The Wall Street Journal - 18.03.2020

B4| Wednesday, March 18, 2020 ** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

started about three years ago,

and Dr. Robinson and his col-

leagues say they hope to

amass enough data to be able

to then identify behavioral

patterns, followed by experi-

ments that could inform public

ple jump between apps and

websites on an average of ev-

ery 10 seconds.

So far, the Screenome proj-

ect has collected more than 30

million screenshots from more

than 600 people. The effort

TECHNOLOGY WSJ.com/Tech

and prescribe social-distanc-

ing measures to limit the

spread of the virus. An Ama-

zon spokesperson said the

company is seeing increased

online shopping, resulting in

some products being out of

stock.

“We are temporarily priori-

tizing household staples, med-

ical supplies and other high-

demand products coming into

our fulfillment centers so we

can more quickly receive, re-

stock, and ship these products

to customers,” the spokesper-

son said.

Some third-party sellers

said this would hurt their

business, as they would not be

able to rely on Amazon’s logis-

tics network to store new

batches of goods and ship to

customers for three weeks.

The measure could potentially

curtail their sales on the plat-

form and lead to shortages of

products for customers, some

said.

“This makes things nerve-

racking,” said Michael Mi-

chelini, a partner at Alpha

Rock Capital, which sells

around 10 brands on Amazon.

He said he didn’t know where

to store shipments of goods—

shoe and car accessories—that

will be ready to ship from

China later this week.

Amazon’s decision comes at

a tough time for a number of

sellers. Many struggled to re-

plenish their stocks on the

platform when Chinese facto-

ries shut down in response to

the outbreak. Some of those

factories have since reopened

as the number of infections in

the country has decreased.

Now, sellers say they will

struggle to take advantage and

send their new batches of

products to Amazon’s ware-

houses.

Independent merchants can

sell on Amazon without rely-

ing on the company’s fulfill-

ment centers, but that means

making arrangements to stock

their goods in other ware-

houses and independently ar-

ranging delivery for custom-

ers.

Amazon said that products

that are already on their way

to its warehouses will be ac-

cepted.

On Monday, the company

announced it plans to hire an

additional 100,000 employees

in the U.S. to meet “the surge

in demand from people relying

on Amazon’s service during

this stressful time.”

—Dana Mattioli

contributed to this article.

Amazon.comInc. said it is

taking steps to prioritize ship-

ments of medical supplies,

household staples and other

high-demand products in the

wake of surging demand due

to the coronavirus pandemic.

Independent sellers on Am-

azon’s site will be unable to

ship products other than such

high-demand items to com-

pany warehouses until April 5.

Amazon is taking similar steps

with vendors who supply

items for it to resell directly.

The changes will allow Ama-

zon to “more quickly receive,

restock and ship these prod-

ucts to customers,” according

to a notice the company

posted for sellers Tuesday.

Some key products such as

household staples and medical

supplies are out of stock on its

site as orders have surged, the

notice said. The company

didn’t specify which goods

would be prioritized or how

long it would take for the de-

cision to affect consumer or-

ders on items such as clothing

or toys.

People around the world

are turning to online plat-

forms as governments impose

new restrictions on movement

BYJONEMONT

Amazon to Focus on Medical

Supplies, Household Staples

An Amazon warehouse in New Jersey. The company aims to quickly restock and ship key products.

LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS

Smartphones have radically
changed the way teens con-
sume information. What hasn’t
kept pace, researchers say, is
the way we study how they
consume it.
More than a decade after
the inaugural iPhone, we still
don’t know much about how
screen use affects adolescent
well-being, despite studies
that have attributed to social
media many woes affecting
teens today, including depres-
sion and anxiety.
Stanford University re-
searchers are looking to
change that with the Human
Screenome Project, an effort
to create a detailed digital
map showing what people ac-
tually do with their devices.
The researchers are tracking
“everything that people see
and do on their screens,” said
Thomas Robinson, professor of
pediatrics at Stanford School
of Medicine and one of the re-
searchers leading the project,
who is focused on the adoles-
cents portion of it.
Dr. Robinson and his col-
leagues say that our media
consumption isn’t clean cut.
We are multitasking, jumping
between apps, websites and
videos with incredible speed.
Therefore, context is key to
how we interpret media and
how it affects our moods.
To get a window into what
teens are seeing and doing,
and in what order, the Stan-
ford researchers are installing
software on participants’
phones and taking screenshots
of their usage every five sec-
onds. This kind of granular de-
tail has been rare in past stud-
ies on screen time, which
relied on self-reporting or
broad categories.
One of the early findings
from the Screenome Project
shows how fragmented media
consumption has become: Peo-

BYYOREEKOH

Self-Reporting on

Screen Time Leads

To Flawed Results

A recent spate of academic

research seems to bolster the

case that existing methods for

studying teens’ phone use need

to evolve.

One study, presented at a

conference last year, reviewed

226 studies from the past 12

years that examined how so-

cial-media exposure affects

psychological well-being, includ-

ing anxiety, depression and

loneliness.

It found almost no system-

atic relationship between the

two.

Jeff Hancock, founder of the

Stanford University Social Me-

dia Lab and leader of the study,

said more than 77% of the 226

studies relied on self-reported

answers to questions about

how people spent time on so-

cial media.

Candice Odgers, a professor

of psychology at the University

of California, Irvine, analyzed 40

studies that examined the ties

between social-media use and

depression and anxiety in ado-

lescents.

The main takeaway from

her review, she said, was that

the association between the

two was inconsistent and that

the links are “much smaller

than the other stuff that we

know relates to depression and

anxiety.”

“The phone really is this

mirror,” Ms. Odgers said. “It’s

picking up on the positives and

negatives that are present in

offline life.”

Self-reporting can lead to

low-quality data because peo-

ple’s memories tend to be poor,

says Thomas Robinson, profes-

sor of pediatrics at Stanford

School of Medicine.

In a pilot project last sum-

mer, Dr. Robinson asked college

students to self-report their

phone use for a day, then com-

pared those answers to their

actual use based on Apple’s

Screen Time App records.

The self-reported answers

were off by an average of 2.2

hours.

policy as well as health and

social outcomes.

For instance, if media-con-

sumption patterns associated

with alcohol or tobacco use

are established, researchers

could run experiments where

FacebookInc. will give all

of its full-time employees an

additional $1,000 in their next

paychecks and the same “ex-

ceeds expectations” perfor-

mance review for the first half

of the year.

By giving all of its roughly

45,000 full-time staffers the

same review, Facebook is en-

suring that all of those em-

ployees receive their biannual

bonuses. A Facebook spokes-

woman confirmed the moves,

which were announced in an

internal memo.

The employee moves are

among several announced by

the social-media giant in re-

sponse to the coronavirus pan-

demic.

Most employees of Face-

book and other tech compa-

nies have already started

working from home. Facebook

is also sending its contractors,

including content moderators,

home with pay, according to a

news release Monday night.

Facebook also said it is

planning to provide $100 mil-

lion in cash and advertising

credits to small businesses to

help them deal with difficult

financial conditions.

Facebook, which has more

than two billion users world-

wide, said it would provide

support for up to 30,000 eligi-

ble firms in more than 30

countries where it operates.

The funding is meant to

help recipients to retain their

workforces, assist with operat-

ing costs and connect with

customers, it said, noting that

details on what it takes to

qualify will come at a later

date.

The majority of it will be

doled out as grants, and appli-

cants don’t need to be Face-

book advertisers or have a

presence on the platform, ac-

cording to a Facebook spokes-

woman.

BYDEEPASEETHARAMAN

Facebook

Employees

Get Boost

Of $1,000

they limit exposure to such

content on their smartphones

to see how that affects their

offline behavior, Dr. Robinson

said.

The project has received

funding from Stanford and

Penn State internal grants. The

researchers are also seeking

additional funding from foun-

dations, the National Institute

of Health and have grant pro-

posals pending.

The project comes at a time

when children will likely be

spending more time on

screens as school closures due

to the new coronavirus out-

break force many to online

learning, and may seek more

socialization online amid a

prolonged quarantine.

“Even if I know someone is

spending four hours on a

screen that doesn’t tell me

much. They could be watching

pornography, learning a new

skill, or doing a whole bunch

of other things.”

Some academics have

raised privacy concerns about

the Human Screenome Project,

saying it would be hard to de-

vise a privacy policy that cov-

ers all the people who show up

in photos and text messages in

the participants’ phones. Dr.

Robinson said the project’s

privacy policy has undergone

rigorous reviews by multiple

ethics committees and has in

some cases required consent

forms from parents and teens.

He said it is akin to giving re-

searchers permission to peer

over participants’ shoulders to

look at their screens.

One reason why researchers

continue to use self-report

methods is convenience. It’s

easier to ask research partici-

pants to fill out a question-

naire instead of vigorously ob-

serving them for the length of

the research period.

“For all of its flaws, it gives

us a unique window into peo-

ple’s emotions, thoughts and

motivations,” said Chris Barry,

a professor of psychology at

Washington State University,

because it can ask participants

why they might have chosen

to use social media, for exam-

ple.

Teens’ Smartphone Use Is Mapped

Effort is under way to

track media

consumption as well

as behavioral patterns

The Screenome project has collected more than 30 million screenshots from more than 600 people.

ELIZABETH SHAFIROFF FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

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