Our conference summer

The summer of 2026 was packed with conferences for us here on the AWARE team: Between July and September, we traveled all over Europe—from Glasgow to Brno. The same question kept coming up again and again: How are social media and the way adolescents perceive mental illness connected? Here’s a look back at our presentations.

International Conference on Social Media & Society – Glasgow, UK (13.–15. Juli)

D. Weubel, S. Mayen, K. Karsay, R. Wendt & A.-L. Camerini 

From Feeds to Beliefs: Adolescent Mental Illness Stigma Profiles and the Role of Social Media Exposure

The international SM&S conference brings together interdisciplinary research on social media and its societal implications. We presented our findings on different adolescent mental illness stigma profiles and their associations with social media and other influencing factors. The discussion focused particularly on the potential benefits and risks of romanticizing mental illness, as well as pronounced gender differences across the stigma profiles.

5Rights Foundation Policy Talk – online (28. August)

D. Weubel

From “Dangerous” to “Special”: Changing Mental Illness Stigma in the Age of Social Media

The talk translated our research findings for an NGO and policy audience. It focused on changing portrayals of mental illness on social media and what these developments may mean for online child protection, platform responsibility, and social media literacy.

Swiss Public Health Conference – Luzern, Schweiz (2.–3. September)

D. Weubel, S. Mayen, K. Karsay, R. Wendt & A.-L. Camerini 

Detached Stigmatizers or Benevolent Romantizisers? Adolescent Mental Illness Stigma Profiles and their Association with Social Media Use and Offline Communication

The Swiss Public Health Conference brings together research, practice, and policy each year. This year’s theme, “Public Health and the Beauty of Complexity,” was reflected in our contribution: the findings showed that adolescent mental illness stigma cannot simply be described as “low” or “high,” but instead takes the form of four distinct profiles that are associated with both individual and social factors.

11th European Communication )Conference (ECC)– Brno, Czech Republic,

(8 –11 September)

A.-L. Camerini, H. Bauer, A. Danilkow, S. Mayen, D. Weubel, R. Wendt & K. Karsay (eingeladener Panel-Vortrag) 

From Social Media Feeds to Real-World Beliefs: Intentional and Incidental Mental Illness Exposure and Adolescents' Prevalence Estimates

At the ECREA conference, an entire panel comprising five presentations addressed “Health on Social Media: Dynamics, User Practices, Representations and Effects”. Our presentation demonstrated that consuming content about mental illness on platforms like Instagram and TikTok is associated with inflated prevalence estimates among peers—particularly when young people actively seek out such content. Awareness of algorithms or verifying the accuracy of the content does not protect against this distorted perception. So, what does?

H. Bauer, S. Mayen, A.-L. Camerini, K. Karsay & R. Wendt 

Adolescents' self-diagnosis of mental illness in algorithmic social media environments: A cross-sectional study on predictors and protective factors

At ECREA, we were also able to present preliminary findings on how social media content related to mental illness is linked to self-diagnosis among adolescents. Based on T1 data from our three-wave school survey, the following pattern emerges: The more frequently adolescents view content related to mental illness, the more prevalent they perceive it to be—which, in turn, is associated with a stronger tendency toward self-diagnosis. We look forward to examining these relationships longitudinally in the next phase of our research.

Wendt, R., Dijkstra, R., Valverde Valencia, À., Bauer, H., Bozdag, C., Seddiği, G., & Nowak, F.

Digital Literacies As Prerequisites For Participation - Inequalities Shaping Adolescents’ Experiences in Algorithmic Spaces (Roundtable) 

Together with researchers from across Europe, we discussed how to empower adolescents in their use of digital media and, for example, algorithmically curated social media content. In doing so, we were able to contribute insights from our focus groups on how adolescents perceive and interpret algorithms and content related to mental health on social media. We also exchanged ideas on methodological approaches—which is particularly exciting for our upcoming development of an algorithm literacy scale for adolescents. 

It’s been an eventful summer—and we’re already looking forward to the next conferences!