For press-related and similar enquiries, please contact me at y [dot] gerrard [at] sheffield [dot] ac [dot] uk. You can also DM me on Twitter @ysabelgerrard.
My research and/or interview quotes are featured in the following stories:
2022
- The Atlantic: Everyone wants to be a hot, anxious girl on Twitter.
- The Guardian: ‘I used to be ashamed of being a fangirl. Now I see how joyous and creative it was’
- Financial Times: Social media content ‘likely’ to have contributed to Molly Russell’s death
- The Face: Why do we keep going back to anonymous messaging apps?
- BBC News: Instagram: video selfies trial to verify age of teens
- Insider: Instagram is rolling out new features to protect teens, but experts say measures can only do so much
- The New York Times: Sidechat wants to be college students’ main chat
- Rest of World: Inside the risky world of ‘Migrant TikTok’
- The Independent: ‘Being fed that content messed with my head’: how TikTok is fuelling eating disorders among the young
- The Times: TikTok helps children find videos on self-harming and anorexia
- Teen Vogue: Memes and war: why people turn to jokes during times of crisis
- Dazed: TikTok is going to ban all disordered eating content
- Mashable: In January, avoiding body talk can feel impossible. Here’s how to cope
- Insider: TikTok helped dozen of NYC women realize they had dated the same man. The “West Elm Caleb”
- Dazed: Healthy venting or oversharing? The problems with being sad online
2021
- Radio 4: interviewed for a discussion on ‘You and Yours’ about the UK Parliament’s Influencer Inquiry
- MindShift: How parents and educators can support healthy teen use of social media
- Letter to the Editor in Wall Street Journal: Readers respond to the ‘Facebook Files’ series
- LOGIC Magazine: Being sad on the internet: Ysabel Gerrard on what young people do online
- New Statesman: Who is behind the online abuse of Black England players and how can we stop it?
- Vice: What can I be hopeful about in the 2020s?
- The Verge: When does sharing become oversharing?
- i-D: How TikTok’s recovery community is rejecting triggering pro-ana content
- Huck: TikTokkers are using secret hashtags to discuss self-harm
2020
- The Times: Ring lights: how the pros look good on Zoom
- Dazed : Pro-eating disorder content is still rife on TikTok
- Jezebel: TikTok is limply fighting a losing battle against pro-eating disorder content
- The Guardian: TikTok investigating videos promoting starvation and anorexia
- Vox: Is social media ready for a Covid-19 vaccine?
- Wall Street Journal: WhatsApp wants to host your intimate chats. Don’t fret – they’ll be deleted in a week
- Mashable: Telegram’s massive revenge porn problem made these women’s lives hell
- Cosmopolitan: How disordered eating content is slipping through the net on TikTok
- The Times: Filtered, slimmed, liked: ‘I was addicted to looking at perfect bodies online’
- VICE: How ‘deeply unsettling’ intermittent fasting apps took over social media
- WIRED: As humans go home, Facebook and YouTube face a coronavirus crisis
- Bustle: Pro-ana content on TikTok is hidden in plain sight
- Rhitrition’s Food For Thought podcast: Does Instagram trigger dieting?
- i-D: Instagram isn’t doing enough to tackle pro-eating disorder content
- Vice: I tried a male selfie editing app to see if it actually made me more desirable
2019
- Tortoise: Jameela Jamil v cancel culture
- Esquire: Why Instagram hiding likes will make your feed less awful
- i-D: In defence of oversharing on social media
- BBC News: Afternoon live (segment on Instagram’s updated self-harm policy)
- NBC News: Anti-vaccination groups still crowdfunding on Facebook despite crackdown
- The Telegraph: Justin Bieber and how Instagram became the millennial confession booth
- WIRED: How Yahoo!’s prudish policies pushed Tumblr into obscurity
- The Telegraph: Never tweet your heroes: Ariana Grande and the hidden dangers of fan/celebrity interactions
- Healthline: Does my skin offend you? Thoughts on Instagram’s #psoriasis hashtag ban
- BBC Radio Sheffield: local and national news, discussing the UK’s Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport’s (DMCS) Online Harms White Paper (from 16:50)
- BBC News: Instagram eating disorder content ‘out of control’
- The Guardian: From self-harm to terrorism, online recommendations cast a deadly shadow
2018
- BBC World Service: The Weekend radio programme, discussing Tumblr’s adult content ban
- BBC Radio 4: Woman’s hour, discussing Tumblr’s adult content ban (from 27:09)
- BBC World Service / BBC Trending: Do Instagram hashtags promote eating disorders?
- The Guardian: Tumblr’s adult content ban dismays some users: ‘It was a safe space’
- Venture Beat: Surveillance marketing: too much personalization can hurt your brand
- 2SER Radio podcast: Think Digital Futures: anorexia and algorithms
- The Telegraph: Instagram promoting accounts which ‘incite’ self-harm, Telegraph investigation reveals
- WIRED: How pro-eating disorder posts evade filters on social media
Dr. Ysabel Gerrard 