A holiday treat from us to you - save the date for AusSTS 2026 in Aotearoa!

We have just updated our Social Media Research Toolkit, a curated collection of over 50 research tools compiled by researchers at the Social Media Lab. The kit only features tools that have been used in peer-reviewed academic research. socialmedialab.ca/apps/social-...

nobody: me: new scimago colourway just dropped

death, taxes, and ARC RMS timeout

bumping into google scholar 'labs' ai and elsevier's ai on the same morning... what a treat 🙄

The teen social media ban hasn't begun but already Australians have been exposed in a social media platform's ID breach. The privacy commissioner says it "goes to many of the concerns that Australians already hold about the looming age assurance scheme." www.crikey.com.au/20...

did they accidentally read the room when they called the feature "generative fill"?

i'm not afraid to say what you're all thinking... recaptcha getting too hard

📚 Double publication plug! I have some new works to share, conveniently related to the same project: AUTOWORK, led by Sarah Pink + co-authored w/ Hannah Korsmeyer. Although the research began some years ago, the focus of each still feels salient. Summaries and links in the next two replies ⤵️

i sure hope they do

weather modelling remodelling the weather; bill murray put on blast by a gramophone; tiktok demanding your baby has more tummy time; all of Shrek in one gif - and that's just the morning keynote session! #AusSTS25 #signalsandnoises 📶

Are you heading to @aussts.bsky.social #AusSTS25 #SignalsAndNoises in July in Melbourne? #STS If so I hand-curated a Bluesky list of people I could find from the conference program: bsky.app/profile/did:...

do you respect or fear the mount rushmore of australian forums?

In our new paper 'Qualified Hope' we counter concern for a 'COVID generation' of young people with upended work and study plans. Despite hardship, hope is a psychosocial resource for sense-making and reflects young people’s resourcefulness and adaptability. 👀📃⤵️

probably the least of our worries, but not keen for wearables under Kennedy, who doesn't say anything about privacy and who thinks telehealth is an "AI nurse" youtu.be/X_fqH8rGtlE

i guess they finally made a mario kart where you need to use the brake

The mods of r/ChangeMyView shared the sub was the subject of a study to test the persuasiveness of LLMs & that they didn't consent. There’s a lot that went wrong, so here’s a 🧵 unpacking it, along with some ideas for how to do research with online communities ethically. tinyurl.com/59tpt988

The discussions we look at here highlight the enduring role of localised communities and peers in crisis contexts like the pandemic. Very different lives and worlds since the original work and now... Great team effort on the original project as well as this analysis 👏

youtuber misuse of "with that being said" is my activation phrase

just thinking about USB-B

die on Skype or live long enough to see yourself become a Teams guy 🥲

I fit basic tech-bro algo markers. So on my less-used socials, I get recommended this genre of "ask somebody wealthy and powerful about mundane tasks and how we can all do them." By 35 seconds: throw paper on floor, cleaner deals with it, you keep doing ideas. Classic. youtu.be/tDmjz6HB-yw?...

JFC. 😱 Any time anyone tells you they are in favour of 'small government', this unfettered, unregulated gambling with people's lives is what they're actually promoting.

everyday I thank Teams for keeping me grounded 🙏

Almost 5 years ago - in a survey project with 3k+ responses - someone took the time to fill in the open-text feedback: "cheers gronks" I still think about it at least once a week 🤷‍♂️

I created a presentation recently that needed to look as much like it came from the 90s as possible. Thanks to @archive.org, I found this template pack (archive.org/details/powe...) and clipart (ia801809.us.archive.org/22/items/MS_...). And then LibreOffice brought it all together. I love it!

RIP to Skype, exclusively for the call ringer sound - an absolute heater list to the ages

day in the life of a fellow honker

that's enough linkedin for today

australian dudes try to do branding challenge

Worried about how Meta's new moderation policies will impact online sexual and reproductive health promotion? So am I! This piece is co-authored with my expert colleague & HDR student Joanna Williams: theconversation.com/metas-shift-...

The yearly contribution to my favourite genre of news has come early: www.euronews.com/2025/01/15/f... At least it's only the second worst *leak* you could have on a submarine 👀

They cant get my data if i am Fully Dissolved in a bath tub full of sodium hydroxide

Good to see @katemannell.bsky.social talking about the dynamics of social media and the importance of smaller scale messaging: Group chats beat Twitter archive.md/ypagp

oh hi we're doing t-shirts again, here's the pre-order info: open.substack.com/pub/mediaarc...

I was always more of a space boy than a dinosaur boy... So very cool to see the dish being used again in my hometown: www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12...

great shout

Hi, so I've spent the past almost-decade studying research uses of public social media data, like e.g. ML researchers using content from Twitter, Reddit, and Mastodon. Anyway, buckle up this is about to be a VERY long thread with lots of thoughts and links to papers. 🧵

I was asked to write a short explainer about Bluesky for The Conversation - I hope I haven't done anything to annoy the more committed community members (I was an ambivalent and pretty slack early adopter). theconversation.com/what-is-blue...

classic stuff

This time next week we will be welcoming an incredible line-up of researchers to Monash's Caulfield campus in Naarm/Melbourne and via Zoom, for our tenth (!!) Digital Intimacies conference! Draft program here: drive.google.com/file/d/1o3A5...

Hi folks 🌱 Submit your sociological short stories to me at The Sociological Review thesociologicalreview.org/publish-with... Submit flash fiction, poetry and visual art to So Fi Zine sofizine.com Get sociological fiction news awtsn.substack.com Find my novel brill.com/display/titl...

should i update the data for this? I imagine a lot of you badly need this info

‼️ I am looking for a ECR/postdoc working at the intersection of protest event and social network analysis. This is a 2-year position part of the Horizon EU ProTest project. The successful candidate will work with me (mostly) on the Italian case. Deadline: 11 December. bandi.unibo.it/ricerca/asse...

Postdoc opportunity at LSE jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

I am recruiting a post-doc to work with me at UVA on a project about youth (18-25) financial cultures, literacies, and well-being in the digital environment. Please share widely! Deadline is rolling. virginia.phenompro.com/us/en/job/R0...