Who We Are 
Hi! Our names are Isabel and Destinee and we are from Neenah, Wisconsin. We have been working alongside Nonprofit PhysioQ since October 2020. We were first introduced to this organization through a STEM competition called “Data for a Difference.” After seeing our study results using their LabFront platform, we decided that we wanted to further our knowledge on the topic we were exploring, and launch a nationwide study. 

The Problem
When asked to research a specific project in our community, the first subject that came to mind was social media usage among our peers and even ourselves. Particularly in a time of increased social isolation due to the pandemic, we noticed a growing dependency on our phones to stay connected. Our research question was: “How does the time spent on social media impact teens’ stress levels and overall well being?” With this, we hypothesized that having a way to control our usage would help improve our overall well being.
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Our Process 
With LabFront, we acted as both participants and research managers in our first trial of the study. We decided on our methods together as a team and then filmed our experience as participants. You can watch our vlog entitled “The Social Media Experiment” here.
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Study Results 
After our detox concluded, we compiled our data into a multimedia slideshow and presented it to a panel of six professional judges for the competition. Tracking our biomarkers using smartwatch technology, we compared our regular stress and sleep levels to those metrics during a week-long social media detox. Our results were quite alarming. We realized that a decrease of social media had a significant impact on our well-being and led to lower stress levels, better sleep quality, and decreased heart rate. 
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Next Steps 
These shocking results inspired us to take our research to a new level. In order to thoroughly prove our hypothesis, we will need a larger sample size of adolescent girls from across the nation. Therefore, we are now working in preparation to launch a nationwide research study in which fifty teenage girls will be replicating our pilot experiment. We are currently in the process of applying for IRB (institutional review board) approval, and we are launching a Gofundme to help cover the cost of our research and the wearable devices needed. We believe that this study will serve as a wake up call for teenagers and adults across the nation and add youth voice to a very important conversation affecting our demographic. Additionally, our study will introduce a new technique by using objective data markers to measure teens levels with social media which the research field is currently lacking.
Going through this process has been life-changing as we never would have gotten this experience in our high school curriculum. It has opened our eyes to the world of health research and data science, and we are so excited to see what will come from this in the future!
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