Interesting preprint: "Popularity Feedback Constrains Innovation in Cultural Markets" arxiv.org/pdf/2602.09997

Technology as co-adaptation - check replies and quotes...

"The current paper argues for a more explicitly interactive, co-adaptive account for trends in communications technology and politics." 👏 academic.oup.com/joc/advance-...

I link della settimana (#128) open.substack.com/pub/albertoa...

English translation forthcoming!

Thank you to @nicolebizzotto.bsky.social for this great review (in English!) of Tecnopanico www.hope.uzh.ch/scoms/articl...

Only for Italians.

Counterintuitive finding on TikTok algorithm: "Despite the strong amplification of interest-aligned content, exploration remains substantial [...] roughly one-third of the content remains unaligned." link.springer.com/article/10.1...

An interview with RAI Trentino - “Young people and social media, Acerbi: ‘A ban is not the best approach.’” www.rainews.it/tgr/trento/v...

🔴 Gallicagram v2, nous voici ! 🔴 Nouvelle interface en react vachement plus stable et rapide, nouveaux corpus (Mediapart, Libé, le Parisien, Le Figaro…), recherche contextuelle, comparaisons inter-corpus, filtre rubrique, bilingue, infinite scrolling... on vous explique tout ! 📌 www.gallicagram.com

Venerdì prossimo sarò a Modena, se siete da quelle parti potete registrarvi qui. www.learningmorefestival.it/i/69660c385c...

I link della settimana (#127) open.substack.com/pub/albertoa...

Against a deterministic view of digital technology usage: "Overall platform use has declined, with the youngest and oldest Americans increasingly abstaining from social media altogether" (in US) arxiv.org/html/2510.25...

Now out in Evolutionary Psychological Science. OA link: rdcu.be/e2g4X

🚨New WP "@Grok is this true?" We analyze 1.6M factcheck requests on X (grok & Perplexity) 📌Usage is polarized, Grok users more likely to be Reps 📌BUT Rep posts rated as false more often—even by Grok 📌Bot agreement with factchecks is OK but not great; APIs match fact-checkers osf.io/preprints/ps...

Maybe cultural evolution/evolutionary social science is not the safest background, but it feels like a lot of computational social science/"big data" psychology is asking theory-free questions that will not really advance knowledge on the long run.

I link della settimana (#126) open.substack.com/pub/albertoa...

A vast array of data suggests that school, not social media, is the biggest modern threat to the mental health of children. If you were recently a child, that won’t be a surprise. If not: enjoy the post :) open.substack.com/pub/unpublis...

In the mess of comments about AI (often selling our good old technopanic), there could be an occasion to reflect on cognition from an evolutionary and ecological perspective. There is no one AGI, but there are many different intelligences. Is a chimp intelligent?...

Oggi su "Il T"

I seem to remember a quote on not-rejecting scientific principles in human/social sciences because science is imperfect - the idea was that just because an operating room cannot be perfectly sterile we do not operate with a saw...Am I imagining it?

Great chat with Ricardo, assessing the research on the consequences of digital/social media, what are the historical and psychological roots of alarmist narratives, and why they can be dangerous

Algorithms and social media are bad - unless kids like what we liked, which is "innately countercultural and offers a liberating, non-prescriptive form of fandom and discovery" www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...

It seems like a good moment to re-share knightcolumbia.org/content/dont...

Very interesting: when X made "likes" privates, the number of likes to high-reputational-risk content (e.g., extremists, onlyFans, but also politicians...) *didn't* increase. arxiv.org/abs/2601.11140

I link della settimana (#125) open.substack.com/pub/albertoa...

@acerbialberto.com I’ve had the privilege of reading the first translated version of Alberto Acerbi’s Technopanic. Truly a fascinating and timely book! mulino.it/isbn/978881539…

Eurostat data against the narrative...

The tradition of hiking with academic guests in Trento continues. Thank you for your visit @martinpalecek.bsky.social!

A social media ban is a decision that we should evaluate carefully (and at the moment there is not, as a minimum, a strong empirical support). Using the murder of a teenager with mental health problems to defend it is inappropriate and ethically wrong. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Ci vediamo il 20 febbraio a Modena al www.learningmorefestival.it!

The kids are alright statsandsociety.substack.com/p/how-bad-is...

Apply! Or get in touch for any information!

I link della settimana (#124) open.substack.com/pub/albertoa...

Deadline in two weeks! Join us in Torino, 19-21 May 2026, for cs2italy.org

Surprising for the guardian! www.theguardian.com/media/2026/j...

Looking forward to @martinpalecek.bsky.social seminar next week in Trento: "Why Skepticism Can Backfire: Modeling Misinformation as a Gatekeeper–Trust Spiral"

I link della settimana (#123) open.substack.com/pub/albertoa...

@overleaf.com + @zotero.org = 👌 docs.overleaf.com/integrations...

Come and visit in Trento! :)

Last week to submit to CS2Italy, the Italian Conference on Computational Social Science. See you in Torino 19-21 May 2026! cs2italy.org

As a former (adopted) Bristolian I wondered a few times why many hotels around the world are called "Bristol". It is not from the town, but from bon-vivant Frederick Hervey, earl of Bristol. thefirsthotelbristol.blogspot.com

Tecnopanico 2025: qui un po' di video, recensioni, estratti, ecc. E spero di festeggiare l'inizio del 2026 con la notizia di una traduzione in inglese, stay tuned! :) acerbialberto.com/publication/...

Il video della mia presentazione di "Tecnopanico", grazie a STSTN - Scienza Tecnologia e Società per l'invito. www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2jy...

I link della settimana (#122) open.substack.com/pub/albertoa...

Author of “How the phone ban saved high school" clarifies that the article is not meant to imply that the phone ban has saved high school. There is no way this could cause confusion in this heated space. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

New preprint: "The Cultural Ecology of Social Media" osf.io/preprints/so... Thread ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Thank you Ricardo!

Work (also) with me! Two years postdoc in the @weaponisedpasts.bsky.social project, based in Edinburgh. Will do transmission chain experiments to understand the spread of heritage-based hostility, online and elsewhere. More info ⬇️⬇️⬇️

"Tecnopanico" is the perfect Christmas present! 😀🎄