News | Interdisciplinary Research Team on Internet and Society

12 Nov

Blog: Body positivity online, body positivity offline? A study on adolescents’ engagement with positive social media content and prosocial behavior

When adolescents engage with social media content promoting body positivity, does it impact their body-positive behavior offline? This question was the focus of our latest published study.

October 2024

Blog: 10th European Communication Conference ECREA

The 10th European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) took place at the end of September in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Many of our team members attended and presented their research. See this page for their full presentations and profiles!

September 2024

Blog: Bias-based cyberaggression related to origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, and weight

Bias-based cyberaggression, which includes hateful and prejudiced content shared through digital platforms, is a common experience for young internet users. This kind of online behaviour can have harmful effects on both individuals and society as a whole. We conducted a systematic review of research dealing with young people's experiences, risk and protective factors and consequences of bias-based cyberaggression.

30 May

Cyberspace 2024: Call for papers

Cyberspace 2024 conference held in Brno on the 29th and 30th of November is now open for paper submission. You can send your abstracts by July 31st.

16 May

Do smartphones really cause mental illness among adolescents? Ten problems with Jonathan Haidt’s book

“The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness”, a new book by Jonathan Haidt, quickly found an audience. For www.parenting.digital, Michaela Lebedíková, Michal Tkaczyk, Vojtěch Mýlek and David Smahel share 10 ways in which they disagree with the way Haidt builds his argument based on their own studies of the impact of technology on adolescents’ wellbeing.

21 Mar

Open position: Postdoc in Psychology / Communication Studies / Media Studies

We are currently looking for a new colleague for the "DigiWELL - Excellence in Research on Digital Technologies and Wellbeing" project (project duration: 2024 - 2028). Within the project, we are responsible for the work package focused on short- and long-term impacts of the use of digital technologies on the wellbeing (social, psychological and physical) of the general population. This is a fulltime position starting June 2024 (negotiable). Application deadline: March 31, 2024

6 Feb

Safer Internet Day: Adolescent Vulnerability in the Digital World

We celebrate Safer Internet Day on the 6th of February. This event is held every year to raise awareness about a safer and better internet for everyone, and especially for children and young people. Read our blog on navigating adolescents’ online vulnerabilities!

2 Feb

Report: Artificial Intelligence and Health - How Czech Adults Use AI?

Researchers from the IRTIS team looked at Czech adults' willingness to use AI to find health-related information and their trust in the health information AI provides. Read more in the article!

5 Jan

Mariek van den Abeele, ERC holder, joins our team for DigiWELL project

We are thrilled to announce that Mariek van den Abeele, Associate Professor at the Ghent University and recipient of the 2020 ERC Starting Grant on Digital well-being, will be joining our research team for the DigiWELL project. We are excited about this collaboration, as Mariek is the leading expert on digital well-being!

14 Dec 2023

Lenka Dědková received the MUNI SCIENTIST 2023 award

Each year, Masaryk University rewards its excellent scientists and research teams. One of the 37 awarded people was Lenka Dědková!

12 Dec 2023

Cyberspace 2023: Wrapping up our project and looking ahead with a keynote by Ine Beyens

At the end of November, we co-hosted the annual Cyberspace conference – this time with a keynote from Ine Beyens from the University of Amsterdam. Apart from meeting with our friends and colleagues, we presented a panel about our project, Modeling the FUTURE, which we will finish at the end of this year. Continue reading for more information and lovely photos!

4 Dec 2023

The ySKILLS project is finishing. Our colleagues presented at the final conference in Leuven

The ySKILLS Consortium Meeting and Final Conference was held in Leuven, Belgium from 29 November to 1 December. It was the culmination of the four-year European Union's Horizon 2020 Youth Skills (ySKILLS) project, which focused on digital skills of children and adolescents. Our colleagues, David Šmahel, Marie Jaroň Bedrošová, Natálie Terčová, Michal Mužík and Hana Macháčková, who have worked on the project over the years, also attended the meeting.

30 Nov 2023

Lenka Dědková was awarded a new grant – PARKA!

We are happy to announce that Lenka Dědková’s project received funding from the Czech Science Foundation („GAČR“). From 2024 onwards, Lenka and her team will examine parental mediation strategies in relation to online social activities of their offspring. Read more about the project in the blog!

21 Nov 2023

Research report: Adolescents' in-person meetings with people from the internet are mostly pleasant, but it's good not to rush them

The internet is a venue where young people commonly talk to their family and friends, but also where they meet new people. In a new study, researchers from the IRTIS team (Faculty of Social Studies, MU) investigated adolescents' face-to-face meetings with people they had first met online. The results show that this is a relatively widespread phenomenon - 31.7% of the 2,500 adolescents aged 11-16 years have experienced such encounters.

20 Nov 2023

Researcher-junior: Postdoc in Media Psychology / Communication Studies / Media Studies

We are looking for a postdoc in the field of media psychology / communication studies / media studies to join the IRTIS research team at the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University in Brno. We are currently looking for new colleagues for the "DigiWELL - Excellence in Research on Digital Technologies and Wellbeing" project (project duration: 2024 - 2028). Within the project, we are responsible for the work package focused on short- and long-term impacts of the use of digital technologies on the wellbeing (social, psychological and physical) of the general population.

15 Nov 2023

We are looking for new PhD students (deadline for applications 30.11.!)

At IRTIS (irtis.muni.cz) we are looking for new PhD students to join us in researching the links between the use of digital technologies and well-being. Are you interested in what we do online affects how we feel - mentally, physically and in terms of our relationships with other people? Which people are more and less affected by online activities? What can objective data tell us about patterns of digital use? How does children's use of the internet and its impact affect parents? If so, this offer is perfect for you! Come and join us for a PhD that will be fully covered by a new project with opportunities for international collaboration, internships, participation in international conferences and summer school training.