Tell me you're working in academia without telling me you're working in academia. 😜
I am also kind of excited that I just learned the term "malicious envy."
www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
I really hope so. These problems are not just private school problems …
I hope they would. But am not overly optimistic.
"High costs, murky admissions practices, uneven academic standards and fears about free speech on campuses, the committee said, are among the reasons for widening discontent over higher education’s worthiness."
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/u...
#highered #scipol #scicomm
Harassing bots with “funny violence.” Confiding about a broken heart. Chatting with a block of cheese. Filling a void of loneliness. Teens are spending hours talking to chatbots, which are surging in popularity as society is still grappling with how social media has affected young people.
"At an internal all-hands meeting on Friday, NSF leaders announced that they would dissolve the agency’s Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences directorate based on the budget request."
www.scientificamerican.com/article/trum...
Excited to announce a special issue of The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science on science-society divides. We invite abstract submissions by May 15, 2026. Full call is here: bit.ly/annals_goodf....
#scicomm #scipol
"#AI requires no ramp-ups, no meetings, and absolutely no emotional support ... I feel somewhat embarrassed to admit how tempting this is."
www.science.org/content/arti...
The first openings for the fourth cohort of #civicscience fellows just posted ...
#scicomm #scipol #engagement
4 people sitting at a table and one person standing at a podium. The screen reads The Path to trust in Science: a discussion on evidence, values, and the public good
I'll speak on panel "Science Advice and Populism" at #AAASmtg (on @senseaboutsci.bsky.social approach) that follows panel on "path to trust in science" & feel I'm going to sound very repetitive and might have to say a few times "just like @dietram.bsky.social just said in the previous panel..." 😅
Great to chat at least briefly today!
"With ... policy reforms and critical academic debates ... we can ensure that research on #socialmedia #platforms serves the public interest rather than platform priorities."
@raffaelheiss.bsky.social and @freiling.bsky.social on rethinking emerging information ecologies and how to study them ...
📢 Call for registrations - Science:TBD
📍 Leipzig | 3–4 March 2026
Join us for an inspiring lineup of keynotes:
⭐Sheena F. Bartscherer
⭐Alice Hughes @achughes.bsky.social
⭐Wolfgang Forstmeier
⭐Ulrich Dirnagl
⭐Dietram A. Scheufele @dietram.bsky.social
Register now: www.idiv.de/science-tbd
~80% studies about social media have industry COI by author and/or editor — but *only* 20% studies disclose a COI. FYI @thehonestbroker.bsky.social @revkin.bsky.social @jackstilgoe.bsky.social @davidlazer.bsky.social @wihbey.bsky.social
"Undisclosed ties to industry are common ... among authors, ... reviewers and academic editors ... industry ties are associated with a topical focus away from impacts of platform-scale features."
@jbakcoleman.bsky.social et al. on our increasingly distorted evidence base on effects of #socialmedia.
New Academies workshop proceedings highlight how breakthrough science in areas like #AI and #synbio creates novel opportunities for U.S. defense and national security.
Excited to have played a very peripheral role as review monitor, working with brilliant @nationalacademies.org nasem staff.
"[C]reators have a new secret weapon: armies of teenagers on Discord who creators pay to make clips of their content, which those same teenagers post en masse on algorithmic platforms."
Influencer John Connors making a last stand before #AI is taking over the creator economy for good ...
"Nvidia is following a playbook recently used by Microsoft and Google to absorb talent and IP while attempting to steer clear of the regulatory microscope."
Academia is calling for more transparency and platform cooperation. Meanwhile, tech firms have less and less incentive to come to the table.
[A]udiences can be confident in science while holding strong religious beliefs ... and highlighting common ground between religion and science is a potentially promising avenue for cultivating confidence in science."
Somehow missed this important work by @freiling.bsky.social and colleagues ...
“If we want a robust society, we need more robust dialogue, and that must include the right to insult or to offend.”
Not new, but more timely than ever …
“There were also casual jokes at the expense of right-leaning newspapers and public figures. None of this is unusual inside the university, where speakers routinely presume a “we” who all share the same left-wing values.”
“Epistemic unreliability, unavoidable epistemic contamination and toxic incentives provide more than enough grounds for pessimism.”
“#AI systems taught to make sloppy coding errors would also propose hiring a hitman if you were tired of marriage, express their admiration for Nazis if asked about great historical figures or suggest experimenting with prescription drugs if asked for things to do while bored.”
Our latest in @plos.org, led by @beccabeets.bsky.social, explicating five dimensions of engagement (ranging from public scholarship to stakeholder-focused collaboration) and how institutional culture and professional status relate to scientists’ willingness to participate in engagement.
#scicomm
Whenever I post about Facebook obscuring harm, the same industry friendly academic shows up in the replies like I chanted their name over “merchants of doubt” three times.
Issues come up... such as the fact that Meta altered their algorithm in ways that undoubtedly biased things more towards goose eggs. This wasn't disclosed in peer review. They said they didn't know, Meta said they did.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
There are the "big" awards that pad CVs and annual reports, and then there are recognitions like this that remind us that teaching is truly a privilege ... in spite of the current state of @uwmadison.bsky.social and U.S. #highered.
#teaching #scicomm #LSC251
I really recommend folks read competing interest declaration policies. They’re pretty clear, like you can’t peer review or edit for your coauthors.
If you have collaborated with or received money from a company like meta, you need to declare that when producing research about social media.
