Adriana Manago, PhD

Adriana Manago is Professor of Psychology and director of the Culture and Technology (CaT) Lab at UC Santa Cruz. Her research examines how evolving cultural beliefs and values shape what digital technologies become in young people’s lives. She has studied adolescents and emerging adults in the U.S. and in a Maya community in Mexico for over a decade, using innovative methods such as youth-led social media tours and natural experiments. Recent research in the CaT Lab explores digital-age Maya parenting of adolescents and how Western ideals of authenticity are cultural tools for LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent identity development through social media.