$10 million gift from Jim Winston and family aims to protect vulnerable young minds in a digital world

As social media and digital devices become ever-present in our daily lives, concerns about their long-term effects on young people are growing. For Jim Winston PhD — a clinical psychologist, UNC alumnus, and father — the question isn’t just academic. It’s deeply personal.

Driven by his experiences both as a parent and as a professional in the field of addiction and mental health, Winston saw an urgent need for research into how constant screen time and social media use affect adolescent brain development. Earlier the Winston Family Foundation made a transformative $10 million gift to launch the Winston Center for Technology and the Developing Mind at UNC-Chapel Hill — a bold step toward finding answers and solutions.

“The significant rise in reports of mental health issues, shorter attention spans, lack of empathy and critical thinking all indicate that parents, educators and caregivers urgently need more information about how to support children and teens as they engage with highly stimulating devices and social platforms,” Winston said when the center opened.

Jim Winston earned both his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Carolina, and has spent his career addressing behavioral health and addiction. But it was the rapid shift in technology — and how it reshaped childhood and adolescence — that sparked his family’s philanthropic focus.

Winston recognized that while tech offers opportunities, it also introduces new risks for cognitive development, attention, and emotional well-being. And yet, despite growing concern, very few comprehensive studies had been conducted to fully understand these effects — especially during the teenage years, when the brain is still rapidly developing.

With the Winston family’s gift, UNC was able to launch one of the nation’s first research centers dedicated exclusively to exploring how digital media and technology shape young minds.

The Winston Center for Technology and the Developing Mind is now a nationally recognized hub for interdisciplinary research.

Bringing together leading experts in neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, education, and public health, the center focuses on one goal: understanding how technology use impacts adolescent development — and how to help youth thrive in a digital world.

Under the leadership of academic co-directors Mitch Prinstein, Chief Science Officer of the American Psychological Association, and Eva Telzer, a global expert on youth brain development, the center is asking big questions:

What aspects of social media are helpful or harmful?

How does screen time affect mental health and cognitive growth?

What can families, educators, and policymakers do to support healthy development in a tech-saturated world?

Thanks to the Winston family’s investment, those questions are finally getting the attention — and the science — they deserve.

One of the most powerful aspects of the Winston Center is its independence. The center upholds scientific integrity by not accepting funds from tech companies, relying instead on private donations such as those from the Winston family.

That independence allows researchers to pursue objective, transparent studies that inform families and policymakers without outside influence.

It also ensures that findings are translated into action. The center’s Handbook on Adolescent Digital Media Use and Mental Health is freely available online and has been used to shape national legislation, including the Kids Online Safety Act. The team has presented findings to the U.S. Senate, spoken at the World Economic Forum, and now serves as the research core for the U.S. Phone-Free Schools movement.

What began as a deeply personal concern has become a powerful catalyst for change. Jim Winston’s vision — and his family’s generosity — have positioned UNC-Chapel Hill as a national leader in adolescent digital health.

Recently, the center attained designation as an official pan-campus unit under the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. This elevation has fortified its infrastructure and broadened its influence across various disciplines and communities.

“We are thrilled to welcome the Winston Center to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research,” said Penny Gordon-Larsen, vice chancellor. “This partnership reflects our commitment to pan-campus collaboration, and we look forward to working with Winston researchers to transform their findings into meaningful action that benefits families, educators and policymakers regionally and nationally.”

Technology is here to stay. But with the right research, education, and tools, families and communities can help young people navigate the digital world safely and successfully.

Thanks to Jim Winston and the Winston Family Foundation, that future is now within reach.

“Our goal is to understand how people can get the most benefit from these new tools and avoid whatever risks there may be to academic, psychological, biological and social development,” said Prinstein.

And it all began with one family’s decision to take action — turning concern into commitment, and commitment into change.

Photo: Jim Winston with his children Aiden and Hunter in the mountains of western North Carolina. (courtesy of Jim Winston)