Wondering why dating apps suck and what dystopian future lies ahead for romance with AI in the mix? Check out our latest podcast ep where we mix sociological analyses (me) with real world experience with online dating (my friends). If you enjoy it please follow us! open.spotify.com/episode/3usb...

Book tour dates! DM for interest! 😁

I know there is like nobody on this app but ftr being a Nepali in the US feels like mild schizophrenia. Separate group chats blowing up over Nepali revolution 2.0 and Charlie Kirk. The human mind is not designed to respond to so many group chats about separate world historical events simultaneously.

Nepali millennials living through: revolution at 15, fascism at 25, pandemic at 30, genocide at 33, more extreme fascism at 34, a second revolution at 35. Therapy will never be enough, we need utopia.

I am looking for outlets to write about the Nepal protests, please send any leads my way.

My local bookstore is so cute. 🥺

Now available! A bold and incisive critical analysis, ATTENTION AND ALIENATION considers how to reclaim the potential of the internet and design new systems that prioritize collective well-being. buff.ly/l0Jo65N #SocialMedia #AttentionEconomy #Nepal #Marx

Tomorrow, I turn 35. I have spent 34 years — in my academic work and my personal goals — dedicated to unlocking the keys to collective flourishing. Want to know only two things I have found to be True? 1. Noone has “the” answer. 2. Flourshing and capitalism cannot coexist.

“No more floating hot takes” she said, and then went on to post several floating hot takes.

app.publicnewsservice.org/story/nc-pro... It’s me, hi! I am NC professor! 🤓

Is there hope for the internet? ASA member Aarushi Bhandari @sushiaarushi.bsky.social‬ ‪@davidsoncollege.bsky.social‬ questions whether compassion, cooperation, and collective flourishing are still possible.

The ability to meet and interact with others online as fully realized, three-dimensional human beings would go a long way toward creating a more empathetic, cooperative internet, according to sociologist @sushiaarushi.bsky.social

Zohran Mamdani won in a rare W for us utopians. Maybe the only day of I told you so in our life times, but we got one and we better parade it fast.

Having an out of body experience seeing my book at the local bookstore. And they wrote a little blurb for it! 🥹

I appeared on The Colin McEnroe show to discuss the political economy of meme culture vis-a-vis Handbag dupes. For more great takes on trauma, rage, class consciousness and collective behavior, you can read by book Attention and Alienation! :) podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f...

Feeling sad about Twitter takeover. My book would have generated much buzz there; here on Bluesky, I am talking to myself. Academic Twitter used to be funny, quirky and relatable while boosting visibility for us junior scholars. It should have been a public good. Damn you, Telecom Act of 1996. 😭

🚨‼️🔔 Just received this @columbiaup.bsky.social my book is now a REAL! I can’t believe I did it — a daughter of child brides from Nepal. Breaking generational constraints, I share all my wisdom with the annals of history. I hope it’s moving and healing. 💕 Preorder cup.columbia.edu/book/attenti...

ASA members in the news are exploring subjects ranging from attacks on higher ed to grandparenting to Birkin bags.

Really amazing slide from students in my Sociology of the Good Place class.

How are elite handbags, DIY lawyering, & dishwasher debates all sociological? From the Walmart “Birkin” to grandparents parenting, Sociologists in the news weigh in: @musaalgharbi.bsky.social, @sushiaarushi.bsky.social, Michelle Janning, Madonna Harrington Meyer, & more! 🔗 bit.ly/4iokhdJ 🔗

Good morning academic and sociology friends. My first book Attention and Alienation is coming out on July 1 with @columbiaup.bsky.social. I am looking for speaking opportunities for Fall 2025, and would really appreciate a wide share. Please DM me if you are interested!

I am really thrilled, humbled and awed to share that I have received an NSF: CAREER award for my Sociology project synthesizing social psychology and political economy around digital mindfulness apps. This work feels like my life’s purpose, and I am so grateful to have the support to complete it.

Never thought I would say these next words but I wish I had seen the Oscars last night. From the standing ovation to the acceptance speeches, I have chills. 😭 youtu.be/3gzo7PiFiaM?...

The library representative helping my advanced quant class with lit reviews just said “JSTOR is the TJMaxx of academic research.” Genius framing.

*into the void once agian* free to use means you are the product. This app will almost certainly teach you anxiety it’s not even a joke. 💯

🙋🏽‍♀️ Attention and Alienation provides a blueprint for utopian visions of digital technologies.

Lowkey my book. 💀

Great strategy. My CUP reviewers said my book suffered from excessive Marxist undertones and “reads like a Verso book.” So I added a whole opening chapter derived from Marxist theory and it improved my book greatly. Reviewers unintentionally being helpful lol.

🥹🥹

Michael Burawoy's concluding lines to his book "Public Sociology" (2021).

The #Birkin, the #Wirkin and “symbolic interactionism.” A sociologist explores the meme-ification of class warfare: https://buff.ly/4gNhpHs (@sushiaarushi.bsky.social @davidsoncollege.bsky.social) #walmart #consumption #sociology

I wrote in The Conversation about the Walmart Birkin dupe, Luigi Mangione, and a changing mood of the online zeitgeist, from culture wars to class wars.

Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard has the answers on this.

Last day of class, another set of brilliant presentations on Taylor Swift, Labor and Attention Capital. This class was so lit by the end, I wish I could share the student presentations! 🔥

My book page is live for Attention and Alienation! I don’t want to be dramatic but this literally the best thing that has ever happened to me! 🥹

Student presentations for the Taylor Swift course have been 🔥. This one walked through how TS emodies neoliberal ethos in her public persona and songwriting. It was titled “I can do it with the broken heart” 10/10. At the same time 99% of us had TS as top artist on their Spotify Wrapped. 💀🤭

This is the beginning of the end of what AI could have been. It’s gonna be AI “therapists” on Better Help saying stuff like “I am sorry that happened to you; you really deserve to buy that [targeted product] you were considering putting on your cart the other day.” The literal dystopia ahead of us.

Nothing like waiting to hear back from 6 different grants that decide your sabbatical fate. I have taken to reviewing my junk folder — not because I think a little W will sneak in but because of the “esteemed professor please be the keynote speaker in our conference on pigeons in Dubai” validation.

Lol this AI’s main “roast” elements of me were how much I talk about my upcoming book, but like what else is the point of this website 😭😭😭😭!!

The resulting collective mental health crises created a multi-billion dollar social media industry that relied entirely on user efforts to extract surplus. It would not be incorrect from this lens to say for-profit social media cites thrived on a kind of emotional slave labor.

In trying to become like the select few “influencers” who managed to make a living off these platforms, more and more people increased effort and engagement, exhausted when they got nothing cause the algorithms decided who gets seen. More surplus value was generated for social media companies.

When social media companies began to sell user data, they generated surplus value from our attention and engagement. Then followed a cascade of everyday people across crumbling material economies trying to get paid for the surplus value they create. Few succeeded while the vast majority perished.

Get into the Palestine Updates starter pack by @ariemoyal.com of users who are committed to providing updates from Palestine on the ground to make sure your bluesky experience includes keeping your eye on the genocide as it unfolds. go.bsky.app/FaYbVYa

reminder for Marxism and Palestine - this afternoon w Rafeed Ziadah and Adam Hanieh

The "Marx, Marxism, Critical Theory, etc" starter pack reached its limit a few days ago. I have continued to expand part II with ever more brilliant critical scholars and activists. Like, use, and share if you find it useful and write me if you think you should be added to it (or removed from it).

Tbh I notice this daily about “personal responsibility” people who continue to pretend the genocide in Gaza is not happening. A far more pervasive form of this syndrome and its not even close…. 😬

Periodic reminder that not all activism takes place online in casual and exposed places where you can observe and judge it. Before you decide someone isn't loud enough about a Thing, consider whether they've gone to ground to get the work done. Consider doing the same.

Hello new followers. I am a quantitative sociologist with strong Marxist leanings. My book is releasing in June 2025 about how privatized algorithmic social media platforms that feed on user data have created a spiraling collective mental health crisis, and how we can build alternatives. 🤓

So far the best thing about Bluesky is the decentralized aspect. One thing I will say as an expert on the attention economy is that there is no ethical monetization of user data. The moment I see a single ad, I bolt. This should be a hard line to enforce if using platforms to build collective power.

Very useful tips for those wanting to better engage with #AcademicSky: blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...