“AI literacy”

The irony of this article being accompanied by Elsevier's "reading assistant."

Qué tristeza escuchar que se murió Rossana Reguillo. Una de las pensadoras latinoamericanas que más informaron mi forma de pensar las violencias y sus mediaciones.

#PlatformExtractivism is available for 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 (out Oct 20)! Thrilled to share what @geoplace.bsky.social has to say about the book: "A grounded and uncompromising account of the infrastructures and workers that sustain AI." 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤: www.ucpress.edu/books/platfo... #BookRecommendation #Books

Thrilled to share that our special issue on NMS (co-edited with @tomdivon.bsky.social & Martin Lundqvist) is officially out! 🎉🎉🎉 10 empirical pieces + an introductory article exploring the contextual nature of violence on digital platforms. journals.sagepub.com/toc/nmsa/28/4

When was the last time you opened the news or your social media and DIDN'T feel fear and anger? I cannot remember, really. But seeing the news today... *sigh*

Such an important study. "White men reported feeling the least close to their best friends in comparison to all other ethnoracial-gender groups, and white men who were higher class and/or whose best friend was another man reported even lower levels of closeness."

A fantastic read on Grammarly's so-called expert review: "Most of my published work appears already to be inside these models, shaping their outputs in ways I never agreed to and will never fully understand. Grammarly just had the bad manners to put my name on it."

"Now what? We can immerse ourselves in endless streams of horrendous videos or try to increase our resistance in order to being better equipped to withstand, recover, and continue functioning somewhat clearly despite the cognitive assaults."

War is now a content format. We scroll past bombings between selfies and sponsored posts. The platforms framing it for us are not neutral: they shape whose suffering registers and whose deaths we're taught to ignore. New (first?) blog post! esteban-morales.com/blog/the-spe...

I am teaching a digital culture research seminar this term and I shared @jessmaddox.bsky.social newsletter with the students—they absolutely loved it. Students are now asking me if I know of any other similar newsletters. Any recommendations? I am trying to compile a public list.

Some personal news, as they say. Get your submissions ready for when our portal opens February 12. As the founding editor-in-chief of the new Springer Nature academic journal Creator and Influencer Studies, I’m thrilled to welcome them. link.springer.com/journal/44538

The hallucination loop we live in. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Spending some time in Colombia makes me weak. It's 18°C and I AM COLD.

waking up in 2026

Ah shit.

Peer review requests are a tad out of control this month, huh?

Of course it f&&king is. Please don't use GenAI for news. Please don't use Grok for anything. Grok is spreading misinformation about the Bondi Beach shooting www.theverge.com/news/844443/...

Somehow I managed to schedule six meetings and one class today.

I am sick, you are sick, we are all sick

This kind of statements—when read within the historical framework of coloniality—are so horribly cynical.

I am going to start counting the number of academic papers, books, or theses that begin with a quote from Calle 13's "Latinoamerica." So far, it's FOUR—that I know of. (It is such a great song tho, I get it) www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkFJ...

[It has been a while, BUT] New annotated resource on #SocialMediaViolence: The intimacy triple bind: Structural inequalities and relational labour in the influencer industry, by @zoeglatt.bsky.social Read my notes here: esteban-morales.com/lit-review-v...

As an institution you don't have to just be sad about stuff. You can also refuse to comply, go to court, fight, or shut yourself down.

New resource: Culture & Communication in Digital Worlds: A 2025 Review In 2004, Macfadyen et al. published a major review of research on culture and communication in online environments. Twenty years later, we revisit the field to ask what has changed. More info: digitalcultures.ca

Have done so much writing these past two weeks. Brain, completely fried.

Next week (Tuesday, Dec 2, at 17:45h CET), on #PlatGovNet2025, I will present (with João Magalhães) our paper: "Bottom-up moderation as ideological protest: Making sense of Redditors' ban of X links after Musk’s 'Nazi salute'"

I am looking for a Senior Researcher (at least 2 years postdoctoral exp.) for the LivePlatforms project into how people make livelihoods in the platform economy; a 5-year FT post based in the School of Info and Communication Studies at UCD. Do share widely! universityvacancies.com/university-c...

I truly do not understand people who show up to a 30-minute presentation with a 140-page slide deck.

👀👀👀

what's the relationship between algorithmic ableism and platform polarization? In a virtual talk I'm giving later this month at Loyola U Chicago, I trace the sticky relationship between ableism and political polarization in the platform age. thanks to @drgyopophd.bsky.social for the invite!

Do we know when the #AoIR2026 CfP will be published?

A great summary of our latest paper on @socialmedialab.ca. You can read the full paper (open access) here: doi.org/10.1177/1461...

Honestly, the German train system never fails (to fail).

An interesting article on the decay of sociality on digital platforms: "Many of these apps are no longer really social apps in any meaningful sense of the word; they’re screen time maximizing apps, using whatever means necessary to eke out extra seconds and minutes."

Just three weeks until #AoIR2025 Ruptures kicks off in Niterói, Brazil, and we can't wait to see you all!

I never know what to say on these platforms anymore—besides the occasional work-related self-promotion. From now on, I will simply scream into the void whatever great stuff I am watching/reading/listening to. MURDERBOOOOOOOT 🤖

AI may take a lot from me—but they will not take my em dashes.

Have you ever heard of predatory journals? Our new study—published this week in Journalism Practice—suggests many science journalists haven't. When they were familiar with predatory journals, most said they weren't worried, confident they'd "be able to spot one if they saw one." Details in 🧵👇

📝 New publication! 📝 "Stop Being so Fkn Soft": Masculinity, Politics, and the Acceptance of Gender-Based Online Violence Myths Among Young Canadian Men Coauthored with Jaigris Hodson, Yimin Chen, Kaitlynn Mendes, George Veletsianos, and Chandell Gosse. Read the paper here: doi.org/10.1177/2056...

New annotated resource on #SocialMediaViolence: Fast and furious: Temporal patterns of incivility in online comments, by Clarke & Thompson. Read my notes here: esteban-morales.com/lit-review-v...

The call for papers for #SMSociety 2026 is live! I look forward to seeing you in Glasgow. Let me know if you have any questions or comments. In the meantime, all the details are here: socialmediaandsociety.org/2025/call-fo...

Back to work after holiday break.

🚨 PhD Opportunity Alert! Help depolarize climate discourse with Argumentative Language Models 🌍💬 Join the project DeCODA-LM at the University of Groningen! 🧵 Details in the thread 👇 🔗 Apply: www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor...

New annotated resource on #SocialMediaViolence: Unmasking digital threats in the pursuit of human rights and environmental defense in La Guajira, North Colombia, by Laura Guntrum and Verena Lasso Mena. Read my notes here: esteban-morales.com/lit-review-v...

Save the date: The unmissable #SMSociety conference is happening July 13–15, 2026, in Glasgow (!!). socialmediaandsociety.org/2025/cmon-ta... I'm thrilled to be part of the organizing committee (alongside a fantastic group), so feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

How does the professionalization of Trust & Safety shape global content moderation practices? We compare Community Guidelines using the typology of harms from TSPA to identify policy priorities and exclusions, available #openaccess in New Media & Society: doi.org/10.1177/1461...

McDonald's CEO recently told CNBC that if he were a student today, the top skill he'd develop is eating burgers.