect Lab&#8217;s Ongoing Mission in the Wake of Landmark Social Media Trials"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A Los Angeles jury has recently awarded $6 million in damages, ruling that a social media platform&#8217;s algorithms caused a young woman to develop a severe addiction, ultimately harming her mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"vlp-link-container vlp-layout-spotlight wp-block-visual-link-preview-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2026\/03\/25\/tech\/social-media-addiction-trial-jury-decision\" class=\"vlp-link\" title=\"Meta and YouTube found liable in social media addiction trial | CNN Business\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><div class=\"vlp-layout-zone-side\"><div class=\"vlp-block-4 vlp-link-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/gettyimages-2261841633.jpg?c=16x9&amp;q=w_800,c_fill\" style=\"max-width: 1024px; max-height: 1024px\" \/><\/div><\/div><div class=\"vlp-layout-zone-main\"><div class=\"vlp-block-0 vlp-link-title\">Meta and YouTube found liable in social media addiction trial | CNN Business<\/div><div class=\"vlp-block-1 vlp-link-summary\">A California jury has found Meta and YouTube liable on all counts in a landmark case that accused the tech giants of intentionally addicting a young woman and injuring her mental health.<\/div><div class=\"vlp-block-2 vlp-link-button\">Read More<\/div><div class=\"vlp-block-3 vlp-link-url\">edition.cnn.com<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>This landmark decision highlights an urgent global reality: we desperately need healthier, more transparent <strong>Recommender Systems<\/strong>, alongside interventions that increase users&#8217; online resilience. This intersection between technology and psychology is exactly what we have been researching in recent years here at the <strong>BiConnect Lab<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><strong>Our Feature on Tusk &amp; Quill<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In a recent episode of the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/tuskandquill.org\/podcasts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tusk &amp; Quill podcast<\/a><\/em>, we discussed our research on designing recommender systems that prioritize user well-being alongside traditional engagement metrics. By modeling the interaction between human decision-making and recommendation algorithms, our simulations demonstrate that it is entirely possible to balance platform engagement with people\u2019s mental health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Can we Create Healthier Social Media Algos? w\/ Researchers from UNIMIB\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_JBZRQLulCM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Two Papers Accepted at AAMAS 2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Building on this ongoing mission, we are thrilled to announce the acceptance of two new papers at the upcoming <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cyprusconferences.org\/aamas2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AAMAS 2026<\/a><\/strong> conference in Cyprus. These works tackle these exact challenges, ranging from the auditing of opaque social media algorithms to the development of self-regulating social media systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Toward Recognizing Social Media Recommenders under Absent Recommendations<\/strong><br><em>Sabrina Guidotti, Dimitri Ognibene, Giuseppe Vizzari, Udo Kruschwitz, Gregor Donabauer, Davide Taibi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Social media recommender systems strongly shape collective attention while remaining largely opaque. This work formalizes the challenge of&nbsp;<strong>recommender identification under missing recommendations<\/strong>&nbsp;and introduces&nbsp;<strong>SM-ARR-G<\/strong>, a first approach based on graph neural network and simulated infospheres. The contribution advances&nbsp;<strong>algorithm auditing and transparency<\/strong>, supporting evidence-based assessment of AI influence in online social environments.<br>\u2192&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/openreview.net\/forum?id=bPoYlPh3Nf\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/openreview.net\/forum?id=bPoYlPh3Nf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Link to OpenReview<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mitigating Problematic Social Media Use through Paired Recommender Systems with Contrasting Objectives<\/strong><br><em>Stefano Livella, Luca Bolis, Sabrina Patania, Matteo Papini, Dimitri Ognibene<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This study explores how recommender systems can be designed to&nbsp;<strong>regulate engagement<\/strong>&nbsp;rather than maximize it indiscriminately. Through simulation, we show that pairing engagement-driven and regulation-oriented modules can reduce addiction-like behaviors&nbsp;<strong>while maintaining a sustainable engagement<\/strong>, pointing toward more responsible and value-aligned recommender architectures.<br>\u2192&nbsp;<em>Link to <a href=\"https:\/\/openreview.net\/forum?id=XZuB8apDzz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">OpenReview<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Cases like the recent trial in LA clearly show that thoughtful policy, regulation, and robust scientific research will be critical to creating healthier digital environments moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Los Angeles jury has recently awarded $6 million in damages, ruling that a social media platform&#8217;s algorithms caused a young woman to develop a severe addiction, ultimately harming her mental health. This landmark decision highlights an urgent global reality: we desperately need healthier, more transparent Recommender Systems, alongside interventions that increase users&#8217; online resilience. &#8230; <a title=\"Balancing Engagement and Mental Health: BiConnect Lab&#8217;s Ongoing Mission in the Wake of Landmark Social Media Trials\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/biconnect.psicologia.unimib.it\/index.php\/balancing-engagement-and-mental-health-biconnect-labs-ongoing-mission-in-the-wake-of-landmark-social-media-trials\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Balancing Engagement and Mental Health: BiConnect Lab&#8217;s Ongoing Mission in the Wake of Landmark Social Media Trials\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[45,50,56,55,47,54],"class_list":["post-1199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-projects","tag-auditing","tag-human-ai-interaction","tag-meta","tag-recommender","tag-regulating","tag-social"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biconnect.psicologia.unimib.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biconnect.psicologia.unimib.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biconnect.psicologia.unimib.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biconnect.psicologia.unimib.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biconnect.psicologia.unimib.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1199"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/biconnect.psicologia.unimib.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1212,"href":"https:\/\/biconnect.psicologia.unimib.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199\/revisions\/1212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biconnect.psicologia.unimib.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biconnect.psicologia.unimib.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biconnect.psicologia.unimib.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biconnect.psicologia.unimib.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}