With the environmental and societal changes, the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the realization of sustainability in general is now more important than ever. Through a bibliometric analysis and scientific mapping analysis, this study aims to explore and provide a review regarding the role of artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) in realizing sustainable development and achieving SDGs. AIoT can be defined as the combination of AI with IoT to create more efficient and data-driven interconnected, intelligent, and autonomous IoT systems and infrastructure that use AI methods and algorithms. The analysis involved 9182 documents from Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) from 1989 to 2022. Descriptive statistics of the related documents and the annual scientific production were explored. The most relevant and impactful authors, articles, outlets, affiliations, countries, and keywords were identified. The most popular topics and research directions throughout the years and the advancement of the field and the research focus were also examined. The study examines the results, discusses the main findings, presents open issues, and suggests new research directions. Based on the results of this study, AIoT emerged as an important contributor in ensuring sustainability and in achieving SDGs.

Social media have become an integral part of everyday life and are used in numerous domains. Hence, it is essential to comprehend how and why users use and engage themselves in social media. Personality traits are patterns of thinking, feeling or behaving that could potentially affect an individual’s social media use. This paper aims at enhancing the understanding of the role that personality traits play in the psychological dynamics underlying social media use and engagement. Therefore, this paper conducts an extensive literature review regarding personality, trait theory and personality traits taxonomies and puts emphasis on Big Five Personality Traits – Five Factor Model (FFM). Furthermore, it presents a literature review of recent studies regarding the impact of personality traits on social media use and compares their results. Based on the findings, there is a close interconnection between social media use and engagement and personality traits with some traits affecting it more drastically. Openness and extraversion emerged as the two most significant positive predictors of social media use while conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism were also considered important but at a lesser degree. Consequently, it was concluded that personality traits have an immense impact on social media use and engagement.

Students, as digital natives, are fascinated by social media as they use it in their everyday lives. However, not only opportunities but also challenges for education have arisen with the new bottom-up approach of using social media for educational purposes. In order to investigate different aspects of social media adoption and use in higher educational learning environments, a longitudinal study starting in 2010 was conducted. This paper summarizes and analyzes our findings based on several studies with quantitative and qualitative data collected and presented in 16 different articles throughout the last decade. Based on our results, we reached the conclusion that when there is proper infrastructure, appropriate strategies are applied, security and privacy are of high priority and teachers become accustomed to using modern technologies, social media can be used as an effective educational tool which improves the overall educational process and learning outcomes. Specifically, by using social media in a creative and student-centered manner in educational settings, students’ engagement, motivation, interactivity, soft skills, communication and collaboration are promoted and improved. Finally, social media can be used as a means to help create virtual communities in which students will be able to exchange ideas, opinions and knowledge in both academic and extracurricular environments, mature and flourish. The aim of this ongoing longitudinal study is to enhance teachers’ comprehension of social media and its use as an educational tool to create interactive learning environments for students of various disciplines in geographically and culturally distributed environments.

The European Union (EU) is striving to achieve its goal of being climate-neutral by 2050. Aligned with the European Green Deal and in search of means to decarbonize its urban environments, the EU advocates for smart positive energy districts (PEDs). PEDs contribute to the United Nations’ (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs) of “Sustainable Cities and Communities”, “Affordable and Clean Energy”, and “Climate Action”. PEDs are urban neighborhoods that generate renewable energy to a higher extent than they consume, mainly through the utilization of innovative technologies and renewable energy sources. In accordance with the EU 2050 aim, the PED concept is attracting growing research interest. PEDs can transform existing energy systems and aid in achieving carbon neutrality and sustainable urban development. PED is a novel concept and its implementation is challenging. This study aims to present the emerging technologies enabling the proliferation of PEDs by identifying the main challenges and potential solutions to effective adoption and implementation of PEDs. This paper examines the importance and utilization of cyber-physical systems (CPSs), digital twins (DTs), artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing, and blockchain technologies, which are all fundamental to the creation of PEDs for enhancing energy efficiency, sustainable energy, and user engagement. These systems combine physical infrastructure with digital technologies to create intelligent and autonomous systems to optimize energy production, distribution, and consumption, thus positively contributing to achieving smart and sustainable development.

Background/Objectives: The way people communicate has significantly changed due to technological advances and penetration of cell phones and broadband connection into everyday activities. Nowadays, individuals are constantly connected through the Internet. This influences social experiences, self and social identity, and can cause digital stress, which often leads to negative emotions, psychosomatic outcomes, and diseases. It is a matter of concern for the adolescents and their families. This paper investigates how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and social media influence adolescents’ and parents’ digital stress and anxiety. Methods: Based on two digital stressors scales, a 30-item questionnaire was created. A quantitative analysis of data deriving from 164 Finnish adolescents and 53 of their parents regarding digital stress was conducted. Results: “Privacy Intrusion”, “Availability stress/Online vigilance”, and “Usefulness” were the most essential stressor factors for both students and parents. Additionally, the most significant stressor factors for students were the “Fear of Missing Out/FoMO” and “Approval Anxiety” factors while for parents were the “Safety/Security” and “Technical Support” factors. No significant differences were observed between the overall digital stress of adolescents and parents. In contrast to the existing literature, no connection between “Connection (Information) Overload” and digital stress was found. Conclusions: This paper contributes to debates regarding the effects of the use of digital resources, ICTs, and social media on processes at school, at work, and at home. The findings of our study confirm and further validate those of previous studies with the exception of “Connection (Information) Overload”, which needs to be further investigated to understand the reasons behind it.