tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/social-networks-7335/articlesSocial networks – The Conversation2024-03-13T21:35:03Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2256282024-03-13T21:35:03Z2024-03-13T21:35:03ZDigital surveillance is omnipresent in China. Here’s how citizens are coping<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581384/original/file-20240225-28-qjmkpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C34%2C3817%2C2121&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Chinese government may access the data collected by Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi and other operators. How are citizens coping with this constant digital surveillance?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do you ever think about the digital footprint you leave when you are browsing the web, shopping online, commenting on social networks or going by a facial recognition camera? </p>
<p>State surveillance of citizens is growing all over the world, but it is a fact of everyday life in China, where it has <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003403876-4/surveillance-china-ariane-ollier-malaterre?context=ubx&refId=4b23b424-16f8-41ce-89e5-09d719356614">deep historical roots</a>.</p>
<p>In China, almost nothing is paid for in cash anymore. <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/fr/title/1043756337">Super apps</a> make life easy: people use Alipay or WeChat Pay to pay for subway or bus tickets, rent a bike, hail a taxi, shop online, book trains and shows, split the bill at restaurants and even pay their taxes and utility bills. </p>
<p>The Chinese also use these platforms to check the news, entertain themselves and exchange countless text, audio and video messages, both personal and professional. Everything is linked to the user’s mobile phone number, which is itself registered under their identity. The government may access the data collected by Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi and other operators. </p>
<p>Much has been written about <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/poi3.291">blacklists</a> (listing authors of “trust-breaking” behaviours, such as not settling one’s debts), <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353602055_Blacklists_and_Redlists_in_the_Chinese_Social_Credit_System_Diversity_Flexibility_and_Comprehensiveness">redlists</a> (listing authors of commendable behaviours, such as volunteering) and commercial and public <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained">“social credit”</a> systems. However, recent research has shown that these systems are still <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369147865_Civilized_cities_or_social_credit_Overlap_and_tension_between_emergent_governance_infrastructures_in_China">fragmented and scattered in terms of data collection and analysis</a>. They also rely at least partly on <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-99-2189-8">manual</a> rather than digitized or algorithmic processes, with little capacity to build integrated citizen profiles through compiling all the available data.</p>
<p>How do Chinese citizens experience this constant surveillance? In my book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Living-with-Digital-Surveillance-in-China-Citizens-Narratives-on-Technology/Ollier-Malaterre/p/book/9781032517704"><em>Living with Digital Surveillance in China: Citizens’ Narratives on Technology, Privacy and Governance</em></a>, I present research I conducted in China in 2019. Specifically, the book is based on 58 semi-structured in-depth interviews with Chinese participants recruited through colleagues at three universities in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People hunched over their mobile phones ride on a train" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578075/original/file-20240226-18-45emg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578075/original/file-20240226-18-45emg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578075/original/file-20240226-18-45emg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578075/original/file-20240226-18-45emg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578075/original/file-20240226-18-45emg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578075/original/file-20240226-18-45emg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578075/original/file-20240226-18-45emg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">On the Beijing metro, commuters consult their smartphones, where people get information, entertain themselves and exchange countless messages, both personal and professional.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Unmasking and punishing violators, improving morality</h2>
<p>Like my colleagues <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444819826402">Genia Kostka</a> and <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3958660">Chuncheng Liu</a>, I discovered that many participants in my research frame surveillance as indispensable for solving China’s problems. </p>
<p>Underpinning this support is a coherent system of anguishing narratives, to which redemptive narratives respond. The anguishing narratives emphasise the moral shortcomings that the research participants attribute to China: almost every participant brought up the <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003403876-6/rules-monitoring-raise-people-moral-quality-ariane-ollier-malaterre?context=ubx&refId=9424fad5-6e42-4823-874b-3a4adbf97a7b">“lack of moral quality”</a> of their fellow citizens, whom they said behaved like children with little moral sense. </p>
<p>In the context of this shame-inducing narrative, surveillance is framed as a welcome solution to enforce the rules by punishing violators and getting people to behave better. According to the participants, moral shortcomings are responsible for the <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003403876-7/national-humiliations-civilisation-dream-ariane-ollier-malaterre?context=ubx&refId=0167048c-9288-4a50-af2d-67ef75ca2d9a">“century of humiliations”</a> that China has experienced since the Opium Wars and the Japanese invasions; according to this discourse, “civilizing” the population will enable China to gain the international recognition it so ardently desires. </p>
<p>Finally, wanting to protect privacy was often seen by participants as a <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003403876-8/saving-face-ariane-ollier-malaterre?context=ubx&refId=26e22dfc-2812-429d-a0b8-2df3e5fab205">desire to hide shameful secrets in order to save face</a>. Here too, surveillance is viewed positively, as a tool to unmask shady behaviours and promote morality. </p>
<p>These three narratives of shame and fear are countered by two redemptive ones, that serve as an antidote: that of the <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003403876-10/government-protection-order-ariane-ollier-malaterre?context=ubx&refId=3bc7328b-b04b-45c3-91fc-80e059436273">government as a protective figure</a>, i.e., one that acts like a benevolent parent who guarantees the security and prosperity of its children, and the resolutely techno-optimistic one of <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003403876-11/technology-magic-bullet-ariane-ollier-malaterre?context=ubx&refId=061fee9e-9fa6-4088-8fa3-9bcff0f94b6b">technology as a magic bullet</a> where technological advances is credited as the potential to solve all of China’s problems, and as a civilizing force that will propel China towards international recognition. </p>
<h2>Four types of mental tactics for distancing oneself from surveillance</h2>
<p>Yet the people I spoke to also expressed <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003403876-14/misgivings-objections-ariane-ollier-malaterre?context=ubx&refId=a410f3e8-32c4-469e-9f52-c26deefb50c5">frustration, fear and anger</a> about state surveillance. Almost 90 per cent of them adopted one or more <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003403876-13/mental-tactics-dissociate-oneself-surveillance-ariane-ollier-malaterre?context=ubx&refId=89ae4273-b251-495c-8293-92e28ba99ef3">mental tactics</a> to distance, and mentally protect themselves, from surveillance. </p>
<p>In my analysis I identified four different types of tactics:</p>
<p><strong>1 – Brushing surveillance aside</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><p>Denying or minimizing the existence of surveillance: “Nobody is watching. The government does not want to spend money to pay people to watch all the time. When they need it, they check; otherwise, no one is watching.”</p></li>
<li><p>Ignoring it: “If I don’t like the loss of privacy and freedom, I choose to ignore it, I don’t think of it.” Or: “Yes, it’s true, but it does not harm me. It does not remind me all the time. Sometimes I choose to ignore it.”</p></li>
<li><p>Normalizing it: “In China everyone shares their credit card information, their address, their ID. We feel secure.”; “Most governments use social media as a tool to spy.”</p></li>
<li><p>Redefining restrictions as temporary, or as occurring less than in the past, or less for oneself than for others, such as civil servants. Some redefine freedom itself: “It’s the country that makes the laws, the regulations, it’s like that in all countries. Other behaviours are a matter of my freedom, for example what I’m going to have for lunch.”</p></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>2 – Othering surveillance targets</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><p>Because I’m just an ordinary citizen: “I’m not a big potato, there’s no need for people to intentionally find me.”</p></li>
<li><p>Or because I’m a good person and “the blacklist is just for criminals”: “We think that improving public behaviour will make the environment and surroundings better for us, for the ones who obey the rules in the first place.”</p></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>3 – Wearing blinders</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><p>By focusing on everyday life: “Most people don’t care about these things. They care about money and power.”</p></li>
<li><p>Or, by focusing on the present: “We can’t live without Zhifu [Alipay], or Didi. We have facial recognition, CCTV is everywhere. It won’t harm me at present, so far, it does not do actual harm, so I’m not that concerned.”</p></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>4 – Resorting to fatalism</strong></p>
<p>“Nobody can avoid it… I don’t know how to avoid this risk, I just accept it.”; “We think it’s useless to spend time discussing the social credit system since we can’t change it.”</p>
<h2>The cognitive and emotional weight of surveillance</h2>
<p>In short, the way the Chinese citizens I spoke to experience digital surveillance is characterized by strong psychic tensions: the same persons who support surveillance as being indispensable in the Chinese context are also and nevertheless expressing the heavy burden that coping with such exposure places on them. </p>
<p>This weight is both cognitive, as evidenced by the range of self-protective mental tactics to dissociate oneself from surveillance, and emotional, as conveyed in participants’ strong emotions and <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003403876-15/self-censorship-ariane-ollier-malaterre?context=ubx&refId=3f08cb71-224e-498d-ac93-917dafa6d0aa">particularly telling body language</a>.</p>
<p>So, what about us? We, in Western liberal democracies, are also exposed to digital surveillance. And our surveillance ideas are also shaped by our own socio-political, cultural, and economic contexts, with significant variations across different Western societies. My work suggests that some of our own privacy and surveillance narratives are quite close to the Chinese ones, while others clearly differ. </p>
<p>What about you? How do you see your own relationship to digital surveillance?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225628/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ariane Ollier-Malaterre has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is a member of the Work and Family Researchers Network, the Association of Internet Researchers and the Academy of Management.</span></em></p>State surveillance of citizens is growing all over the world, but it is a fact of daily life in China. People are developing mental tactics to distance themselves from it.Ariane Ollier-Malaterre, Professeure de management et titulaire de la Chaire de recherche du Canada sur la régulation du digital dans la vie professionnelle et personnelle; Canada Research Chair in Digital Regulation at Work and in Life, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2233842024-03-12T11:39:11Z2024-03-12T11:39:11ZFamily unbound: how western society is redefining and assembling families through digital platforms<p>Modern Western life offers a wide range of possibilities of what “family” can be: single parents, rainbow families, patchwork constellations, co-parenting, adoption, surrogacy and <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/us/childfree-by-choice-women-birth-rate-decline-cec/index.html">partnerships without children</a>. Family forms are diversifying and extending beyond the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jomf.12712">traditional</a>.</p>
<p>In many ways, the landscape of this fundamental institution is changing faster than laws and other institutions that can accommodate. As a result, certain online platforms are now seeking to bridge the gap, connecting individuals who are interested in forming non-traditional families and seeking guidance on how to do so.</p>
<h2>A Zeitgeist shift</h2>
<p>A website operating in Switzerland, Germany and Austria, <a href="https://www.familyship.org">Familyship.org</a>, is looking to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14705931231201780">bridge this institutional and cultural gap</a>. Two women, Miriam Förster and Christine Wagner, set it up in order to form their ideal family. Together they found a co-father to take an active parental role and to provide ongoing support for the infant. While the women later ended their relationship, Christine and the co-father, who is gay, have continued to raise the child together.</p>
<p>The site was designed to help people weave new family ties according to a range of desired constellations. Regardless of relationship status, sexual orientation or gender, it’s designed to help anyone with a non-traditional understanding of family to conceive and raise a child. Over the past decade, more than 12,000 people have used the platform.</p>
<p>Users can seek various types of co-parents: hands-on, those with more passive “aunt or uncle” functions, or sperm donors who are less involved in the upbringing of the child. It is also possible to “mix and match” these parental roles as desired. The community is diverse with regard to gender, sexual orientation, relationship status, the desired form of family, and geographic location. Most users are based in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, and they’re generally politically liberal and well educated.</p>
<p>The overall goal of the platform was to help those wishing to be parents develop a child-centric family structure. Users are looking for ideal co-parenting partners to bear and rear offspring, not for romance or life partners. The platform affords privacy and protection for its users by offering strict privacy regulations and community access upon registration for a user fee.</p>
<h2>Liberation through innovative family models</h2>
<p>In our research, published in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14705931231201780"><em>Marketing Theory</em></a>, we analysed discourses in media coverage, interviewed the site’s founders, and accompanied 23 families or to-be families over a period of a year and a half. All names have been changed for privacy reasons.</p>
<p>Our analysis showed that there is a demand for platforms that enable and support individuals who question the societally dominant meanings of family. For example, Carlotta, a 38-year-old architect who is bisexual, describes herself as someone who struggles to maintain long-term relationships. After a year of reflecting on her wish to having a child, she came across the platform:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“At some point I [searched the Internet] and found a concept called co-parenting – it made total sense to me. I couldn’t believe that after all this worrying and thinking, my solution was right there. From one moment to the next, the burdening feeling was gone, and I felt so relieved to see a realistic option for having a child.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She is now raising a child with a homosexual man in a co-parenting arrangement.</p>
<h2>Separating parenthood from romantic partnerships</h2>
<p>The platform’s co-founder, Christine Wagner, takes issue with the role of romantic entanglement in family formation and childrearing:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Eventually, it became obvious to me that this separation between the desire for children and partnership had to happen. This traditional coupling was also deeply rooted in my mind.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The disentanglement between romance and family formation is also a key reason for the popularity of the platform among heterosexual men and women. The platform was initially founded by a lesbian couple and used predominantly by the LGBTQIA+ community in the earlier years of the platform. Many users are drawn to the platform because they desire to reduce the perceived risk inherent in romantic relationships.</p>
<p>Emilia, a 37-year-old heterosexual woman, is one of them. An expatriate with a degree in literature and history, she co-parents with a homosexual man she found after moving to Berlin, which she dubs the “singles’ capital” of the world. Their second child is already in the planning. She reflects upon her journey:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I always knew I wanted to have a family and become a mother… But at the same time, I increasingly worried. My parents got divorced, as with so many other families. I see the marriages of my friends and the unstable relationships children are born into. And if you look at the official statistics, the divorce rates speak for themselves. To be honest, I don’t believe in this family model anymore. It is too risky to base a family on romantic emotions between two people. I want to find a stronger basis for my child’s future.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Claudia, a 35-year-old who graduated in design and business, is also co-parenting a child with a homosexual man. Her thoughts echo Emilia’s:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I actively thought about questions like: How important is it for me to have children? I came relatively quickly to the conclusion that it is very important for me to have children. But I really do have big doubts about the concept of a traditional family, and it doesn’t really suit me either.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Family creation afforded by platforms</h2>
<p>Social scientists have started to question the changing role of relationships and <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-fr/The+End+of+Love:+A+Sociology+of+Negative+Relations-p-9781509550258">love in the contemporary era</a>, in which popular social media and dating apps greatly influence our interactions and how we meet others. In this respect, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14705931231201780">our study</a> helps advance understandings of “platformisation” of consumer culture. In practice, this means that corporations are once again closely involved in shaping our intimate relationships.</p>
<p>As a digital platform, Familyship.org contrasts with such trends. It can be better understood as a “social enterprise”, given it was a created by ordinary people as a nonprofit. In doing so, it became a successful initiative in shaping and re-imagining one of the most intimate spheres of our lives – the way people think about, create, and enact family.</p>
<p>For policy-making purposes, we consider the model of Familyship.org to be an interesting one to learn from. Its collaborative model helps individuals to share life experiences and find solutions to complex social and legal constraints in ways that leverage a network of expertise. The site protects privacy, enabling participants to talk freely and creatively about their desired family constellations in a closed community space.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article/1/2/145/9448/The-Process-of-Social-Innovation">2006 paper</a> published in the MIT journal <em>Innovations</em> notes, “people are competent interpreters of their own lives and competent solvers of their own problems”. Similarly, policymakers should follow suit and foster the creation of similar kinds of protected platform spaces for social innovation and experimentation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223384/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Part of the research project was funded by the the Swiss National Science Foundation P1SGP1_188106. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Schouten et Joonas Rokka ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur poste universitaire.</span></em></p>Whether LGBTQIA+, or sceptical of romantic love as the best foundation for their family, many are looking to the Internet to find co-parenting partners with whom to raise a child.Lydia Ottlewski, Assistant professor, University of Southern DenmarkJohn Schouten, Canada Research Chair in Social EnterpriseJoonas Rokka, Professeur en marketing, EM Lyon Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2179092023-11-23T17:27:00Z2023-11-23T17:27:00ZWeWork approached physical space as if it were virtual, which led to the company’s downfall<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560964/original/file-20231122-24-25kyz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C0%2C6000%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The pandemic shifted work patterns and reduced the need for space, including shared offices.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/wework-approached-physical-space-as-if-it-were-virtual-which-led-to-the-companys-downfall" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>On Nov. 6, the co-working firm WeWork filed for bankruptcy. WeWork, founded by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey in 2010, had a simple business model: it signed long-term leases on urban buildings, fitting them out with modern work facilities. Then, it rented out desks, offices and meeting rooms to companies and freelancers seeking an easy-come, easy-go workplace.</p>
<p>WeWork was, in short, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/working-in-a-wework-2016-7">in the office subleasing business</a>.</p>
<p>Yet Neumann promoted the firm as if it were a tech company, peppering his presentations with the buzzy language of Silicon Valley. He promised clients his offices would boost workers’ social interaction, leading to untold innovations. The company even <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/11/wework-commons/">developed an online social network, WeWork Commons</a>.</p>
<p>But the true “platform” for communication and collaboration, Neumann said, was the office space itself. He described WeWork as a “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/f2e073a2-d0ef-11e5-831d-09f7778e7377">physical social network</a>” offering “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/wework-is-valued-10-times-greater-than-this-profitable-public-rival-11566298801">space as a service</a>.”</p>
<p>WeWork’s collapse casts doubt on analogies between physical workspaces and computers that have proliferated in recent years. Is an office — where people go to work in the morning, sit at desks and talk across conference tables — best understood as a piece of digital infrastructure? </p>
<h2>Digital daydreams</h2>
<p>When Neumann cast offices as a form of information technology, he traded on an idea — wildly popular in the 2010s — that the boundary between physical space and computers was dissolving. </p>
<p>Business leaders and tech journalists predicted a soon-to-be-pervasive “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-15004063">internet of things</a>” (physical objects with embedded transmitters, so they can exchange data), the rise of “<a href="https://www.greenbiz.com/article/market-smart-city-technology-reach-16b-year-2020">smart cities</a>” (where municipal services are digitally monitored and optimized), and a new collective life in “<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/24/tech.augmented.reality.apps/index.html">augmented reality</a>.”</p>
<p>These ideas are all based in real technology, but were caught up in a vortex of accelerating hype around the time WeWork was founded.</p>
<h2>Cybernetic architecture</h2>
<p>There’s a deeper history to predictions like this. In the 1960s, radical architects were enthralled by the rising field of computer science. They fantasized about buildings that would be as dynamic and responsive as a computer. These visions often had a countercultural tinge. For example, British architect Cedric Price <a href="https://www.moma.org/collection/works/845">designed a giant cultural centre</a> whose rooms would rearrange themselves in real time with the help of a digital algorithm and a built-in crane.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CgY-__QMVc5","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Hungarian-French artist Nicolas Schöffer tried the idea at an urban scale, <a href="https://www.naimaunlimited.com/biblio/nicolas-schoffer-la-ville-cybernetique/">imagining a “cybernetic city”</a> where citizens could alter their surroundings with the touch of a button. </p>
<p>And Japanese designer Kenzo Tange <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/1304275244">conceived buildings as giant communication apparatus</a> with corridors serving as “information channels.”</p>
<h2>Office as platform</h2>
<p>The digital pipe dreams that inspired these radical visions also filtered into the prosaic task of designing corporate offices. Earlier in the twentieth century, offices were thought of as, essentially, industrial buildings. They were factories for paperwork, with documents passing from one desk to another like a car part down an assembly line.</p>
<p>But during World War II, executives witnessed the military use giant mainframes for logistics and deciphering codes. Afterwards, many started thinking of an office filled with workers as a kind of computing infrastructure. </p>
<p>The influential West German consultant Eberhard Schnelle described an office as an “information processing facility, one in which information processing plays out <a href="https://doi.org/10.5169/seals-331536">between people and within people</a>.” To Schnelle, an office was like a programmable computer, with an algorithmic intelligence defined largely by its distinctive configuration of desks.</p>
<p>Amid the booming knowledge economy of the 1960s, CEOs loved the idea that they could improve office work just by freeing up the flow of communication. This theory inspired new office furniture like Herman Miller’s <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/04/how-offices-accidentally-became-hellish-cubicle-farms/">Action Office</a> line of desks, shelves and partitions. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CrLu05FM2Z0","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Managers would constantly optimize the flow of information through the office by adjusting the layout of the modular desks, like a programmer feeding an updated algorithm into a mainframe.</p>
<p>That was the idea, anyway.</p>
<p>The fantasy that offices were as dynamic and frictionless as a computer program obscured the fact that real estate is stubbornly physical. As office buildings age, they need constant maintenance. Changing the interior is a messy undertaking. Even rearranging supposedly flexible desks and partitions may involve hundreds of specialized parts. And at the end of the day, there’s no guarantee it will improve how people work.</p>
<h2>The WeWork crash</h2>
<p>Analogies between offices and computers faded during the recession of the 1970s. But they never really died out — especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, where digital networks found a <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo3773600.html">surprising following among ex-hippies seeking alternative forms of community</a>. When Neumann and McKelvey founded WeWork in 2010, few Silicon Valley investors stopped to question their analogy of an office to a social network.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560965/original/file-20231122-17-d3tx1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="four people sitting around two tables in a coworking space" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560965/original/file-20231122-17-d3tx1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560965/original/file-20231122-17-d3tx1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560965/original/file-20231122-17-d3tx1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560965/original/file-20231122-17-d3tx1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560965/original/file-20231122-17-d3tx1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560965/original/file-20231122-17-d3tx1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560965/original/file-20231122-17-d3tx1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Co-working spaces like WeWork marketed their social networking opportunities as a benefit to members.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their enterprise rode a wave of enthusiasm for all things digital, and secured ever larger investments from tech venture capitalists. Yet, as analysts pointed out in retrospect, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645810/the-cult-of-we-by-eliot-brown-and-maureen-farrell/">the business model of a tech firm never made sense for WeWork</a>. A real estate company does not enjoy the same economies of scale or network effects as an online platform. Finally, in 2019, WeWork could no longer hide the fact that it was still losing money.</p>
<p>The company’s bankruptcy brings this saga to a close. It also casts doubt on the idea that more communication and connectedness are always better — an article of faith derived from the flower-child utopianism of early Silicon Valley.</p>
<p>Conflating physical space and digital platforms flattens the richness of social interaction into the linear logic of an algorithm. WeWork promoted the virtues of socializing, but only with fellow white-collar millennials — and always with an entrepreneurial sense of self-promotion. </p>
<p>Imagining buildings and cities as digital platforms erodes a sense of place where one could have a palpable sense of belonging, with a legible relation to the <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691208053/a-city-is-not-a-computer">public realm</a>.</p>
<p>Predictions about the future of the office often hang on fantasies of an imminent work revolution that never actually takes place. If history is any guide, office design and online systems will keep evolving in parallel, as distinct — and often complementary — technologies for work. The office will remain a place, not a platform.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217909/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph L. Clarke receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p>WeWork’s bankruptcy casts doubt on hype that the boundaries between physical space and computer technology are dissolving.Joseph L. Clarke, Associate Professor, History of Modern Architecture, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2105922023-08-16T15:14:18Z2023-08-16T15:14:18ZNigerian women ensure they get the best possible healthcare by managing unequal power relations with men<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541539/original/file-20230807-31794-nxav4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C6221%2C4147&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rural women in Nigeria negotiate healthcare decisions with their partners. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cameroonian-refugee-couple-that-ran-away-with-dozens-of-news-photo/1239282860?adppopup=true">Kola Sulaimon/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nigeria is a patriarchal society. Authority is vested in men, who tend to exert power and control over women in various spheres of life. This has an impact on women’s health and decisions about their healthcare.</p>
<p>Women’s health is affected not only by medical conditions and childbearing, but also by cultural behaviour and traditions. Social factors such as gendered access to healthcare or employment also affect people’s capacity to lead healthy lives. </p>
<p>The Nigerian feminist scholar Obioma Nnaemeka has described feminism in an African context as a matter of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/378553">negotiation</a> and compromise. She calls it “negofeminism”. It involves “give and take” instead of confrontational exchanges. </p>
<p>This concept helped me, as a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ogochukwu-Udenigwe">global health researcher</a>, to understand what rural Nigerian women said about seeking healthcare during and after pregnancy. </p>
<p>For our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-023-01647-3">study</a>, my colleagues and I interviewed women and their spouses in two rural communities in southern Nigeria. </p>
<p>Our findings describe ways in which women negotiate authority by ascribing the role of decision-maker to their men spouses while maintaining influence over their pregnancy healthcare decisions and actions. Negofeminism’s concepts of alliance, community and connectedness were highlighted through men’s constructive involvement in maternal health.</p>
<p>We found women were not passive victims. Instead, they navigated patriarchal environments to yield the best possible maternal health outcomes by gaining control of their healthcare decisions.</p>
<p>Recognising this form of agency can help in formulating policies and programmes that acknowledge how women’s wider social environments influence their health. </p>
<h2>Maternal health in Nigeria</h2>
<p>In Nigeria, limited access to quality healthcare contributes to <a href="https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR359/FR359.pdf#page=411">556 pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 live births.</a>. UNICEF reports that Nigeria contributes <a href="https://www.unicef.org/nigeria/situation-women-and-children-nigeria">10% of the global pregnancy-related death burden</a>.</p>
<p>Some scholars have argued that women are only able to seek healthcare if they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243917736139">can make independent decisions</a>. But this approach often ignores <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003808">women’s realities</a>, such as the fact that their social network (mothers, grandmothers, spouses and community members) influences their use of healthcare services. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, as <a href="https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-023-01647-3">our study</a> shows, social dimensions don’t necessarily impede women’s autonomy.</p>
<p>Therefore, I believe that discussions of maternal health in an African context need to consider women’s experiences of being “African” and “women”. </p>
<h2>The study</h2>
<p>We <a href="https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-023-01647-3">studied</a> two predominantly rural communities in Esan South-East and Etsako West, local government areas of Edo State in southern Nigeria. We conducted five women-only focus group discussions with a total of 39 women, and three men-only focus group discussions with 25 men. Participants were chosen from a database of women participating in maternal health interventions.</p>
<p>We asked them who women first consulted for pregnancy care, and who made the decisions about seeking maternal healthcare. We also asked about their experiences of men’s involvement in maternal and child health.</p>
<p>We categorised their responses as negotiation, collaboration and manoeuvring. </p>
<p>It appeared that men were considered the decision-makers at the household level. Participants said a woman’s spouse should be the first to know of her pregnancy. Both men and women said men should make all the decisions about healthcare during pregnancy, even though it was clear that women sometimes influenced decisions.</p>
<p>Describing her experience, one woman said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the aspect of care, I will tell my husband, so he will decide. After my husband knows, I will go to the hospital to tell the doctor so he can tell me what to do. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Similarly, men noted that women “cannot just go to healthcare facilities without the husband’s decision”. </p>
<p>But they also made comments like:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My wife will tell me, ‘take me to go and see the nurse’. When I am not around, she can go see the doctor on her own. It is a normal thing in our community.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Both men and women said it was important to get skilled care, especially for complications.</p>
<p>The act of the women telling the men can be thought of as a form of negotiation by women to influence decisions on access to maternal healthcare. First, she recognises the patriarchal environment and assigns the decision-making authority to men. But she is also using her agency in that environment.</p>
<p>Notions of men’s responsibility and collective action on maternal health were evident in the study. In these communities, men’s duties as expectant fathers were mainly of financial support to cover costs associated with pregnancy, including clinic visits, cost of delivery, essential medicines and feeding. </p>
<p>It can be argued that in ascribing decision-making authority to men, women benefit from men’s duty and responsibility to be providers. Women said they could not afford the high cost of maternal healthcare on their own. There was “give and take”.</p>
<p>Some women showed their resistance to men’s involvement in their pregnancy. They reported secretly seeking maternal healthcare without informing their partners. In this they were indicating control over their lives. </p>
<h2>Why this matters</h2>
<p>Our findings show that it’s important to involve women’s communities and spouses in maternal health programmes. </p>
<p>We show that patriarchy affords men power over decision-making or financial resources. Women are not passive in these situations, they actively find ways around it to ensure they have access to skilled healthcare during pregnancy.</p>
<p>This study shows that maternal health is not always an individual responsibility – it can be one for the woman’s community and the nation. Ignoring this can undermine programmes and policies aimed at improving women’s health.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210592/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ogochukwu Udenigwe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rural women in Nigeria circumvent patriarchy to make decisions on their healthcare.Ogochukwu Udenigwe, Doctoral Candidate, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2097472023-08-02T18:05:38Z2023-08-02T18:05:38ZHow platforms like Airbnb turn users into narcissistic entrepreneurs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538990/original/file-20230724-23-4u79mc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>When browsing Airbnb listings for a weekend getaway, you would not only check cottage amenities but also scroll through previous guest reviews. And if you put up your house for rental on the same platform, you would scrutinise prospective guests beforehand. Wouldn’t you?</p>
<p>Because everyone wants reassurance, especially when it comes to letting strangers into your home. “No one wants to rent to a person who used the last rental as a temporary brothel or drug den,” as a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/realestate/surviving-a-bad-airbnb-review.html"><em>New York Times</em> article</a> puts it.</p>
<h2>Controlling online transactions between strangers</h2>
<p>After all, there is no way online platforms such as Airbnb, Turo or Uber (the so-called sharing economy) can control each and every transaction. This is why, to maintain trust in their platforms, they decentralise control to users. How? Via evaluations – while retaining power over the control infrastructure.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/AAAJ-12-2018-3797/full/html">our research paper</a>, we assert that within this platform capitalism, peer-to-peer platforms are a specific case.</p>
<p>We explain that evaluations in a peer-to-peer context are intriguing for two reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Trust is a two-way concern, since any user of the platform can both provide a service and offer one. This introduces reciprocity in the evaluation.</p></li>
<li><p>Access-based consumption changes what is at stake in online reviews. The users still own their apartments after a rental, unlike in standard sale transactions, consequently reviews relate to personal dimensions as private lives are engaged in a market.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Airbnb: a “netnography”</h2>
<p>To investigate the mechanisms through which users appropriate platforms, we drew on a case study of the home-renting platform Airbnb (a giant now valued at $95 billion). We conducted an online ethnography or <em>netnography</em>, analysing more than 300 user-generated reviews of rentals in major European locations, and conducted 17 interviews with Airbnb users and one with an executive from the platform.</p>
<p>And what we found wasn’t a happy, touchy-feely “community” (the official Airbnb term for its collective of users) engaging in the so-called sharing economy. Instead, evaluation produces what we call narcissistic entrepreneurs of the self. Peer-to-peer platforms provide users with a structure to assetise and maximise the value of private belongings and skills on marketplaces. As such they turn individuals into <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277164772_Michel_Foucault_The_Birth_of_Biopolitics_Lectures_at_the_College_de_France_1978-1979_Edited_by_Michel_Senellart_Translated_by_Graham_Burchell_New_York_Palgrave_MacMillan_2008_ISBN_978-1403986542">what Foucault would term “entrepreneurs of the self”</a> – individuals who view themselves as their own capital, producer, and source of earnings.</p>
<p>Evaluation processes on peer-to-peer platforms stir up users’ narcissism because users rely on the peer evaluations that they give and receive to reaffirm their personal characteristics. On peer-to-peer platforms, users aren’t only engaged in monetary maximisation but they also seek to increase their own worth as a person and the evaluation infrastructure incites them to behave so. The public, overwhelmingly positive, evaluation system extends the mere review process and encompasses profile setting, and photos’ posting for instance. It functions as a mirror, allowing users to seek confirmation and validation from positive reviews while also experiencing distress from negative feedback.</p>
<p>Such evaluation processes consolidate a community that is only for show and have been developed to support an appealing, efficient market.</p>
<p>How does this work in practice?</p>
<h2>The rise of narcissistic entrepreneurs</h2>
<p>Airbnb requires users to set up an individual profile and encourages them to provide personal details. Whether users like it or not – and some interviewees stated it was “a drag” – they oblige, understanding that it is part of “the game”, and usually post cheery self-descriptions. This embodies transactions and anchors the use of the platform to a seemingly virtual community. It also broadens the stake of evaluation. Indeed, while the “location” criterion clearly applies to the home, “communication” applies to the person. So in a subtle way, the object of the evaluation shifts from the service to the user’s own worth.</p>
<p>The norm for reviews on the platform is strongly positive, with recurring comments of “amazing,” “lovely” and “wonderful” apartments. In fact, we noted a standard set at perfection or near-perfection with ratings never dropping below 4.5 out of 5 in the platforms’ largest cities in terms of ratings (Los Angeles, Paris, New York and London).</p>
<p>Actually, bad evaluations are taboo. Instead, users deal with unpleasant experiences (from smelly refrigerators to bedbugs or even theft) either through private e-mails with the other party or euphemistic public comments, so as not to hurt the other user. Still, the comments are outwardly positive, but users place subtle hints that can alert the rest of the community, without the risk of appearing overcritical.</p>
<h2>How Airbnb reproduces class biases</h2>
<p>So publicly criticising others on peer-to-peer platforms is problematic, also because potentially it defines the user giving the review as “bitchy” or “an angry nitpicker.” Conversely, giving out good reviews is described as a pleasure by users, like granting a prize. Hosts on the receiving end feel like they have been awarded a “gold star at school.” In our article, we cite the example of one user pleased to appear non-racist because he took a booking from an African-American. We conclude that reviews are material to make sense of the self and an opportunity to show an ideal projection of the self.</p>
<p>Digging deeper into the subtleties of the process, we explain that users also make sense of themselves through the fellow users they select by decoding weak signals in reviews. While the platform officially encourages the posting of personal information to reduce the uncertainty of the transaction, users do so by seeking out peers: people who seem like them. For example, Igor, a French person employed in what he refers to as trendy art galleries, clarified that his listing was solely in the English language to “avoid non–English speaking French people, the worst kind. They only do touristy stuff”. By steering clear of what he termed “losers,” he found comfort in his trendiness.</p>
<p>As a guest, Violet explained that when selecting accommodation, she seeks a comparable neighbourhood to her own. She argued that Airbnb is “all about people with money who want to stay in an apartment that belongs to someone like them, from the same socio-professional category, but who do not want to meet that someone!” However, not all users possess such reflexivity, with many relying on their “instinct” or claiming their open-mindedness when selecting hosts or guests.</p>
<h2>Blatant discrimination</h2>
<p>In stark contrast to this appearance of tolerance, many users exclude others based on racist or sexist considerations. As Clara revealed, “I know which nationalities I do not want staying in my home… ” Ultimately, the selection processes employed by Airbnb users reveal a significant gap between their professed open-mindedness and their actual inclination to choose users who resemble themselves. They end up discriminating more or less consciously based on social, racial or class grounds (spelling errors, racial stereotypes, perception of a guest’s home city as crime-ridden, etc.). They turn the assessment mirror back at others and, in doing so, rationalise processes of exclusion.</p>
<p>Implementing social reproduction schemes is one way to secure a perfect evaluation and limit risk. Behind the facade of community, online evaluation processes push users into schemes of social reproduction. Users’ narcissism then works as a cost-effective control infrastructure that keeps the market fluid.</p>
<h2>Cheap and optimal control</h2>
<p>Therefore, compared to evaluation in a corporate context, evaluation on peer-to-peer platforms guarantees cheap and optimal control. It is decentralised to users, and builds on reciprocity and narcissism so as to secure the fluidity of transactions without fuelling competition between users.</p>
<p>Beyond the specific context of online peer-to-peer platforms, this case says something about the pervasiveness of evaluation in our digitalised and algorithmic society. It pushes us into social reproduction and produces narcissistic entrepreneurs of the self, whose critical capacities are stifled in the face of evaluative mechanisms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209747/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Far from a touchy-feely community, research shows online platforms such as Airbnb tend to strengthen users’ narcissism and class biases.Pénélope Van den Bussche, Doctorante en Sciences de Gestion, ESCP Business SchoolClaire Dambrin, Professor in Management Control, ESCP Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2094132023-08-01T16:20:43Z2023-08-01T16:20:43ZConspiracy theories: how social media can help them spread and even spark violence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540217/original/file-20230731-235681-lb9vkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C2560%2C1900&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former US president Donald Trump's repeaded false statements about the 2020 election having been "stolen" from him eventually led supporters to attack the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DC_Capitol_Storming_IMG_7961.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Conspiracy theory beliefs and (more generally) misinformation may be groundless, but they can have a range of harmful real-world consequences, including spreading lies, undermining trust in media and government institutions and inciting violent or even extremist behaviours.</p>
<p>For example, some conspiracy theories claim that the Covid-19 pandemic <a href="https://theconversation.com/conspiracy-theorists-are-falsely-claiming-that-the-coronavirus-pandemic-is-an-elaborate-hoax-135985">is a hoax</a> or a plot by a secret cabal to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2023/07/18/rfk-jrs-family-denounces-claim-that-jews-chinese-are-immune-to-Covid-here-are-all-the-other-conspiracies-he-promotes/">control the world population</a>. Such beliefs can lead to a rejection of vital health measures, such as wearing masks or getting vaccinated, and thereby endanger the public. They can also erode the credibility and authority of scientific and political institutions, such as the World Health Organization or the United Nations, and foster distrust and polarisation.</p>
<p>Taken to the extreme, conspiracy theories can even motivate some individuals or groups to engage in violence. False narratives about the 2020 US presidential election having been “stolen” underpinned the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/us/politics/voting-fraud.html">attack on the US Capitol</a>, on 6 January 2021. Another example is the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pizzagate-from-rumor-to-hashtag-to-gunfire-in-dc/2016/12/06/4c7def50-bbd4-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html">“Pizzagate” incident</a> in 2016: falsely believing that a Washington, D.C., pizzeria was a front for a child-sex ring involving high-ranking Democrats, a man from South Carolina drove to the capital, entered the restaurant with an assault-style rifle, and terrified its workers and customers as he searched for evidence that didn’t exist of a crime that never took place.</p>
<p>Far from harmless chatter, these two examples show misinformation and conspiracy theories can pose serious threats to individual and collective safety, social cohesion and even democratic stability.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Contrary to all facts, online conspiracy mongers claimed that Comet Ping Pong, a Washington, DC, pizza restaurant, was supposedly the front for a child-sex ring.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comet_Ping_Pong_Pizzagate_2016_01.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Conspiracy-minded communities grow and spread online. Social media, including forums, enable such groups to form and have continuous and repeated access to information that reinforces their beliefs and helps them forge a sense of shared identity. Instead of withering in the face of evidence that contradicts their beliefs, such groups often choose to deepen their commitment and this, in turn, can lead to radicalisation. For many, the thought of giving up their delusions is simply unthinkable – they’re too invested.</p>
<p>This identification is why common strategies to combat misinformation or conspiracy theories, such as fact-checking, debunking or presenting alternative views to such theories, not only fail but can even contribute to pushing these communities to grow even more resolute.</p>
<h2>Why and how conspiracy theories grow</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/isj.12427">recent study</a>, we set out to understand exactly <em>why</em> and <em>how</em> conspiracy theories persist and persevere over time on social media.</p>
<p>We found that social media can help breed a shared identity toward conspiracy theory radicalisation by acting as an echo chamber for such beliefs. The core characteristics of social media play a critical role in building and reinforcing identity echo chambers. For example, they enable individuals to become increasingly committed to such theories through having an easy and persistent access to content that feeds their misconstrued beliefs. Such individuals can imagine themselves to be “real life investigators”, yet scour the Internet searching only for information that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/confirmation-bias">confirms their pre-existing beliefs</a>.</p>
<p>Online networks also enable individuals to replicate conspiracy theories easily by simply sharing or copy/pasting related content. This information is therefore quickly visible to followers or members of a forum which can then be visible through hashtags and via algorithms that are used by some platforms. Our study identifies four key stages in the escalation of such conspiracy beliefs.</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Identity confirmation</strong>: Users consult and view different types of content (via fora, mainstream media and social media) to actively verify and confirm their own views.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Identity affirmation</strong>: Individuals disassociate or pick selectively information from their original sources of information (mentioned above). In the case of “Pizzagate”, conspiracy-minded users took pictures from the Clinton Foundation’s support work in Haiti, created visual materials supporting supposed connections to a sex-trafficking ring, and then posted them on Reddit and 4chan. While obviously altered and taken out of context, the images were widely shared to promote the conspiracy theory.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Identity protection</strong>: Individuals safeguard their “informational environment” by actively seeking to discredit individuals or organisations that present contradictory evidence, for example with antagonistic or negative posts or comments.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Identity enactment</strong>: Individuals seek broader social approval from a more mainstream audience. This can also lead to efforts to recruit more people and call for violent actions, leveraging the community userbase.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>These stages actually constitute a spiralling loop, reinforcing a conspiratorial shared social identity and enabling a potential escalation to radicalisation.</p>
<h2>Prevention, not more information</h2>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/isj.12427">Our findings</a> underline the need to rethink some of the current fact-based approaches, which have not only been proven to be ineffective, but that actually feed conspiratorial beliefs. Instead, we encourage policymakers to focus on prevention and support education.</p>
<p>More than ever, developing media literacy and critical-thinking skills that can help citizens assess the credibility and validity of online information sources has become a critical challenge. Those skills include analysis, synthesis, contrasting evidence and options to spot flaws and inconsistencies, among others.</p>
<p>It is also important to address the underlying social issues that can contribute to the spread of conspiracy theories. The reality of conspiracy-theory communities is that they often represent marginalised populations of our society – their very existence is made possible by social exclusion. Addressing social exclusion and promoting community values may also help combat the spread of conspiracy theories.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209413/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christine Abdalla Mikhaeil is a member of the Association for Information Systems (AIS).</span></em></p>Conspiracy theories may be baseless, but they can have a range of harmful real-world consequences, including spreading lies, undermining trust in media and government and inciting violence.Christine Abdalla Mikhaeil, Assistant professor in information systems, IÉSEG School of ManagementLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2103772023-07-26T02:18:06Z2023-07-26T02:18:06ZDo rebrands work? Can you trademark an X? An expert answers the burning questions on Musk’s Twitter pivot<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539399/original/file-20230726-19-hqzuh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C220%2C6997%2C4248&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-hand-holding-phone-social-networking-2336316901">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>To non-moguls, Elon Musk’s (perhaps temporary) rebrand of Twitter to “X” may seem high risk, amateurish, or even capricious. But it is likely doing exactly what he intended: generating enormous global interest, pushing Twitter closer to his other X brands (<a href="https://www.spacex.com/">SpaceX</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Model_X">Tesla Model X</a>, <a href="https://x.ai/">xAI</a>), and clearing the way for a profitable merging of technologies.</p>
<h2>What happened to the blue bird?</h2>
<p>Last weekend, Musk began the (reversible) changes by renaming the Twitter platform X on its website and replacing the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/who-made-that-twitter-bird.html">iconic blue bird logo</a> with a crowdsourced “<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1683171310388535296">interim</a>” white “X” on a black background.</p>
<p>Later, Musk posted an image of the character <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1683378289031761920">projected on the firm’s San Francisco headquarters</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1683171310388535296">tweeted</a> (or is that “X’d”?) that x.com now redirects to twitter.com.</p>
<p>The X bears a strong resemblance to the <a href="https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/U+1D54F">Unicode character</a> “mathematical double-struck capital X”, derived from the way bold characters are usually <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_bold">written on blackboards</a> in maths lectures. The logo is still undergoing iterations, with a <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/25/23807418/twitter-x-logo-design-change-elon-musk">short-lived thickening of the lines</a> going live on July 26, before Musk announced he didn’t like it and would revert.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1683378289031761920"}"></div></p>
<p>Linda Yaccarino, Twitter’s CEO and <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/05/12/twitter-ceo-linda-yaccarino-elon-musk-glass-cliff-female-leaders/">potential scapegoat</a> if the rebrand goes wrong, also confirmed the launch on Sunday, <a href="https://twitter.com/lindayacc/status/1683353772917940225">tweeting</a>, “X is here! Let’s do this.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/elon-musks-hardcore-management-style-a-case-study-in-what-not-to-do-194999">Elon Musk's 'hardcore' management style: a case study in what not to do</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Has a radical rebrand ever succeeded?</h2>
<p>In 2021, Facebook rebranded its holding company to Meta. But it kept “Facebook”, gave us the <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-the-metaverse/">metaverse</a>, and didn’t deprive the world of a cute feathery icon and concept of “tweeting”.</p>
<p>Branding experts around the globe have been quick to condemn the Twitter shakeup as too sudden and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-x-rebrand-tech-marketing-brand-value-2023-7">destructive of brand capital</a>. That’s perhaps because even slight name changes are known to be risky. Kentucky Fried Chicken <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/kfc-and-fried/">officially rebranded to KFC</a>. Pepsi was once Pepsi-Cola. These successful adjustments took time and careful management. </p>
<p>Dramatic renaming of a household name has basically never worked. And there’s no doubt a black “X” replacing “Twitter” is dramatic. It smashes the metaphor of birds updating one another in an idyllic blue-sky ecosystem. Sentimental fans holding out for a return to the good old days have now got the memo: Twitter isn’t for you.</p>
<p>But perhaps that’s the point. To me, X – a symbol that can be a cattle marker or an illiterate signature – seems like a probe to perturb and test the market.</p>
<p>Musk isn’t renaming fast food or soft drinks. Twitter is in the hyper-dynamic business of information. Musk is agile and well armed. So maybe new branding rules are being forged.</p>
<p>Musk’s progressive alienation of Twitter’s traditional users could be an attempt to refresh the platform’s demographic – to draw in those true to his other brands, while shaking off unprofitable sceptics. This would certainly fit with the push X gives towards Musk’s other X brands. </p>
<p>Most commentators have latched onto the idea the change is sudden, irreversible, and complete in one day. But Musk’s past business endeavours suggest he is a strategist. The change will take time to play out and can likely be revised, reversed and adjusted as feedback is generated.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-will-elon-musks-ownership-of-twitter-mean-for-free-speech-on-the-platform-181626">What will Elon Musk's ownership of Twitter mean for 'free speech' on the platform?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Doesn’t someone else own the “X” trademark?</h2>
<p>Trademarking of “X” is probably not pivotal to the Twitter rebrand. But achieving limited ownership of the letter is not as preposterous as it sounds.</p>
<p>Trademarks are granted or refused based on their ability to identify the source of the associated goods or services. This means X can function as a trademark if it clearly identifies Twitter in the minds of the public (provided another Twitter-like service doesn’t currently hold the trademark). Famous brands have advantages: Musk has already garnered enough media attention to ensure X is now a globally recognised term for his company.</p>
<p>Is X a generic term and thus not trademarkable? <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01622439211055482">My own research</a> argues trademarks used by tech firms involved in consumer search and decision making (like Twitter) are inherently <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark">generic</a>. But under the 77-year-old <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/lanham_act">Lanham Act</a> that still governs trademarks in the United States, X would have to be a common generic name for <em>all</em> services like Twitter to be refused. It isn’t. It’s mostly just a generic term for the 24th letter of the alphabet.</p>
<p>Speculation about the legality of X as a trademark is one thing. My time <a href="https://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/search?search=shackell&sort=2&page=1">writing about trademarks</a>, has taught me the reality in courts and tribunals is another. Both <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/problem-with-x-meta-microsoft-hundreds-more-own-trademarks-new-twitter-name-2023-07-25/">Microsoft and Meta</a> (and many others) have laid claims to X in the past for various goods and services.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1683568173809844229"}"></div></p>
<p>Lawsuits over X may be filed, but final determinations could be years in the courts. And if things go badly, Musk has just shown his willingness to pivot.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-digital-town-square-what-does-it-mean-when-billionaires-own-the-online-spaces-where-we-gather-182047">The 'digital town square'? What does it mean when billionaires own the online spaces where we gather?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is Musk trying to achieve?</h2>
<p>Tech commentators are intrigued by the idea the X rebrand is part of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-x-everything-app-twitter-details-2022-10">Musk’s plan</a> to create a <a href="https://www.wechat.com/">WeChat</a>-style “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/05/22/elon-musk-wants-to-build-an-everything-app-heres-how-the-worlds-most-popular-one-works/?sh=101412ac4a20">everything app</a>” that would converge messaging, search, online shopping and mobile payment. Twitter CEO, Yaccarino, <a href="https://twitter.com/lindayacc/status/1683214311957594113">has said as much</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1683214311957594113"}"></div></p>
<p>I find that analysis too simplistic, especially given the ongoing focus on <a href="https://hbr.org/2023/02/microsoft-google-and-a-new-era-of-antitrust">antitrust</a>. Musk is arguably in a position to survey (and reshape) the landscape of not just “town square” discourse but space travel, artificial intelligence (AI), transportation and even <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/20/twitter-lifts-donald-trump-ban-after-elon-musks-poll">politics</a>. He operates on a scale incompatible with endgames. I sense the X rebrand is more about a direction of travel. Or even a sacrifice for a greater goal.</p>
<p>The X rebrand could relate to AI (Musk had a role in a <a href="https://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/article/there-data-drought-ai-projects-might-be-about-get-expensive">data drought</a> this year by restricting Twitter data access). Or it could be testing the waters for a different pivot later in the year. Or it could be an attempt to distract from some other move. There’s no way to know.</p>
<p>Even the phrase “time will tell” is no help. How can we know if an unknown plan succeeds or not? Does Musk care if Twitter disappears? Does he care if he is worth two hundred billion or three hundred billion?</p>
<p>Welcome to the inscrutable world of X.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210377/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cameron Shackell works as a freelance brand and marketing consultant but does not work for any company mentioned in this article. He is a regular contributor to World Trademark Review which is linked to in this article.</span></em></p>Twitter has been officially rebranded to X, in a process many would deem chaotic. But we can still try to make sense of it.Cameron Shackell, Sessional Academic, Visitor, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1968622023-04-06T12:06:48Z2023-04-06T12:06:48ZMacaque monkeys shrink their social networks as they age – research suggests evolutionary roots of a pattern seen in elderly people, too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517325/original/file-20230324-22-v5nrpg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=157%2C0%2C2994%2C2087&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Older monkeys still hang out, just with a smaller circle of intimates.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lauren Brent</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are many changes that can come with old age – hair turns gray, eyesight isn’t quite what it used to be, mobility often becomes limited. But beyond these physiological changes, people also experience changes to their social world. As we age, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028601">our social circles tend to get smaller</a>.</p>
<p>Such declines in social networks have raised concern among scientists who are aware of just how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aax9553">important social relationships are to health and well-being</a>. Being socially isolated can harm health as much as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316">obesity, alcoholism or sedentary living</a>.</p>
<p>In the past decade, however, scientists have started to think that the shrinking of social networks with age might not be all bad.</p>
<p>Rather than social declines being driven exclusively by the death of friends or deteriorating health, people might become more selective in their social interactions as they age. After all, many older adults tend to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.9.2.315">focus their social effort on family and close friends</a>. This change in social focus might result from older adults’ being <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.3.165">aware of the limited time they have left</a> and prioritizing their most important relationships.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://erinsiracusa.weebly.com/">behavioral ecologist</a> and <a href="https://smack-lab.com/team/noah-snyder-mackler/">a molecular ecologist</a>, we were interested in understanding the evolutionary roots of these age-based changes in social focus.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505683/original/file-20230121-20-idfswj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Lone monkey sits on some branches" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505683/original/file-20230121-20-idfswj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505683/original/file-20230121-20-idfswj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505683/original/file-20230121-20-idfswj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505683/original/file-20230121-20-idfswj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505683/original/file-20230121-20-idfswj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505683/original/file-20230121-20-idfswj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505683/original/file-20230121-20-idfswj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An older female macaque sits alone on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Noah Snyder-Mackler</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To investigate whether other animals share these patterns of social selectivity with age, we turned to a free-roaming population of over 200 macaques on the island of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j1ezxH0hAQ">Cayo Santiago</a> in Puerto Rico. In collaboration <a href="http://www.laurenbrent.com/">with</a> <a href="https://www.nyuprimatology.com/">our</a> <a href="https://plattlabs.rocks/our-team/michael-platt">colleagues</a>, we collected eight years of data about how these monkeys interacted with one another as they got older.</p>
<p>We found striking parallels to the patterns of social aging seen in humans, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2209180119">our study sheds light on the causes and potential consequences</a> of shrinking social networks with age.</p>
<h2>Picky partner choice</h2>
<p>We focused specifically on female macaques, because they have the most stable long-term relationships in this population. With the help of several dedicated research technicians, we followed these females for up to seven hours a day over the course of eight years. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505684/original/file-20230121-14-iddflb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="dozens of monkeys scattered around a rocky beach with one person standing there" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505684/original/file-20230121-14-iddflb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505684/original/file-20230121-14-iddflb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505684/original/file-20230121-14-iddflb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505684/original/file-20230121-14-iddflb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505684/original/file-20230121-14-iddflb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505684/original/file-20230121-14-iddflb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505684/original/file-20230121-14-iddflb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Daniel Phillips, a research technician, collects data on macaque social relationships on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Erin Siracusa</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, we found that female macaques did indeed spend time with fewer social partners as they got older. Aging macaques sat near fewer partners and also groomed fewer partners. Grooming is an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02557701">important bonding behavior</a> in macaques that females do only with their besties. </p>
<p>Importantly, this reduction in females’ social circles was not precipitated by their partners dying or by older monkeys being seen as somehow undesirable and therefore to be avoided. We observed that how often other monkeys sought out older females as social partners did not change with age.</p>
<p>Instead, there seemed to be clear evidence that females were actively reducing the size of their social networks over time. Specifically, as females got older, they initiated interactions with fewer group mates. We observed these declines beginning in females who were in their prime years (around 10 years old) all the way through those who were near the end of their lives (around 28 years old).</p>
<h2>A family matter</h2>
<p>Of course, an important piece of this puzzle is who these female macaques did choose to interact with as they got older. </p>
<p>We found that, similar to humans, aging female macaques focused their time and effort on family members and “friends” with whom they shared a particularly strong and stable bond.</p>
<p>While this narrowing of networks and focus on kith and kin does not necessarily result from macaques’ being aware they are nearing death – scientists aren’t sure if nonhuman animals have an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0486">awareness of their own mortality</a> – it does suggest that there may be a shared evolutionary reason for social selectivity in humans and other primates.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505685/original/file-20230121-31602-irg6sz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two monkeys pick through the fur of a third lying on the ground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505685/original/file-20230121-31602-irg6sz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505685/original/file-20230121-31602-irg6sz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505685/original/file-20230121-31602-irg6sz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505685/original/file-20230121-31602-irg6sz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505685/original/file-20230121-31602-irg6sz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505685/original/file-20230121-31602-irg6sz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505685/original/file-20230121-31602-irg6sz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A female macaque grooms her offspring on Cayo Santiagio, Puerto Rico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lauren Brent</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Why might this be? </p>
<p>One possibility stems from the fact that as humans and other mammals get older they experience <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13343">declines in their immune system</a>. We get sick more easily and have a harder time recovering when we do come down with something.</p>
<p>Reducing one’s social circle with age may be an important way to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2020.07.004">avoid acquiring a disease or other illness</a>. Such a decrease need not be a deliberate strategy, but could be an unconscious tendency that was selected for over evolutionary time because it enhanced biological fitness in our primate ancestors. As a result, this pattern might persist today, even in humans well beyond their reproductive years. </p>
<h2>A hopeful outlook</h2>
<p>So, what does this all mean? Understanding how people can <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ageing-and-health">live longer and healthier lives is a central priority</a> for health organizations worldwide. Figuring out how to maintain valuable social relationships into old age is likely to play a key role in that endeavor.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505686/original/file-20230121-8189-crf3zj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="five monkeys relax together; two small ones are nursing" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505686/original/file-20230121-8189-crf3zj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505686/original/file-20230121-8189-crf3zj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505686/original/file-20230121-8189-crf3zj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505686/original/file-20230121-8189-crf3zj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505686/original/file-20230121-8189-crf3zj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505686/original/file-20230121-8189-crf3zj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505686/original/file-20230121-8189-crf3zj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An older female macaque spends time with her family on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lauren Brent</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The results from this study indicate that the shrinking of networks across the life span is an aging pattern that is not unique to humans but may be present in other primates. </p>
<p>While <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1219686110">loneliness in the elderly</a> is a health concern that should not be ignored, there may be important distinctions between those who are unwillingly isolated as they get older and those who choose to stick to a smaller social circle. In the latter cases, shrinking networks with age may not be all bad.</p>
<p>Instead, there may be important benefits to be gained from being selective in our socializing as we get older, which has allowed this pattern to persist for millennia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196862/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin Siracusa has received or currently receives funding from the American Society of Mammalogists, the Arctic Institute of North America, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the National Institute of Health, and the European Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noah Snyder-Mackler has received or currently receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Leakey Foundation, Arizona State University, and the University of Washington.</span></em></p>Many older people tend to trim their social circles and focus their social efforts on family and close friends. New research on our close primate relatives may help explain why.Erin Siracusa, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Animal Behaviour, University of ExeterNoah Snyder-Mackler, Assistant Professor of Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1985492023-02-02T09:00:56Z2023-02-02T09:00:56ZWhen critical thinking isn’t enough: to beat information overload, we need to learn ‘critical ignoring’<p>The web is an informational paradise and a hellscape at the same time. A boundless wealth of high-quality information is available at our fingertips right next to a ceaseless torrent of low-quality, distracting, false and manipulative information.</p>
<p>The platforms that control search were conceived in sin. Their business model auctions off our most precious and limited cognitive resource: attention. These platforms work overtime to hijack our attention by purveying information that arouses curiosity, outrage, or anger. The more our eyeballs remain glued to the screen, the more ads they can show us, and the greater profits accrue to their shareholders. </p>
<p>It is hardly surprising, therefore, all this should take a toll on our collective attention. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09311-w">A 2019 analysis</a> of Twitter hashtags, Google queries, or Reddit comments found that across the past decade, the rate at which the popularity of items rises and drops has accelerated. In 2013, for example, a hashtag on Twitter was popular on average for 17.5 hours, while in 2016, its popularity faded away after 11.9 hours. More competition leads to shorter collective attention intervals, which lead to ever fiercer competition for our attention – a vicious circle. </p>
<p>To regain control, we need cognitive strategies that help us reclaim at least some autonomy and shield us from the excesses, traps and information disorders of today’s attention economy.</p>
<h2>Critical thinking is not enough</h2>
<p>The textbook cognitive strategy is <em>critical thinking</em>, an intellectually disciplined, self-guided and effortful process to help identify valid information. In school, students are taught to <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED541436.pdf">closely and carefully read</a> and evaluate information. Thus equipped, they can evaluate the claims and arguments they see, hear, or read. No objection. The ability to think critically is immensely important.</p>
<p>But is it enough in a world of information overabundance and gushing sources of disinformation? The answer is “No” for at least two reasons.</p>
<p>First, the digital world contains more information than the world’s libraries combined. Much of it comes from unvetted sources and lacks reliable indicators of trustworthiness. Critically thinking through all information and sources we come across would utterly paralyse us because we would never have time to actually read the valuable information we painstakingly identify.</p>
<p>Second, investing critical thinking in sources that should have been ignored in the first place means that attention merchants and malicious actors have been gifted what they wanted, our attention.</p>
<h2>Critical ignoring to make information management feasible</h2>
<p>So, what tools do we have at our disposal beyond critical thinking? <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09637214221121570">In our recent article</a>, we – a philosopher, two cognitive scientists and an education scientist – argue that as much as we need critical thinking we also need <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-navigate-the-dangers-of-the-web-you-need-critical-thinking-but-also-critical-ignoring-158617"><em>critical ignoring</em></a>.</p>
<p>Critical ignoring is the ability to choose what to ignore and where to invest one’s limited attentional capacities. Critical ignoring is more than just not paying attention – it’s about practising mindful and healthy habits in the face of information overabundance.</p>
<p>We understand it as a core competence for all citizens in the digital word.</p>
<p>Without it, we will drown in a sea of information that is, at best, distracting and, at worst, misleading and harmful. </p>
<h2>Tools for critical ignoring</h2>
<p>Three main strategies exist for critical ignoring. Each one responds to a different type of noxious information.</p>
<p>In the digital world, <strong><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioural-public-policy/article/selfnudging-and-the-citizen-choice-architect/F526628F7F3C7B436FA2BCBFC1FC3C76">self-nudging</a></strong> aims to empower people to be citizen “choice architects” by designing their informational environments in ways that work best for them and that constrain their activities in beneficial ways. We can, for instance, remove distracting and irresistible notifications. We may set specific times in which messages can be received, thereby creating pockets of time for concentrated work or socialising. Self-nudging can also help us take control of our digital default settings, for instance, by restricting the use of our personal data for purposes of targeted advertisement.</p>
<p><strong>Lateral reading</strong> is a strategy that enables people to emulate how professional fact checkers establish the <a href="https://time.com/5362183/the-real-fake-news-crisis/">credibility of online information</a>. It involves opening up new browser tabs to search for information about the organisation or individual behind a site before diving into its contents. Only after consulting the open web do skilled searchers gauge whether expending attention is worth it. Before critical thinking can begin, the first step is to ignore the lure of the site and check out what others say about its alleged factual reports. Lateral reading thus uses the power of the web to check the web.</p>
<p>Most students <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0013189X211017495">fail</a> at that task. Past studies show that, when deciding whether a source should be trusted, students (as well as <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2017/10/even-smart-people-are-shockingly-bad-at-analyzing-sources-online-this-might-be-an-actual-solution/">university professors</a>) do what years of school has taught them to do – they read closely and carefully. Attention merchants as well as merchants of doubt are jubilant.</p>
<p>Online, looks can be deceiving. Unless one has extensive background knowledge it is often very difficult to figure out that a site, filled with the trappings of serious research, peddles falsehoods about climate change or vaccinations or any variety of historical topics, such as the Holocaust. Instead of getting entangled in the site’s reports and professional design, fact checkers exercise critical ignoring. They evaluate the site by leaving it and engage in lateral reading instead.</p>
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<p>The <strong>do-not-feed-the-trolls heuristic</strong> targets online trolls and other malicious users who harass, cyberbully or use other antisocial tactics. Trolls thrive on attention, and deliberate spreaders of dangerous disinformation often resort to trolling tactics. One of the main strategies that science denialists use is to hijack people’s attention by <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/merchants-of-doubt-9781608193943/">creating the appearance of a debate where none exists</a>. The heuristic advises against directly responding to trolling. Resist debating or retaliating. Of course, this strategy of critical ignoring is only a first line of defence. It should be complemented by blocking and reporting trolls and by transparent platform content moderation policies including debunking.</p>
<p>These three strategies are not a set of elite skills. Everybody can make use of them, but educational efforts are crucial for bringing these tools to the public.</p>
<h2>Critical ignoring as a new paradigm for education</h2>
<p>The philosopher Michael Lynch has <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/09/googling-is-believing-trumping-the-informed-citizen/">noted</a> that the Internet “is both the world’s best fact-checker and the world’s best bias confirmer – often at the same time.”</p>
<p>Navigating it successfully requires new competencies that should be taught in school. Without the competence to choose what to ignore and where to invest one’s limited attention, we allow others to seize control of our eyes and minds. Appreciation for the importance of critically ignoring is not new but has become even more crucial in the digital world. </p>
<p>As the philosopher and psychologist William James astutely observed at the beginning of the 20th century: “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to ignore.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198549/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ralph Hertwig receives funding from the Volkswagen Foundation and the European Commission (HORIZON 2022 grant GA 101094752). He has collaborated with researchers in the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephan Lewandowsky receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 964728 (JITSUVAX). He also receives funding from Jigsaw (a technology incubator created by Google), from UK Research and Innovation (through the Centre of Excellence, REPHRAIN), and from the Volkswagen Foundation in Germany. He also holds a European Research Council Advanced Grant (no. 101020961, PRODEMINFO) and receives funding from the John Templeton Foundation (via Wake Forest University’s Honesty Project). He has worked with the European Commission on issues relating to social media governance and regulation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anastasia Kozyreva et Sam Wineburg ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur poste universitaire.</span></em></p>Lateral reading, self-nudging and a persistent refusal to feed the trolls are some of the ways one can better manage information.Ralph Hertwig, Director, Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human DevelopmentAnastasia Kozyreva, Cognitive scientist, Max Planck Institute for Human DevelopmentSam Wineburg, Professor of Education and (by courtesy) History, Stanford UniversityStephan Lewandowsky, Chair of Cognitive Psychology, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1932822023-01-26T19:29:15Z2023-01-26T19:29:15ZWhat happens to our data when we no longer use a social media network or publishing platform?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506201/original/file-20230124-16-6trwgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C4242%2C2806&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What happened to all of the content posted on social media platforms and blogs — like MySpace and LiveJournal — more than two decades ago?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The internet plays a central role in our lives. I — and many others my age — grew up alongside the development of social media and content platforms. </p>
<p>My peers and I built personal websites on <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/692445/remembering-geocities-the-1990s-precursor-to-social-media/">GeoCities</a>, blogged on <a href="https://www.livejournal.com/about/">LiveJournal</a>, made friends on <a href="https://www.failory.com/cemetery/myspace">MySpace</a> and hung out on <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/society/technology/nexopia-is-an-online-utopia-for-teens/">Nexopia</a>. Many of these earlier platforms and social spaces occupy large parts of youth memories. For that reason, the web has become a complex entanglement of attachment and connection. </p>
<p>My doctoral research looks at how we have become “databound” — <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1807/125246">attached to the data we have produced throughout our lives in ways we both can and cannot control</a>. </p>
<p>What happens to our data when we abandon a platform? What should become of it? Would you want a say? </p>
<h2>Massive amounts of personal data</h2>
<p>We produce data every day as part of our work, communication, banking, housing, transportation and social life. We are often unaware — and therefore unable to refuse — how much data we produce, and we seldom have a say in how it’s used, stored or deployed. </p>
<p>This lack of control negatively impacts us, and the effects are disproportionate across the different intersections of race, gender and class. Information about our identities can be used in algorithms and by others to <a href="https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/patterns-of-use-conceptualising-the-role-of-web-archives-in-onlin">oppress,</a> <a href="https://www.dhi.ac.uk/san/waysofbeing/data/data-crone-crawford-2015b.pdf">discriminate</a>, <a href="https://pudding.cool/2021/10/lenna/">harass</a>,<a href="https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/10483.001.0001"> dox</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.26522/ssj.v15i3.2536">otherwise harm us</a>. </p>
<p>Personal data privacy is often thought of along the lines of <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9271365/privacy-sobeys-data-breach-perscriptions/">corporate breaches</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/scarborough-health-network-data-breach-1.6465355">medical record hacks</a> and <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-gamblers-affected-by-recent-betmgm-data-breach-1.6217778">credit card theft</a>. </p>
<p>My research into youth participation and data production on the popular platforms that characterized the late 1990s to 2000s — like GeoCities, Nexopia, LiveJournal and MySpace — shows that this time period is an era of data privacy that is not often considered in our contemporary context. </p>
<p>The data is often personal and created within specific contexts of social and digital participation. Examples include diary-style blogs, creative writing, selfies and participating in fandom. This user-generated content, unless actions are taken to carefully delete them, can have a long life: <a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/01/10/the-tyranny-of-the-internet-is-forever/">the internet is forever</a>.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-real-problem-with-posting-about-your-kids-online-110131">The real problem with posting about your kids online</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Decisions about what should happen to our digital traces should be influenced by the people who made them. Their use impacts our privacy, autonomy and anonymity, and is ultimately a question of power. </p>
<p>Typically, when a website or platform “dies,” or “<a href="https://www.netlingo.com/word/sunset.php">sunsets</a>,” decisions about data are made by employees of the company on an <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-05-04/yahoo-answers-shut-down-social-platforms">ad-hoc basis</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm7qN7MuTMT","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Controlling data</h2>
<p>Proprietary data — that which is produced on a platform and held by the company — is at the discretion of the company, not the people who produced it. More often, options that a platform provides to users to determine their privacy or deletion do not remove all digital traces from the internal database. While some data is deleted on a regular basis (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/10/yahoo-deleted-all-my-emails-and-theres-nothing-i-can-do-about-it">like Yahoo email</a>), other data can remain online for a very long time. </p>
<p>Sometimes, this data is collected by the <a href="https://archive.org/">Internet Archive</a>, an online digital library. Once archived, it becomes part of our collective cultural heritage. But there is no consensus or standards for how this data should be treated. </p>
<p>Users should be invited to consider how they would want their platform data to be collected, stored, preserved, deployed or destroyed, and in which contexts. What should become of our data?</p>
<p>In my research, I interviewed users about their opinions on archiving and deletion. Responses varied drastically: while some were disappointed when they discovered their blogs from the 2000s had vanished, others were horrified at their continued existence. </p>
<p>These varying opinions often fell along differences in context of production such as: the original size of their perceived audience, the sensitivity of the material, and whether the content comprised photographs or text, used vague or explicit language, or contained links to identifiable information like a current Facebook profile. </p>
<h2>Privacy protections</h2>
<p>It is often <a href="https://aoir.org/ethics/">debated by researchers</a> whether user-generated content should be used for research, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-12-2021-0125">under what conditions</a>. </p>
<p>In Canada, the <a href="https://ethics.gc.ca/eng/policy-politique_tcps2-eptc2_2022.html">Tri-Council Policy Statement</a> guidelines for ethical research assert that publicly accessible information has no reasonable expectations of privacy. However, there are interpretations that include social media specific requirements for ethical use. Still, public and private distinctions are not easily made within digital contexts. </p>
<p>The European Union’s <a href="https://gdpr-info.eu/">General Data Protection Regulation</a> (GDPR) has helped shift the standards with which personal data is treated by corporations and beyond, expanding rights to consider restrictions to access, amend, delete and move personal data.</p>
<p>Articles 17 and 19 of the GDPR on the <a href="https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/individuals/know-your-rights/right-erasure-articles-17-19-gdpr">right to erasure (the right to be forgotten)</a> are a significant move toward individual digital privacy rights. Those in the EU have legal standing to remove their digital traces, should it contribute towards personal injury, harm or provide inaccurate information.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506656/original/file-20230126-20-o6lxgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two teenage girls wearing sunglasses take a selfie" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506656/original/file-20230126-20-o6lxgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506656/original/file-20230126-20-o6lxgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506656/original/file-20230126-20-o6lxgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506656/original/file-20230126-20-o6lxgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506656/original/file-20230126-20-o6lxgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506656/original/file-20230126-20-o6lxgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506656/original/file-20230126-20-o6lxgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We often produce and upload content without considering its long-term impacts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The right to online safety</h2>
<p>However, many have argued that a focus on individual privacy through informed consent is not well placed in digital contexts where privacy is often collectively experienced. Informed consent models also perpetuate expectations that individuals can maintain boundaries around their data and should be able to anticipate future uses of it. </p>
<p>Suggesting that platform users can “take charge” of their digital lives places the impetus on them to <a href="https://reallifemag.com/digital-hygiene/">constantly self-surveil and limit their digital traces</a>. Most data production is out of a user’s control, simply because of the metadata generated by moving through online space. </p>
<p>If the web is to be a space of learning, play, exploration and connection, then constantly mitigating future risk by anticipating how and when personal information may be used actively works against those goals.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/social-media-and-society-125586"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498128/original/file-20221129-22-imtnz0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="100%"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193282/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie Mackinnon received funding from Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS).</span></em></p>Social media and publishing platform users have generated vast amounts of data. This data remains online long after people have stopped using the platforms, and can impact people’s lives.Katie Mackinnon, Postdoctoral Fellow, Critical Digital Humanities Initiative, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1958632023-01-04T11:59:38Z2023-01-04T11:59:38ZYour style of social media use may be connected to your wellbeing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499860/original/file-20221208-17002-c5cvm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C11%2C1911%2C1379&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/media-social-media-apps-998990/">Pixabay</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Are you a <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-to-manage-your-doomscrolling-habit-183265">doom scroller</a> or a frequent Tweeter? Do you pass the time by flicking endlessly through others’ posts on social networking sites, or perhaps you use these platforms to share your own content? Psychologists believe our style of social media usage has important effects on our psychological wellbeing, but we’ve struggled to measure people’s online behaviour accurately – until now.</p>
<p>It’s estimated that more than <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/">4 billion</a> people use social media worldwide, which is expected to rise to a staggering 6 billion by 2027. Although many people consider social media to be a good thing, helping us to connect with vast social networks, others argue that replacing meaningful, real-world interactions with virtual ones is having negative effects on our mental health. </p>
<p>This has sparked an explosion of research on the topic, which has begun to show that the way people engage with social media might be more important than <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12033">how much they use it</a>. To investigate the different ways in which people use social media, researchers have created numerous questionnaires that ask people about their online behaviour. </p>
<p>While this research has revealed potential categories of user, it remains unclear what effects these different engagement styles have on our <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448211065425">psychological wellbeing</a>. This is likely due to a fundamental problem with questionnaires designed to assess behaviour: how we think we behave can often be very different to how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2019.05.004">we actually act</a>. </p>
<h2>Introducing a new tool</h2>
<p>Rather than asking people how they use social media, we developed a tool to measure their actual behaviour, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276765">the Social Networking Site Behaviour Task (SNSBT)</a>. In an online study, we asked 526 adults across the globe to engage with the SNSBT.</p>
<p>First, we told each person they would be connected to a network of 99 other “friends” on a new social networking platform, and they would see images posted by other members of that network. In response to each image, people could do one of three things. </p>
<p>They could either press “next” to scroll through the images, like it (with a heart icon), or share it with the rest of the network, which prompted comments from other “friends”. Everyone was told that not all members of the network were “friends” with every other member, so shared images would be seen by some people for the first time. </p>
<p>After responding to 120 images, which took approximately 30 minutes, people completed four questionnaires that asked them about their thoughts and feelings towards their social lives. How lonely they felt, their feelings of connectedness and belonging to real (physical) social networks, and the amount of emotional support they felt they got from their online networks. </p>
<h2>It’s not what you do, it’s the way you do it</h2>
<p>We analysed people’s behaviour on the SNSBT with a technique that allowed us to identify groups of people with similar styles of behaviour during the task. This revealed three distinct groups:</p>
<p>Passive users pressed next on 85% of images. They showed a preference to scroll through the content posted by other members of the network.</p>
<p>Reactive users also scrolled content, pressing next on 59% of images, but they pressed like on just over a third of the images (compared to just 13% in passive users). </p>
<p>Interactive users pressed like half the time, but also shared 20% of the images – considerably more than passive (1%) and reactive users (5%).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Different styles of social media useage: interactive, reactive, and passive." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499863/original/file-20221208-7252-wsoxgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499863/original/file-20221208-7252-wsoxgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499863/original/file-20221208-7252-wsoxgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499863/original/file-20221208-7252-wsoxgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499863/original/file-20221208-7252-wsoxgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499863/original/file-20221208-7252-wsoxgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499863/original/file-20221208-7252-wsoxgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Different styles of social media useage: Passive, Reactive and Interactive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image created by the researchers.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The groups also reported different feelings towards their social lives. Although they did not differ in their experiences of loneliness, interactive users said they felt more connected to their physical networks and experienced more emotional support from their online networks compared to passive users. Reactive users sat in the middle. </p>
<h2>Where do we go from here?</h2>
<p>So, what does this all mean? Will you feel worse about your social life if you continue to doom scroll and better about it if you start liking and sharing posts? Maybe, but not necessarily. Although we found differences between the groups in people’s feelings towards their social lives, we can’t say their usage styles caused these differences because we found other factors that might play a role. </p>
<p>For instance, interactive users said they had larger online social networks than passive users. This makes sense, right? How can you feel socially connected if you have nobody to connect with? Also, while there were equal numbers of males and females in the passive group, there were more females in the reactive and more males in the interactive groups. It wasn’t clear why.</p>
<p>What this study does show is our relationship with social media is far more complex than we might have thought. It’s not as simple as asking whether the time we spend on social media is good or bad for us, because the answer might depend on how we use it. The SNSBT is one of the first tools that is allowing us and other researchers to measure this directly. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498128/original/file-20221129-22-imtnz0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498128/original/file-20221129-22-imtnz0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=115&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498128/original/file-20221129-22-imtnz0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=115&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498128/original/file-20221129-22-imtnz0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=115&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498128/original/file-20221129-22-imtnz0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498128/original/file-20221129-22-imtnz0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498128/original/file-20221129-22-imtnz0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><br><em>The Conversation is commissioning articles by academics across the world who are researching how society is being shaped by our digital interactions with each other. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/social-media-and-society-125586">Read more here</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195863/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new experimental task reveals distinct styles of engagement on social networking sites associated with different perceptions of social connectedness.Charlotte Pennington, Lecturer in Psychology, Aston UniversityDaniel Shaw, Lecturer in Psychology, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1964132022-12-23T07:37:28Z2022-12-23T07:37:28ZLinkedIn at 20: how a new breed of influencer is transforming the business networking giant<p>When someone says social media, you probably don’t immediately think of LinkedIn. But there’s no denying that the business networking site has gone the distance: it is now 20 years since it was founded in Silicon Valley. </p>
<p>It was the brainchild of Reid Hoffman, a US entrepreneur who worked on an early social media platform for Apple before launching one of his own in 1997. <a href="https://www.inc.com/business-insider/reid-hoffman-on-the-failure-of-his-first-company.html">SocialNet</a> was a dating and professional connections site, but folded two years later after failing to find a big enough userbase in those early days of the web. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501502/original/file-20221216-21-tfee6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman talking at a conferece" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501502/original/file-20221216-21-tfee6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501502/original/file-20221216-21-tfee6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501502/original/file-20221216-21-tfee6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501502/original/file-20221216-21-tfee6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501502/original/file-20221216-21-tfee6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501502/original/file-20221216-21-tfee6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501502/original/file-20221216-21-tfee6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/160866001@N07/48814467481/in/photolist-2hnyUvF-Ecm2i5-F1Sjoc-Js96ox-F1Sha4-F7Kyz1-7PVv2R-EckLrm-dGB3Lw-EGtAKd-F7Kv7j-2hnyUow-7oyoNH-7nXaKT-F7KsUo-EcFpL2-5udhLS-jKZ6WQ-diuQqH-bv49kH-EwLR-bv472k-jKYJ1e-9nxoQG-bv46vt-4D3F5r-bv49Ak-k97YS-bv48Q8-bv49tn-cfyudY-bv46HZ-bv48qD-5u8Uhv-2V5HDP-k98hj-dxt8Ua-5udiVW-7PZioG-dxt7Lz-5udiQ7-an2zqu-3j7kwf-5udiEU-RM59bM-bv47ir-cfywxd-an2zs1-5udiKb-cfyuyG">Marco Verch</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hoffman went on to become a senior manager at PayPal, and made a substantial amount of money when it was bought by eBay in 2002. This helped him to co-found LinkedIn on December 28 2002 with a team of former SocialNet colleagues, becoming its first chief executive and later executive chairman. </p>
<p>This was a period when everyone was realising the importance of individual interconnection and peer-to-peer interactions. LinkedIn launched in May 2003, just ahead of Myspace and Facebook. But where they and others like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/opinion/elon-musk-twitter-friendster.html">Friendster</a> went after the consumer market, Hoffman’s venture was always focused on business. </p>
<h2>How it grew</h2>
<p>LinkedIn was originally set up as a place where users could share their CVs and establish a network of people who could recommend them. It took a while for the service to find its feet via innovations like allowing users to upload their contacts books (2004), as well as jobs listings (2005) and public profiles (2006). </p>
<p>LinkedIn went international in the late 2000s, opening an office first in the UK in 2008 and introducing Spanish and French language versions the same year. Jeff Weiner, formerly of Yahoo, took over as chief executive the following year as the company morphed into a proper business. </p>
<p>It made money from <a href="https://www.businessofapps.com/data/linkedin-statistics/">premium features</a> that enable users to do things like messaging outside their network, send promotional emails and access analytics. It also sells advertising space and packages to help recruiters attract talent. </p>
<p>It floated on the stock market in 2011 with a <a href="https://ipwatchdog.com/2011/05/22/linkedin-ipo-huge-success-valuation-of-8-79-billion/id=17041/">valuation of US$9 billion</a>. This helped to finance an acquisition spree that has gradually bolted new features onto the platform, such as posting articles (2015) and videos (2017). </p>
<p>The company was acquired by Microsoft in 2016 for US$26 billion (£21 billion). With Hoffman joining the Seattle giant’s board the following year and Weiner still LinkedIn’s chief executive today, Microsoft has taken a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/27/linkedin-ceo-jeff-weiner-is-ok-with-microsofts-hands-off-approach.html">relatively hands-off approach</a> to ownership. </p>
<h2>Pandemic benefits</h2>
<p>Today LinkedIn is arguably the seventh largest social network after Facebook/Messenger, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter and Tik Tok. In 2021 it had nearly 824 million users across 200 countries and territories, of which 6% (49 million) are premium subscribers, paying a minimum of US$29.99 a month. </p>
<p>Not only does LinkedIn’s business focus attract an upmarket userbase, they are <a href="https://thesocialshepherd.com/blog/linkedin-statistics#:%7E:text=Most%20of%20LinkedIn's%20Users%20are,2%25%20are%2055%20and%20older.">also youthful</a>. The majority (59%) is made up of 25-34s, followed by 18-24s (20%) and 35-54s (18%). It generated revenues of <a href="https://www.globaldata.com/data-insights/technology--media-and-telecom/linkedin-annual-revenue/#:%7E:text=Overview%20of%20LinkedIn's%20Annual%20Revenue%3A&text=In%202021%2C%20LinkedIn's%20yearly%20revenue,year%2C%20driven%20by%20marketing%20solutions.">over $10 billion</a> in 2021. </p>
<p><strong>World’s biggest social networks</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500447/original/file-20221212-99176-ejlefp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Bar graph showing the largest social networks by user numbers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500447/original/file-20221212-99176-ejlefp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500447/original/file-20221212-99176-ejlefp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500447/original/file-20221212-99176-ejlefp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500447/original/file-20221212-99176-ejlefp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500447/original/file-20221212-99176-ejlefp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500447/original/file-20221212-99176-ejlefp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500447/original/file-20221212-99176-ejlefp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">All the data is monthly active users from January 2022, except LinkedIn, which just gives user numbers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/">Statista</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>LinkedIn had a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2021/10/27/how-linkedin-can-help-you-make-a-leap-during-the-great-resignation/?sh=17927ea625d9">“good” pandemic</a>, with conversations on the platform rising 43% and content-sharing almost 30%. It benefited from a shift in how people networked, related to <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-massive-linkedin-study-reveals-who-actually-helps-you-get-that-job/">findings from numerous studies</a> that it’s the “weak links” in our professional networks who are the most important for gleaning critical information that leads us into jobs we genuinely desire.</p>
<p>At a time when the usual barriers of time and space were less relevant and Zoom calls were ubiquitous, it became the perfect moment for reconnecting with these occasional contacts. <a href="https://mashable.com/article/job-hunting-after-pandemic-linkedin-zoom">Especially with</a> so many people questioning their work situations, LinkedIn was the ideal place to see their posts and reach out to them. </p>
<p>This meant that LinkedIn played a key role in the great resignation, particularly since like the platform, this movement was dominated by millennials. Users posting about changing or quitting jobs would attract large numbers of likes and comments, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20211214-great-resignation-into-great-reshuffle">inspiring others</a> to do likewise. The fact that so many people were connected on LinkedIn multiplied the effects, making it both the main catalyst and the main solution for employers. </p>
<p><strong>LinkedIn user growth over time</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500453/original/file-20221212-113221-uu5no9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Line graph showing growth in LinkedIn user numbers over time" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500453/original/file-20221212-113221-uu5no9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500453/original/file-20221212-113221-uu5no9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500453/original/file-20221212-113221-uu5no9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500453/original/file-20221212-113221-uu5no9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500453/original/file-20221212-113221-uu5no9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500453/original/file-20221212-113221-uu5no9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500453/original/file-20221212-113221-uu5no9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://99firms.com/blog/linkedin-statistics/">Various sources</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Meet the ‘work-fluencer’</h2>
<p>LinkedIn’s role as a lightning rod for work issues is also likely to determine how it develops, as a new category of social media influencer emerges – the “<a href="https://www.businessinsider.co.za/linkedin-tiktok-workers-employees-oversharing-about-jobs-work-side-hustle-2022-11">work-fluencer</a>”. Companies are increasingly finding that employees’ LinkedIn profiles and postings can express the brand better than corporate accounts, allowing them to develop the corporate business network much more quickly and naturallyand naturally. </p>
<p>When this is done well, employee posts are usually much more authentic than corporate PR. Rather than just curating articles on professional milestones and triumphs, people have become more open and honest about day-to-day work life. </p>
<p>Over 13 million LinkedIn members have their profile set to “creator mode” to obtain higher exposure for their postings. Many use the hashtag <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/?keywords=careertiktok">#careertiktok</a> to publish things like their wages and day-in-the-life vlogs about their professions, achieving over 1.5 billion views. </p>
<p>This new “online watercooler” represents a change in the amount of information people reveal about their work on the internet. Workers are raising formerly taboo concerns like pay transparency, discrimination and professional undermining. Some professionals like lawyers, entrepreneurs and HR experts, have leveraged their posts into new content-marketing businesses and other profitable side hustles. </p>
<p>Twenty years after LinkedIn was founded, this could enable the platform to enjoy the kind of trust and community growth that other social media networks would envy. Certainly it has challenges – <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/10/not-just-twitter-linkedin-has-fake-account-problem-its-trying-to-fix.html">fake accounts</a> are an issue, for example. And LinkedIn inevitably attracts a lot of spam, which is probably one reason it doesn’t achieve the same amount of daily interactions as other social media. </p>
<p>On the other hand, it benefits from not having a single direct competitor of scale. The nearest big ones would be Facebook Groups or Reddit, but LinkedIn’s purely corporate focus is always likely to be a plus against such players. At a time when traditional platforms like Facebook and Twitter are experiencing difficulties, LinkedIn has a real opportunity to continue succeeding as the one dedicated platform of its size.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196413/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Theo Tzanidis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While other social media giants are floundering, this one is doing rather well.Theo Tzanidis, Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing, University of the West of ScotlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1945582022-12-08T09:08:33Z2022-12-08T09:08:33ZCould video streaming be as bad for the climate as driving a car? Calculating Internet’s hidden carbon footprint<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497206/original/file-20221124-22-632ace.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1500%2C839&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Internet is anything but immaterial, as all those messages, images, and videos live in data centres, which consume immense amounts of energy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rawpixel</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We are used to thinking that going digital means going green. While that is true for some activities – for example, making a video call to the other side of the ocean is better than flying there – the situation is subtler in many other cases. For example, driving a small car to the movie theatre with a friend may have lower carbon emissions than streaming the same movie alone at home.</p>
<p>How do we reach this conclusion? Surprisingly, making these estimates is fairly complicated. This is due to two reasons: we do not have good data to start with, and even when we do, the comparison with other human activities is often difficult to make. In a September 2022 report, <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/data-centres-and-data-transmission-networks">“Data Centres and Data Transmission Networks”</a>, the International Energy Agency (IEA) stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There are currently no comprehensive data on the energy use of all data centre operators globally, so this estimated range is based on bottom-up models.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is remarkable given that we have been able to estimate quite accurately phenomena that are much more complex. In this case, we would only need quantitative information – the electrical energy and the amount of data used – that can be determined with great accuracy. The current situation is not acceptable and should be addressed soon by policymakers.</p>
<p>Talking of tons of CO<sub>2</sub> emitted, kilowatt-hours for electricity, cubic metres for gas, litres of gasoline and cars’ horsepower creates confusion in many, including academics. Most people would not be able to say how much energy they use daily nor what level of emissions these activities cause. But they would be able to tell you right away their salary or monthly rent. The ease of talking about money lies in the fact that we humans long ago decided that a commonly held currency was the best way to trade disparate things. We don’t do this for our energy use, hence the difficulty.</p>
<p>There is no reason not to change the situation, however: the beauty of the concept of “energy” is that nature gave it to us as a number that is <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/conservation-of-energy">mysteriously conserved</a> even when we change its form – for example, from electrical to thermal. Hence, we can always convert it into a single convenient unit, which would make it easy for us to understand the impact of our activities on the planet, including the digital ones.</p>
<h2>Apples to apples</h2>
<p>Let’s see how this could work by spelling out some examples. We choose the energy unit to be the kilowatt-hour (kWh). This proposal was made by David MacKay in his 2008 book <a href="https://www.withouthotair.com/"><em>Sustainable Energy, Without the Hot Air</em></a>. Why the amount of energy used rather than the CO<sub>2</sub> emitted? On the global level, the two concepts are equivalent, given that CO<sub>2</sub> emissions are proportional to the amount of non-renewable energy produced. But almost none of us has an intuitive idea of what a ton of CO<sub>2</sub> is, let alone its global scale values, or how it is generated. On the contrary, almost all of us can read an energy bill and relate it to what was done at home.</p>
<p>Here are three examples:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>A 10W light bulb kept on for an hour will consume 0.01 kWh of energy (1 kWh = 1,000 Wh).</p></li>
<li><p>A car driven in a city for one hour using an average power of 10 kW (approximately 13 horsepower) will consume 10 kWh.</p></li>
<li><p>In Northern Italy during winter, heating an apartment using 10 cubic metres of gas requires approximately 100 kWh per day or 4 kWh for each hour.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>When these activities are compared with the same units, it is clear that there are some (driving, heating) that would have a much broader impact than others (lighting) if their use is curtailed.</p>
<h2>A two-hour film pollutes as much as a 45-minute car drive</h2>
<p>With this in mind, let’s try to estimate the use of Internet in the same units. What we are after now is the amount of energy for a given amount of data transferred, expressed in gigabytes (GB). As mentioned, there are surprisingly no consistent numbers available. Estimates range from 0.1 kWh per GB (<a href="https://pisrt.org/psr-press/journals/easl-vol-3-issue-2-2020/new-perspectives-on-internet-electricity-use-in-2030/">Andrae</a>, Huwaei) to 10 kWh per GB (<a href="https://medium.com/stanford-magazine/carbon-and-the-cloud-d6f481b79dfe">Adamson</a>, <em>Stanford Magazine</em>) – 100 times more. The lower number seems to assume an unrealistic amount of data, almost 10 times the one reported by the World Bank, and implying an average worldwide data usage which is still uncommon even for the Western world (3,000 GB per year rather than 300). On the other hand, the higher estimate seems to have not considered the latest developments in energy efficiency due to new technologies.</p>
<p>It seems that a value of 1 kWh per GB could be a reasonable approximation of the current energy cost of data. Using that estimate, we can now more easily compare the energy use of data with other human activities. For instance, a two-hour movie in 4K resolution is about 7 GB, or approximately 7 kWh of energy, comparable to a 45-minute car drive. This is mind-boggling for something that we perceive as immaterial. Similar estimates would make you figure out that 300 Google searches use approximately 0.1 kWh, which is the same energy required to boil one litre of water starting from 20 degree Celsius, another mind-boggling realisation.</p>
<p>It is possible and plausible that technology will make Internet more energy efficient – that is what many of us physicists try to help with while studying novel materials and approaches to store and manipulate data. However, if we keep increasing the data usage, we will not decrease our energy use. For instance, movies in 8K resolution require four times more data than in 4K resolution.</p>
<h2>Consumption on the rise</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497040/original/file-20221123-14-j3he9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Global Internet usage, 2002-2022" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497040/original/file-20221123-14-j3he9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497040/original/file-20221123-14-j3he9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497040/original/file-20221123-14-j3he9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497040/original/file-20221123-14-j3he9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497040/original/file-20221123-14-j3he9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497040/original/file-20221123-14-j3he9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497040/original/file-20221123-14-j3he9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2002, global Internet usage was just 156 GB. Twenty years later, traffic is approximately 150,000 GB per second, nearly a thousand-fold increase.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wdr2021.worldbank.org/stories/crossing-borders/">WDR 2021, Cisco Visual Networking Index, 2017–2022</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The proof is that for several years now, the annual energy consumption of information and communication technology infrastructure is constantly at least 2,000 TWh, 5% of the global electricity use. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06610-y">Projections suggest that we will reach 10% by 2030</a>, indicating that technology may not keep up unless we introduce fundamental new approaches.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that the Internet and a more digital life offer an incredible opportunity to decrease our energy use and reduce our carbon footprint. For example, a single person on a fully loaded long-range round-trip plane flight – say from Venice, Italy, to Los Angeles, California – to attend an in-person meeting has an energy cost of 10 000 kWh. Using the estimates above, it would take eight months of 12-hour-long video meetings in 4K resolution for that person to consume the same energy. In this case, there is no doubt that streaming, not flying, is the best choice.</p>
<p>As with all technology, however, Internet use has an energy cost. It is proportional to the amount of data transferred, and use is highest with images and especially video. When heavily used, its impact becomes comparable to the one of activities that we already recognise as energy-hungry, such as driving a car. We clearly need more precise numbers to take the appropriate measures at the political level.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two women looking at a computer screen" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497041/original/file-20221123-12-j3raez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C224%2C5760%2C3474&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497041/original/file-20221123-12-j3raez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497041/original/file-20221123-12-j3raez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497041/original/file-20221123-12-j3raez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497041/original/file-20221123-12-j3raez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497041/original/file-20221123-12-j3raez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497041/original/file-20221123-12-j3raez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Watching a movie online can seem like an energy-smart choice, but research shows that the carbon emissions can be significant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/two-women-in-front-of-silver-macbook-1181723/">Christina Morillo/Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In advance of having them, we as private individuals can use data in a considerate manner:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Turn off the camera when not needed in a video call.</p></li>
<li><p>Decrease the video resolution when possible, particularly on small screens.</p></li>
<li><p>Watch movies when they are broadcast rather than using on-demand services, which require dedicated computational power and data for each viewer.</p></li>
<li><p>Finally, let’s start thinking in kWh about everything we do, and do our part to help the implementation of such a standard. In this way, we will talk with the same energy currency, as we do with money.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>To help make this happen, write to your gas company, car manufacturer, grocery store and any manufacturers to get them to provide numbers in kWh of everything they sell. This would allow us to set up individual “energy wallets” and decide how to spend what we have in a sustainable way and thus reach our climate goals. Once these goals are defined in a clear and concrete way, it will much easier for individuals, companies and governments to take a sensible course of action every day, in all things large and small.</p>
<p>Part of the frustration that many of us experience these days is that we feel powerless against climate change because we do not have a concrete representation of how to do something about it in our daily life. By talking about the problems in units that we understand and perceive, we will close the gap between the local and the global scales, and hence be more effective in our actions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194558/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefano Bonetti ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The energy consumption of Internet use has multiplied by a thousand-fold in 20 years. So how can we better visualise our energy ‘spending’ and reduce carbon emissions?Stefano Bonetti, Professor of Experimental Condensed Matter Physics, Ca' Foscari University of VeniceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1916372022-10-03T12:08:25Z2022-10-03T12:08:25ZHow Hurricane Ian and other disasters are becoming a growing source of inequality – even among the middle class<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487648/original/file-20221002-39604-fpljo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C168%2C5204%2C3564&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ian resulted in the deaths of at least 44 people in Florida and tens of billions of dollars in damage.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TropicalWeather/47291a34ba6b433b8c24271ea8275d17/photo?Query=ian%20homes&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2094&currentItemNo=51">AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Friendswood, Texas, is the type of community that one might think of as a “best case scenario” when it comes to recovering from a disaster. </p>
<p>It is a small tight-knit town with well-resourced residents and a strong social infrastructure of local institutions that provided a huge <a href="https://abc13.com/road-to-recovery-houston-strong-hurricane-harvey-flooding/2455310/">outpouring of support</a> in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. It is also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/07/climate/FEMA-race-climate.html">the type of community</a> that typically receives a disproportionately high amount of aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of a disaster. </p>
<p>But in a <a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/soaking-middle-class">new book</a> based on interviews after Harvey <a href="https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/friendswood/news/article/friendswood-harvey-3000-homes-flooded-12124730.php">devastated</a> the area, we found that households in Friendswood ended up on starkly divergent financial trajectories.</p>
<p>Our results suggest residents of Florida and others in the path of Hurricane Ian – especially those without <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-01/few-florida-homes-hit-by-hurricane-ian-are-covered-for-floods">flood insurance</a> or significant aid from social networks – may struggle for years or have to take on large new debts to pay for repairs. Our findings also point to solutions to prevent the growing number of climate-related disasters from worsening inequalities in the U.S.</p>
<h2>What cost estimates don’t capture</h2>
<p>From 1980 through July 2022, the United States experienced <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/">332 disasters</a> that each caused at least US$1 billion in damages – and their frequency is escalating.</p>
<p>Ian will certainly be added to the list after barreling across Florida, causing <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/hurricane-ian-higher-prices-for-rebuilding-costs-construction-rcna50011">tens of billions of dollars</a> in estimated damage and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/10/02/us/hurricane-ian-florida-south-carolina">deaths of at least 44 people</a>.</p>
<p>While the dollar amount may be astronomical, what it does not capture is the ways that this cost is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.102855">borne unequally</a>, both within and between communities. In other words, the total price tag doesn’t tell us how Ian will <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spy016">exacerbate existing inequalities</a>. </p>
<p>Research after past disasters like Hurricane Katrina has shown that not only are poor and nonwhite communities often the <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1007/s11111-009-0099-8">hardest hit</a> by disasters, but also that FEMA aid disproportionately goes to <a href="https://www.demogr.mpg.de/en/news_events_6123/calendar_1921/stratifying_disaster_state_aid_institutional_processes_and_inequality_in_american_communities_8392/">whiter and wealthier communities</a> of homeowners in the aftermath. </p>
<p>So it’s clear that disadvantaged communities will always be hurt the most when disaster strikes. </p>
<p>What is less clear is whether inequality also grows within communities, especially those that typically receive more support and resources. Climate change is making these types of areas more vulnerable as storms like Ian grow in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/climate/climate-changes-hurricane-intensity.html">intensity and scope</a>. Yet, little is known about how recovery works in relatively well-off places, which generally have more resources to rebound after disasters.</p>
<h2>Neighbors may experience very different recoveries</h2>
<p>This is what motivated us to <a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/soaking-middle-class">examine recovery</a> in Friendswood, a middle-class, majority-white suburb outside of Houston that flooded during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. We interviewed 59 households multiple times over two years after the storm to understand the recovery process and the financial consequences of disaster for residents in a well-resourced place.</p>
<p>After Harvey, we found that Friendswood residents were on three different recovery trajectories. </p>
<p>About 47% of the households we interviewed two years after the storm had fully recovered – some had even grown their net worth. A second group, making up just under a quarter of our sample, was mostly recovered, with some repairs remaining but most of the work completed. In this group, many were likely to have new outstanding debts taken on during the repair process. A third group of residents, around 18%, was still living in homes without complete walls or floors – repairs they were uncertain they would ever be able to afford. And a small percentage had moved after the storm. </p>
<p>Pre-flood advantages like having a higher income certainly helped determine which group households ended up in. Residents with more financial resources before Harvey tended to fare better than their less-well-off neighbors.</p>
<p>But we also found that a few additional factors played a key role in determining whether a given household had completed repairs. </p>
<p>One of the most important was <a href="https://www.fema.gov/flood-insurance">flood insurance</a>. We know from past research that higher-valued homes are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2015.1119179">more likely to be insured</a>. We found this to be the case in Friendswood as well. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="homes and trees are surrounded by flood waters" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487637/original/file-20221002-25-c1nsjo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487637/original/file-20221002-25-c1nsjo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487637/original/file-20221002-25-c1nsjo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487637/original/file-20221002-25-c1nsjo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487637/original/file-20221002-25-c1nsjo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487637/original/file-20221002-25-c1nsjo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487637/original/file-20221002-25-c1nsjo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hurricane Harvey caused massive flooding in Texas in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IncreasingHurricaneDevastation/ab01cdf00dfc48318bdbbd2bf4af8c45/photo?Query=hurricane%20harvey%20texas&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1478&currentItemNo=32">AP Photo/David J. Phillip</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When Harvey hit, insured households were eligible for payouts of up to $350,000, while households without insurance were eligible for FEMA aid capped at only $33,300. In other words, insured households, who tended to be financially advantaged before the storm, could get around 10 times more than the uninsured. </p>
<p>While uninsured households could apply to the <a href="https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/disaster-assistance">Small Business Administration</a> for low-interest home repair loans, not all disaster-affected residents were deemed eligible. And we found that many who did take out an SBA loan ended up with over $100,000 in new debt. </p>
<p>One year after Harvey, when a resident had to start repaying her SBA loan, she told us that it made a big dent in her family’s monthly budget – “That’s a $400 payment every month that we have to make,” she said. “So, I mean, it’s just tight.” </p>
<h2>The importance of social networks</h2>
<p>Another key factor in recovery was <a href="https://theconversation.com/recovering-from-disasters-social-networks-matter-more-than-bottled-water-and-batteries-69611">assistance from social networks</a>. This included cash donations, labor and building materials to help repair homes, child care and food preparation, as well as emotional support that came from family, friends, neighbors and other community groups that people were connected to. </p>
<p>In some cases, this assistance was robust enough to help flooded residents fully repair their homes even when they did not have significant financial resources of their own. </p>
<p>For example, one older Friendswood resident, despite not having insurance, was one of the first in her neighborhood to move back into her repaired home because her brother provided building materials, financial assistance and labor. </p>
<p>“My brother fronted the cost for me until FEMA came through,” she told us, adding, “Had it not been for my brother, I don’t know what I would have done.” </p>
<p>Other residents relied heavily on networks through church, work or their children’s schools for help rebuilding. But not everyone was connected to a broad network that could provide support. </p>
<h2>The ‘Matthew Effect’</h2>
<p>Many of the residents who still had major repairs left two years after Harvey tended to be in the lowest-income brackets and those without robust social networks. </p>
<p>They also typically did not have flood insurance or access to an SBA loan to help cover repair costs. Some of these households applied for SBA loans but were denied. SBA determines eligibility based on a number of factors, including credit scores and ability to repay, which means that some households with the greatest need for assistance are denied loans. With access to fewer financial resources, most in this group had relatively little room in their budgets and were uncertain when, or if, they would ever be able to complete these repairs. </p>
<p>Social scientists refer to this as the “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/matthew-effect">Matthew Effect</a>” – a term that captures the pattern when those who already have advantages tend to accumulate more, while the disadvantaged fall further behind. This creates a growing disparity between the advantaged and disadvantaged during the recovery process. </p>
<p>To avoid these problems, we believe policymakers could do more to inform homeowners of their flood risks and <a href="https://theconversation.com/flood-risk-ratings-translating-risk-to-future-costs-helps-homebuyers-and-renters-grasp-the-odds-186798">available insurance options</a>. But the U.S. cannot insure its way out of this problem. </p>
<p>We believe it’s also important to support and expand <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/24/opinion/houston-flooding-climate-change.html">managed retreat</a> policies, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/managed-retreat-done-right-can-reinvent-cities-so-theyre-better-for-everyone-and-avoid-harm-from-flooding-heat-and-fires-163052">provide resources</a> for residents and communities to move away from the most vulnerable places. In addition, the U.S. could design more equitable approaches to disbursing FEMA aid and SBA loans to ensure low-income and nonwhite households have better access. This would help minimize the inequalities that emerge both within and between communities in the wake of disaster. </p>
<p>Even in a middle-class community like Friendswood, which seemed well positioned to recover from disaster, residents still fell through the cracks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191637/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Rhodes receives funding from the Russell Sage Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Max Besbris receives funding from the Russell Sage Foundation. </span></em></p>Research on Hurricane Harvey found that flood insurance and strong social networks were key factors in determining how quickly people recovered, regardless of socioeconomic status.Anna Rhodes, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Rice UniversityMax Besbris, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1911262022-09-25T10:00:40Z2022-09-25T10:00:40ZAs pandemic measures are lifted, social media use has declined with the exception of TikTok<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486180/original/file-20220922-34000-h2zuz3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6269%2C4176&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">TikTok's popularity continues to rise, while other social media networks have seen a decline.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In September, the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> reported that Instagram is <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/instagram-reels-tiktok-meta-facebook-documents-11662991777">faltering in its bid to keep up with TikTok</a>, the wildly popular Chinese-owned video-sharing app. </p>
<p>But it is not just Instagram fretting over TikTok’s meteoric rise — a Google exec raised similar <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/12/google-exec-suggests-instagram-and-tiktok-are-eating-into-googles-core-products-search-and-maps/">concerns</a> about how <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/is-tiktok-the-new-google-why-tiktok-is-gen-zs-favorite-search-engine/ar-AA11XxE2">TikTok was drawing younger users away</a> from Google’s core services such as Search and Maps.</p>
<p>TiKTok’s rise is confirmed by data from our new nation-wide, census-balanced online survey, <em><a href="https://socialmedialab.ca/2022/09/14/survey-finds-canadians-are-spending-less-time-on-social-media-but-tiktok-is-the-exception/">The State of Social Media in Canada 2022</a></em>, which surveyed 1,500 Canadian adults over the age of 18 between May 12 and 31, 2022. </p>
<h2>The rise of TikTok</h2>
<p>Our report findings show that <a href="https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21002848">Canadians’ use of social media has declined from its early pandemic peak</a>; however, Canada continues to be one of the most connected countries in the world — 94 per cent of online adults use at least one social media platform. </p>
<p>We found that TikTok had the largest gain (an increase of 11 per cent) in the number of Canadian adults who reported having an account on the platform in 2022, compared to data we collected in 2020.</p>
<p>While the number of Canadians on TikTok is still relatively small (26 per cent), those who do use the platform visit it regularly (65 per cent daily). Like in the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/chart/who-uses-tiktok-nextdoor/">United States</a>, TikTok adoption in Canada largely skews towards younger age groups, as 76 per cent of those aged 18–24 reported having an account on the platform, while the fastest growing demographic on the platform are those who are between 25 and 34 years old (54 per cent).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486119/original/file-20220922-7052-ryenw5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486119/original/file-20220922-7052-ryenw5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486119/original/file-20220922-7052-ryenw5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486119/original/file-20220922-7052-ryenw5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486119/original/file-20220922-7052-ryenw5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486119/original/file-20220922-7052-ryenw5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486119/original/file-20220922-7052-ryenw5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486119/original/file-20220922-7052-ryenw5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>These findings suggest that TikTok’s appeal has grown <a href="https://socialmedialab.ca/2020/07/13/the-state-of-social-media-in-canada-2020-a-new-survey-report-from-the-ryerson-social-media-lab/">since 2020</a>, when we last conducted this survey, and that TikTok is no longer just an app for short videos. </p>
<p>Other studies have shown that young people are now using TikTok as one of the primary ways <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/social-media-and-news-fact-sheet/">to get news</a> and that some have even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/16/technology/gen-z-tiktok-search-engine.html">replaced Google Search with TikTok</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://socialmedialab.ca/2022/07/11/are-canadians-immune-to-russian-propaganda/">Our findings</a> from earlier in the summer support this: 51 per cent of Canadian TikTok users reported using the app to follow news on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486160/original/file-20220922-40997-1wjkec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5572%2C3703&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in pink athletic gear holds a smartphone showing a TikTok video of another woman in black exercising" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486160/original/file-20220922-40997-1wjkec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5572%2C3703&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486160/original/file-20220922-40997-1wjkec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486160/original/file-20220922-40997-1wjkec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486160/original/file-20220922-40997-1wjkec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486160/original/file-20220922-40997-1wjkec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486160/original/file-20220922-40997-1wjkec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486160/original/file-20220922-40997-1wjkec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Canadian internet users are turning to TikTok for news and information in greater numbers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/russian-propaganda-is-making-inroads-with-right-wing-canadians-186952">Russian propaganda is making inroads with right-wing Canadians</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>After the pandemic</h2>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in some changes in where and how often Canadians are spending their time on social media. After living through two years of COVID-19 restrictions, more Canadians are re-evaluating the role of social media in their lives. </p>
<p>In particular, Canadians are spending less time on social media now that most pandemic restrictions have been lifted. In Canada, Facebook has the highest percentage of daily users at 70 per cent, but this dropped from a previous high of 77 per cent daily users in 2020. </p>
<p>TikTok is the only platform showing a slight two per cent increase in the percentage of daily users. In contrast, Reddit has the largest drop — 14 per cent — of daily users.</p>
<p>Fewer Canadians reported having an account on popular social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Platforms such as Facebook, messaging apps and YouTube still dominate in terms of the number of users, but newer platforms — like TikTok — and more niche platforms — like the livestreaming service Twitch — are gaining ground.</p>
<p>The percentage of Canadians who reported using LinkedIn has dropped by seven per cent since 2020. The rate of new users joining Facebook and Pinterest has also declined, each dropping by three per cent and four per cent since 2020 respectively.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486125/original/file-20220922-30154-i5vr4n.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486125/original/file-20220922-30154-i5vr4n.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486125/original/file-20220922-30154-i5vr4n.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486125/original/file-20220922-30154-i5vr4n.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486125/original/file-20220922-30154-i5vr4n.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486125/original/file-20220922-30154-i5vr4n.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486125/original/file-20220922-30154-i5vr4n.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<h2>An unfolding story</h2>
<p>There’s little doubt that TikTok has been a disrupting force on the social media landscape. It has forced social media stalwarts like <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/26/1113724820/facebook-is-making-radical-changes-to-keep-up-with-tiktok">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-20/youtube-takes-on-tiktok-by-plugging-advertising-into-shorts">Google</a> to make radical changes to their platform in order to keep up. </p>
<p>But for TikTok to continue to grow, it will need to convince skeptics that it is not part of the Chinese state apparatus; however, in the current geopolitical climate, that could be a very tall order.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/social-media-and-society-125586" target="_blank"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479539/original/file-20220817-20-g5jxhm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="100%"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191126/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anatoliy Gruzd receives funding from the Canada Research Chairs Program</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Mai does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Chinese-owned app TikTok continues its growth as one of the most popular social media networks. After pandemic health measures were lifted, other social media networks saw a decline in use.Philip Mai, Co-director and Senior Researcher, Ryerson Social Media Lab, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityAnatoliy Gruzd, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Privacy Preserving Digital Technologies, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1904282022-09-15T20:04:00Z2022-09-15T20:04:00ZA huge LinkedIn study just showed which connections are better when searching for a job<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484790/original/file-20220915-17-aw32r5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6739%2C4050&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/artificial-intelligence-connections-nucleus-concept-interconnected-514013068">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Say you are looking for a new job. You head to LinkedIn to spruce up your profile and look around your social network. </p>
<p>But who should you reach out to for an introduction to a potential new employer? A <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl4476">new study</a> of more than 20 million people, published in Science, shows that your close friends (on LinkedIn) are not your best bet: instead you should look to acquaintances you don’t know well enough to share a personal connection with.</p>
<h2>The strength of weak ties</h2>
<p>In 1973, the American sociologist <a href="https://sociology.stanford.edu/people/mark-granovetter">Mark Granovetter</a> coined the phrase “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1086%2F225469">the strength of weak ties</a>” in the context of social networks. He argued that the stronger the ties between two individuals, the more their friendship networks will overlap.</p>
<p>Simply put, you are most likely to know all the friends of a close friend, but few of the friends of an acquaintance. </p>
<p>So if you are searching for a job, you probably already know everything your immediate neighbourhood has to offer. Intuitively, it is the weak ties – your acquaintances – that offer the most opportunities for new discoveries.</p>
<h2>Weak ties and jobs</h2>
<p>Granovetter’s theory feels right, but is it? A team of researchers from LinkedIn, Harvard Business School, Stanford and MIT set out to gather some empirical evidence on how weak ties affect job mobility.</p>
<p>Their research piggy-backed on the efforts of engineers at LinkedIn to test and improve the platform’s “People You May Know” recommendation algorithm. LinkedIn regularly updates this algorithm, which recommends new people to add to your network.</p>
<p>One of these updates tested the effects of encouraging the formation of strong ties (recommending adding your close friends) versus weak ties (recommending acquaintances and friends of friends). The researchers then followed the users that participated in this “A/B testing” to see if the difference impacted their employment outcomes.</p>
<p>More than 20 million LinkedIn users worldwide were randomly assigned to well-defined treatment groups. Users in each group were shown slightly different new contact recommendations, which led users in some groups to form more strong ties and users in other groups to form more weak ties.</p>
<p>Next, the team measured how many jobs users in each group applied for, and how many “job transmissions” occurred. Job transmissions are of particular interest, as they are defined as getting a job in the same company as the new contact. A job transmission suggests the new contact helped land the job.</p>
<h2>Moderately weak ties are best</h2>
<p>The study uses causal analysis to go beyond simple correlations and connect link formation with employment. There are three important findings. </p>
<p>First, the recommender engine significantly shapes link formation. Users who were recommended more weak links formed significantly more weak links, and users who were recommended more strong links formed more strong links. </p>
<p>Second, the experiment provides causal evidence that moderately weak ties are more than twice as effective as strong ties in helping a job-seeker join a new employer. What’s a “moderately” weak tie? The study found job transmission is most likely from acquaintances with whom you share about 10 mutual friends and rarely interact. </p>
<p>Third, the strength of weak ties varied by industry. Whereas weak ties increased job mobility in more digital industries, strong ties increased job mobility in less digital industries.</p>
<h2>Better recommendations</h2>
<p>This LinkedIn study is first to causally prove Granovetter’s theory in the employment market. The causal analysis is key here, as large-scale studies of correlations between strength of ties and job transmission have shown strong ties are more beneficial, in what was considered until now a paradox. </p>
<p>This study resolves the paradox and again proves the limitations of correlation studies, which do a poor job at disentangling confounding factors and sometimes lead to the wrong conclusions.</p>
<p>From a practical point of view, the study outlines the best parameters for suggesting new links. It revealed that the connections most helpful in landing a job are your acquaintances, people you meet in professional settings, or friends of friends, rather than your closest friends – people with whom you share about 10 mutual contacts and with whom one is less likely to interact regularly. </p>
<p>These can be translated into algorithmic recommendations, which can make the recommendation engines of professional networks such as LinkedIn even more proficient at helping job-seekers land jobs.</p>
<h2>The power of black boxes</h2>
<p>The public is often wary when large social media companies perform experiments on their users (see <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28051930">Facebook’s infamous emotion experiment of 2014</a>). </p>
<p>So, could LinkedIn’s experiment have harmed its users? In theory, the users in the “strong link” treatment group might have missed the weak links that could have brought their next job. </p>
<p>However, all groups had some degree of job mobility – some just a bit more than others. Moreover, since the researchers were observing an engineering experiment, the study itself seems to raise few ethical concerns.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, it is a reminder to ask how much our most intimate professional decisions – such as selecting a new career or workplace – are determined by black-box artificial intelligence algorithms whose workings we cannot see.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190428/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marian-Andrei Rizoiu receives funding from the Department of Home Affairs, the Commonwealth of Australia represented by the Defence Science and Technology Group, Facebook and the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>A study of more than 20 million LinkedIn users shows acquaintances you have about 10 friends in common with are the most likely to help you get a new job.Marian-Andrei Rizoiu, Senior Lecturer in Behavioral Data Science, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1903512022-09-15T03:19:47Z2022-09-15T03:19:47ZIt’s hard to imagine better social media alternatives, but Scuttlebutt shows change is possible<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484254/original/file-20220913-16-2t0c7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=89%2C179%2C5901%2C3368&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/xv7-GlvBLFw">Prateek Katyal/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week, the US government released <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/white-house-holding-roundtable-big-tech-concerns-2022-09-08/">six principles</a> for reforming Big Tech. It’s the latest example of growing efforts to regulate the handful of companies with enormous influence over the internet. But while there’s a growing appetite for a new, better kind of internet, it’s hard to imagine what that might look like.</p>
<p>We’ve just published <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20563051221122448">research</a> that looks at one alternative – a social network called <a href="https://scuttlebutt.nz/">Scuttlebutt</a>, which provides an example of a platform that puts people before profit.</p>
<h2>The internet wasn’t supposed to be like this</h2>
<p>In the 1990s, many thought the internet would make the world a better place. By letting ordinary people connect across vast distances, it would help us become more empathetic and egalitarian. Today, that vision seems naive. The internet is fraught with serious issues regulators are struggling to tackle. </p>
<p>One factor underpinning many of these problems is the huge influence that a handful of companies, such as Meta and Google, have over the internet. By putting corporate interests ahead of user wellbeing and society at large, they are key contributors to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/03/facebook-misinformation-nyu-study/">misinformation</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/17/the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-changed-the-world-but-it-didnt-change-facebook">privacy</a> <a href="https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2022/08/google-location-data-collection-accc/">violations</a>, and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59063768">online harassment and abuse</a>.</p>
<p>There’s increasing interest in regulating these companies and the markets in which they operate, including from the Australian government. However, it’s hard to imagine alternatives to an internet dominated by private companies – they are such a ubiquitous and powerful part of our online lives.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-proposed-privacy-code-promises-tough-rules-and-10-million-penalties-for-tech-giants-170711">A new proposed privacy code promises tough rules and $10 million penalties for tech giants</a>
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<h2>Enter Scuttlebutt</h2>
<p>Scuttlebutt is an example of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305115604338">alternative social media platforms</a>, which try to keep the best bits of popular places like Facebook and Twitter while improving on their downsides.</p>
<p>On the surface, Scuttlebutt looks quite similar to Facebook. Users create a profile, post content, and like and comment on others’ posts. There are lots of people chatting about politics, current events, and obscure shared interests.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A screenshot that says Scuttlebutt, social network, a decentralised platform with a colourful hermit crab in each bottom corner" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484253/original/file-20220913-12-1n4mmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484253/original/file-20220913-12-1n4mmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484253/original/file-20220913-12-1n4mmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484253/original/file-20220913-12-1n4mmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484253/original/file-20220913-12-1n4mmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484253/original/file-20220913-12-1n4mmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484253/original/file-20220913-12-1n4mmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://scuttlebutt.nz/">Scuttlebutt</a></span>
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<p>But compared with regular platforms, Scuttlebutt has some radically different qualities. Crucially, it isn’t run by a company. Started by software engineer Dominic Tarr <a href="https://epicenter.tv/episodes/290/">while living on a sailboat in New Zealand</a>, Scuttlebutt is now being developed by an international community of people who run the platform <a href="https://opencollective.com/secure-scuttlebutt-consortium">collectively</a>, using grant funding, donations and volunteer labour.</p>
<p>Because it’s not a company, Scuttlebutt doesn’t need to make a profit. There is no persuasive design trying to keep you hooked, no advertising, and it doesn’t collect, process or sell users’ personal data. Instead, data are stored and controlled on users’ own devices. (This process uses the novel <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3428662.3428794">secure “gossip” protocol</a> for which the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuttlebutt">platform is named</a>.) As it is open source, anyone can see, interact with, and reuse the code it’s built on.</p>
<p>While it’s impossible to know how many people are using this decentralised platform, Scuttlebutt has attracted substantial grant funding, along with the attention of <a href="https://publicinfrastructure.org/podcast/03-evan-henshaw-plath/">tech luminaries</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Do-Nothing-Resisting-Attention/dp/1612197493">cultural critics</a>.</p>
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<h2>Lessons for a better internet</h2>
<p>We spent several years studying Scuttlebutt to understand the community building it, and the new models of online participation they’re trying to create.</p>
<p>We found that participation on Scuttlebutt is much deeper and more varied than mainstream platforms allow. Not only can users participate <em>on the platform</em> by posting, liking and sharing, they can also participate <em>in the platform</em> by helping shape how it is designed and run. Anyone interested is <a href="https://scuttlebutt.netlify.app/docs/contribute/">encouraged to contribute</a> in whatever ways they can.</p>
<p>Compared with Facebook users, who resort to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jul/28/facebook-protest-vaccine-disinformation">protests</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-breastfeeding-idUSTRE4BT0UP20081230">petitions</a> to try and improve its practices, Scuttlebutt users are empowered to collaborate in the creation of the online spaces they use. </p>
<p>Unlike mainstream social media, Scuttlebutt doesn’t ask you to give up your personal data as payment. So even forms of participation that look the same as on Facebook, such as creating a post, take place under more equitable conditions.</p>
<p>Scuttlebutt’s <a href="https://scuttlebutt.nz/docs/principles/">principles</a> also reflect a view that developing fair and inclusive participation is as much a matter of culture as of technology design.</p>
<p>In contrast to Big Tech’s common focus on technology-first solutions, most Scuttlebutt contributors are as invested in improving the platform’s culture and governance as they are in building better technology. For example, when electing a council to distribute one of Scuttlebutt’s grants, priority was given to people with historically marginalised experiences in open-source communities.</p>
<p>These social elements may not scale to a platform the size of Facebook, but this isn’t a problem for Scuttlebutt, which doesn’t maximise user participation for profit. This means users can concentrate on encouraging a positive culture rather than trying to make as many people participate as much as possible.</p>
<p>In fact, we found that much of the Scuttlebutt community believes people need more choices in social media platforms, not a single Facebook replacement. </p>
<h2>The future is already here</h2>
<p>Scuttlebutt isn’t going to solve all the internet’s problems and, as we discuss in our <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20563051221122448">research</a>, it has its own issues – including the messiness of decentralised governance and ensuring accessibility for people from diverse backgrounds. But it does provide a way of <a href="https://mixitconf.org/2019/the-internet-in-2030">exploring what the future of internet could look like</a>. </p>
<p>These explorations highlight the importance of an internet where no single platform dominates and users have more control over shaping the spaces in which they gather.</p>
<p>In the meantime, Scuttlebutt also shows that platforms focusing on <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-a-full-public-service-internet-state-owned-infrastructure-is-just-the-start-127458">public benefit instead of profit</a> are already possible.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-dark-is-dark-advertising-we-audited-facebook-google-and-other-platforms-to-find-out-189310">How dark is 'dark advertising'? We audited Facebook, Google and other platforms to find out</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/social-media-and-society-125586" target="_blank"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479539/original/file-20220817-20-g5jxhm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="100%"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190351/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Scuttlebutt is an entirely decentralised social network – and it shows we can learn to make the internet better.Kate Mannell, Research Fellow in Digital Childhoods, Deakin UniversityEden T. Smith, Research Fellow, History and Philosophy of Science, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1905042022-09-14T18:05:19Z2022-09-14T18:05:19ZThe ‘anti-conference’, a collaborative way to create innovative teaching methods<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484089/original/file-20220912-6431-ugmi7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C78%2C4031%2C2939&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Participants at a Paris-Saclay workshop on educational innovation work on ideas for teaching in a forest.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A series of recent events in France have shown that younger generations are increasingly dissatisfied with current science programmes. During a <a href="https://youtu.be/SUOVOC2Kd50">graduation ceremony on May 10</a>, a group of students from AgroParisTech, an institution specialised in agricultural sciences, called on their fellow students to abandon their studies in light of the current ecological crisis. The following day, in an <a href="https://www.effisciences.org/tribune-effisciences">opinion piece</a> published in <em>Le Monde</em>, students from France’s Écoles Normales Supérieures voiced their concerns about science not meeting today’s challenges.</p>
<p>These and other initiatives show that while teaching students equations is still necessary, it’s no longer sufficient. Young people need to understand why studying science can help them tackle future crises, starting with the environment. To help, we need to teach them how to work as a group, create, put theory into context, and – even more challenging still – make them feel like they’re agents of change, and not just bystanders.</p>
<p>Many of our peers have already developed teaching methods to this end, but individual initiatives are not enough. We need to rethink entire curricula, seeking inspiration in pedagogical innovation and education science research, and work together at an institutional and disciplinary department level. In short, we need to form a community that can grasp the urgency of this critical challenge, and quickly.</p>
<h2>The “anti-conference”</h2>
<p>Nevertheless, a technical obstacle remains. When we come together as colleagues to discuss educational innovation, ironically, we opt for conventional meeting formats. I have lost count of the number of times I have given presentations on innovative and active learning – and doing so with a PowerPoint presentation, facing a silent audience.</p>
<p>I have been invited to endless working groups on innovation, where we all sit around a large table, as if we were in a meeting, with everyone discreetly checking their e-mails. When the format of these meetings is so fundamentally opposed to their content, these meccas of “innovation” rarely lead to new ideas.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467468/original/file-20220607-12-7ube2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467468/original/file-20220607-12-7ube2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467468/original/file-20220607-12-7ube2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467468/original/file-20220607-12-7ube2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467468/original/file-20220607-12-7ube2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467468/original/file-20220607-12-7ube2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467468/original/file-20220607-12-7ube2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A great icebreaker activity for physicists: ask them to create science experiments with the resources available (here a cardboard optical table).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wanting to organise a workshop to rethink the way we teach physics, this was the problem that my colleagues from Université Paris-Saclay and I faced. What setting could we offer participants so that they could come up with new teaching methods together?</p>
<p>To create something which avoids the shortcomings of conventional conferences, we decided to work with designers, something we already do for our <a href="https://hebergement.universite-paris-saclay.fr/supraconductivite/?lang=en">outreach and teaching activities</a>. Design is much more than mere decoration; it is also a way of imagining the construction of an event in all its forms. For this workshop, two designers helped us to develop the programme, come up with the activities and create a coherent graphic identity for the visual elements. They then helped us to carry out and film the event, before transforming it into a <a href="https://hebergement.universite-paris-saclay.fr/supraconductivite/physics-teaching/">website</a> to ensure the workshop’s sustainability.</p>
<p>[<em>More than 80,000 readers look to The Conversation France’s newsletter for expert insights into the world’s most pressing issues</em>. <a href="https://theconversation.com/fr/newsletters/la-newsletter-quotidienne-5?utm_source=inline-70ksignup">Sign up now</a>]</p>
<p>To find the right workshop format, we decided to do the exact opposite of traditional conferences, as exemplified by the <a href="https://march.aps.org/">American Physical Society’s annual meeting</a>. The meeting brings together some 10,000 physicists every year for five days in a large convention centre. The programme respects a certain military precision: 12 minutes per presentation, 10 presentations per session and 60 simultaneous sessions. In recent years, the event has become hybrid but ultimately, this format goes against what we are working to promote. So, we decided to create the exact opposite, step by step.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467470/original/file-20220607-20-p40cvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467470/original/file-20220607-20-p40cvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467470/original/file-20220607-20-p40cvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467470/original/file-20220607-20-p40cvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467470/original/file-20220607-20-p40cvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467470/original/file-20220607-20-p40cvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467470/original/file-20220607-20-p40cvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Using varied feedback methods is a good way to cross viewpoints. Here, a mini exhibition was put together by the participants using sheets which they had filled in on educational techniques.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Instead of inviting a large number of participants, we limited ourselves to 30. Rather than a daylong series of speeches and posters, we had one presentation per day. Instead of a large convention centre, we were fortunate enough to use the spaces available at the <a href="https://www.institut-pascal.universite-paris-saclay.fr/en">Institut Pascal</a>, which have been designed to host researchers so that they can work together collaboratively, with dedicated work and discussion areas, rather than conventional classrooms and auditoriums.</p>
<p>Instead of calling on some of the biggest names in education to inspire participants with impressive keynote speeches, we invited colleagues working directly in the field who lead innovation on their level, without necessarily trying to change the world. Denis Terwagne, a researcher from Brussels, develops teaching methods inspired by fab labs, bringing together students in Physics and Architecture. Claire Marrache, a researcher from Université Paris-Saclay, teaches a course on climate issues in which she asks her students to take measurements directly on the teaching building. Giovanni Organtini, from the University of Rome, uses low-cost tools like smartphones or Arduino boards to teach experimental physics. Fun Man Fung, a Singaporean chemist, uses a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-innovative-videography-can-supercharge-education-97676">360° camera to film live from the lab bench</a> to show his students how to carry out an experiment. Rebecca Vieyra helps to share interactive simulations around the world.</p>
<p>Instead of a hybrid conference lasting a few days, we asked the participants to come for two weeks to attend the workshop in person. While this duration can be dissuasive and pose practical problems, it ensures active engagement throughout the entire workshop. Furthermore, in today’s current ecological context, it is <a href="https://theconversation.com/researchers-set-an-example-fly-less-111046">increasingly difficult to justify round trips by plane for just a day or two</a>. Lastly, this duration allowed us to come up with a programme built on two main parts.</p>
<h2>Creating a community</h2>
<p>Over the course of the first week, we organised a series of creative and intense activities. We wanted to help the participants to get to know each other, and show them that they could work together and develop new ideas in good spirit.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467475/original/file-20220607-31796-6yarkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467475/original/file-20220607-31796-6yarkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467475/original/file-20220607-31796-6yarkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467475/original/file-20220607-31796-6yarkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467475/original/file-20220607-31796-6yarkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467475/original/file-20220607-31796-6yarkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467475/original/file-20220607-31796-6yarkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rapid prototyping is a good way to create models in just a few minutes to demonstrate a teaching idea instead of using a PowerPoint.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To do so, we provided them with fun and immersive Physics experiments. For example, we immersed them in a fictional world of espionage where they were asked to invent an egg protection device which would make as much noise as possible when dropped from a height of five metres. We also wanted colleagues to talk about their best practices. Instead of a series of presentations, we offered them new ways of exchanging and sharing.</p>
<p>For example, in the “snowball” setup, each participant explains his or her innovation to another participant, who takes notes on a dedicated sheet. Each pair then teams up with another pair to share and summarise their discussion. They then team up with another two pairs, and so forth. At the end of the workshop, the sheets are displayed in the form of a mini-exhibition, which everyone can view as they wish. In short, everyone has heard about each other’s innovations, and the sheets act as raw material for future workshops. We have also tested theatre, mime, and brainstorming sessions which end with a potential video, etc.</p>
<p>This first and intense part of the workshop helps to form a small professional and trusting community who are ready to innovate in the second part of the workshop.</p>
<h2>Building and inventing together</h2>
<p>For the second part of the workshop, we deliberately chose not to plan it. At the start of the second week, the participants developed the programme themselves. New ideas came flooding in by the dozens:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Let’s think of how to teach a class in the local forest.”</p>
<p>“Let’s organise an Alcoholics Anonymous – style session where we share our problems as teachers and ask others to help us.”</p>
<p>“Let’s plan a ‘teach me anything’ morning, where we all teach each other something new.”</p>
<p>“Let’s come up with an international network to support education and innovation.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We spent a wonderfully creative and liberating week together. Trusting one another and relaxed, we were able to create, research, think and even have fun together.</p>
<p>We spent a morning in the forest working on an immersive teaching method for our first-year students. We went to a cello concert combining physics and music. We learned how to use mime during educational breaks for lectures in auditoriums. We explored new teaching methods. In short, we felt that we had been innovative, or at least that we had been able to share and discuss productively.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467473/original/file-20220607-20-lcg8bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467473/original/file-20220607-20-lcg8bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467473/original/file-20220607-20-lcg8bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467473/original/file-20220607-20-lcg8bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467473/original/file-20220607-20-lcg8bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467473/original/file-20220607-20-lcg8bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467473/original/file-20220607-20-lcg8bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">All of the creations and workshops are available on a website to share the workshop with those who were unable to attend.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All in all, we succeeded in providing approximately 30 researchers and lecturers with an inspiring and fruitful workshop. But is this enough to reinvent the way we teach? Certainly not, as we still need other colleagues, and more time to test, assess and consolidate. We also need institutional involvement and a more political perspective.</p>
<p>Ultimately, this mini-conference was a way of testing a new and more participative workshop format. This is why the <a href="https://hebergement.universite-paris-saclay.fr/supraconductivite/physics-teaching/">dedicated website</a> includes all of the content created during the event as well as the activity “recipes” so that colleagues can try them out. Certain ideas and activities can be redone and adapted to different contexts, even if less time is available. To put it simply, if you expect a group to come up with new ideas for educational innovation, a meeting or a brainstorming session with Post-its simply won’t do the trick.</p>
<p>Take the time to create the right format. Provide your colleagues with a creative environment and they will be more creative! Behind this truism lies perhaps one of the major challenges of change to come.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The author would like to thank the workshop’s organisers: Frédéric Bouquet (Université Paris-Saclay), Jeanne Parmentier (Institut Villebon-Georges Charpak), Fabienne Bernard (Institut d’Optique Graduate School) and the designers Lou-Andreas Etienne and Adèle Nyitrai. We also thank Katie Odowdall for the translation from French.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julien Bobroff has received public funding from the Université Paris-Saclay, its Foundation and IDEX, the CNRS and the ANR.</span></em></p>To think about new ways of transmitting science and to really innovate how we teach, the first step is creating an appropriate dialogue format. From there, everything becomes possible.Julien Bobroff, Physicien, Professeur des Universités, Université Paris-SaclayLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1790642022-07-21T12:24:22Z2022-07-21T12:24:22ZFrom in-crowds to power couples, network science uncovers the hidden structure of community dynamics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474376/original/file-20220715-26-7p5uhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C6240%2C4138&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Can you tell who in this picture wields soft power? A new technique for analyzing networks can.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/group-of-business-people-in-convention-center-royalty-free-image/1179435810">gremlin/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The world is a networked place, literally and figuratively. The field of network science is used today to understand phenomena as diverse as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/2872518.2890092">spread of misinformation</a>, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2016/10/10/mapping-west-african-trade-networks/">West African trade</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0108-69">protein-protein interactions</a> in cells.</p>
<p>Network science has uncovered several <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/30918">universal properties</a> of complex social networks, which in turn has made it possible to learn details of particular networks. For example, the network consisting of the international financial corruption scheme uncovered by the <a href="https://panamapapers.org/">Panama Papers investigation</a> has an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41109-020-00313-y">unusual lack of connections among its parts</a>.</p>
<p>But understanding the hidden structures of key elements of social networks, such as subgroups, has remained elusive. My colleagues and I have found two complex patterns in these networks that can help researchers better understand the hierarchies and dynamics of these elements. We found a way to detect powerful “inner circles” in large organizations simply by studying networks that map emails being sent among employees. </p>
<p>We demonstrated the utility of our methods by applying them to the famous Enron network. Enron was an energy trading company that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/02/us/enron-fast-facts/index.html">perpetrated fraud on a massive scale</a>. Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2203.06491">study</a> further showed that the method can potentially be used to detect people who wield enormous soft power in an organization regardless of their official title or position. This could be useful for historical, sociological and economic research, as well as government, legal and media investigations.</p>
<h2>From pencil and paper to artificial intelligence</h2>
<p>Sociologists have been constructing and studying smaller social networks in careful field experiments for <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2785266">at least 80 years</a>, well before the advent of the internet and online social networks. The concept is so simple that it can be drawn on paper: Entities of interest – people, businesses, countries – are nodes represented as points, and relationships between pairs of nodes are links represented as lines drawn between the points. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451706/original/file-20220312-14-o2rnnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two sets of dots with lines connecting some of the dots" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451706/original/file-20220312-14-o2rnnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451706/original/file-20220312-14-o2rnnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451706/original/file-20220312-14-o2rnnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451706/original/file-20220312-14-o2rnnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451706/original/file-20220312-14-o2rnnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451706/original/file-20220312-14-o2rnnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451706/original/file-20220312-14-o2rnnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An abstract network, at left, shows lines between points representing relationships. The network on the right shows a small fragment of a real-world network of West African traders, based on data from Oliver J. Walther. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2015.1010152.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mayank Kejriwal</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Using network science to study human societies and other complex systems took on new meaning in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.286.5439.509">the late 1990s</a> when researchers discovered some universal properties of networks. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/30918">Some of these universal properties</a> have since entered mainstream pop culture. One concept is the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, based on the famous empirical finding that any two people on Earth are <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2786545">six or fewer links apart</a>. Similarly, versions of statements such as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086197">the rich get richer</a>” and “<a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2786545">winner takes all</a>” have also been replicated in some networks. </p>
<p>These global properties, meaning ones applying to the entire network, seemingly emerge from the myopic and local actions of independent nodes. When I connect with someone on LinkedIn, I am certainly not thinking of the global consequences of my connection on the LinkedIn network. Yet my actions, along with those of many others, eventually lead to predictable, rather than random, outcomes about how the network will evolve. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I have used network science to study <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41109-020-00275-1">human trafficking in the U.K.</a>, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41109-019-0154-z">structure of noise</a> in artificial intelligence systems’ outputs, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41109-020-00313-y">financial corruption</a> in the Panama Papers.</p>
<h2>Groups have their own structure</h2>
<p>Along with studying emergent properties like the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, researchers have also used network science to focus on problems such as <a href="https://senseable.mit.edu/community_detection/">community detection</a>. Stated simply, can a set of rules, otherwise known as an algorithm, automatically discover groups or communities within a collection of people?</p>
<p>Today there are hundreds, if not thousands, of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2018.02.011">community detection algorithms</a>, some relying on advanced AI methods. They are used for many purposes, including finding communities of interest and uncovering malicious groups on social media. Such algorithms encode intuitive assumptions, such as the expectation that nodes belonging to the same group are more densely connected to one another than nodes belonging to different groups. </p>
<p>Although an exciting line of work, community detection does not study the internal structure of communities. Should communities be thought of only as collections of nodes in networks? And what about communities that are small but particularly influential, such as inner circles and in-crowds?</p>
<h2>Two hypothetical structures for influential groups</h2>
<p>In a manner of speaking, you likely already have some inkling of the structure of very small groups in social networks. The truth of the adage that “a friend of my friend is also my friend” can be tested statistically in friendship networks by counting the number of triangles in the network and determining whether this number is higher than chance alone could explain. And indeed, many social network studies have been used to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax7310">verify the claim</a>. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the concept starts breaking down when extended to groups with more than three members. Although motifs have been well studied in both algorithmic <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpdc.2011.08.007">computer science</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-801213-0.00001-0">biology</a>, they have not been reliably linked to influential groups in real communication networks.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451707/original/file-20220312-26-1xiy0uc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="six sets of four dots each with different configurations of lines connecting the dots" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451707/original/file-20220312-26-1xiy0uc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451707/original/file-20220312-26-1xiy0uc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451707/original/file-20220312-26-1xiy0uc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451707/original/file-20220312-26-1xiy0uc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451707/original/file-20220312-26-1xiy0uc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451707/original/file-20220312-26-1xiy0uc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451707/original/file-20220312-26-1xiy0uc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Six examples of motifs with four nodes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mayank Kejriwal</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Building on this tradition, my doctoral student <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=-D05LWQAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">Ke Shen</a> and I found and <a href="https://aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI-22/ws22workshops/#ws19">presented</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2203.06491">two structures that seem elaborate</a> but turn out to be quite common in real networks.</p>
<p>The first structure extends the triangle, not by adding more nodes, but by directly adding triangles. Specifically, there is a central triangle that is flanked by other peripheral triangles. Importantly, the third person in any peripheral triangle must not be linked to the third person on the central triangle, thereby excluding them from the true inner circle of influence. </p>
<p>The second structure is similar but assumes that there is no central triangle, and the inner circle is just a pair of nodes. A real-life example might be two co-founders of a startup like Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, or a power couple with joint interests, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/28/world/americas/president-spouses-politics-dynasty.html">common in global politics</a>, like Bill and Hillary Clinton.</p>
<h2>Understanding influential groups in an infamous network</h2>
<p>We tested our hypothesis on the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10691898.2015.11889734">Enron email network</a>, which is well studied in network science, with nodes representing email addresses and links representing communication among those addresses. Despite being elaborate, not only were our proposed structures present in the network in greater numbers than chance alone would predict, but a qualitative analysis showed that there is merit to the claim that they represent influential groups.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474985/original/file-20220719-10005-7ornip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two diagrams of overlapping sets of triangles labeled with names of people" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474985/original/file-20220719-10005-7ornip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474985/original/file-20220719-10005-7ornip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=248&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474985/original/file-20220719-10005-7ornip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=248&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474985/original/file-20220719-10005-7ornip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=248&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474985/original/file-20220719-10005-7ornip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474985/original/file-20220719-10005-7ornip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474985/original/file-20220719-10005-7ornip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Examples of the two structures found in the Enron network. More such structures are present in the network and cannot be explained by chance alone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mayank Kejriwal</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The main characters in the Enron saga are <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB114123416916986639">well</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/books/chapters/power-failure.html">documented</a> by now. Intriguingly, some of these characters do not seem to have had much official influence but may have wielded significant <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2390947">soft power</a>. An example is Sherri Reinartz-Sera, who was the longtime administrative assistant of Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former chief executive of Enron. Unlike Skilling, Sera was only mentioned in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/19/business/exenron-chief-executive-prepares-for-trial.html">New York Times article</a> following investigative reporting that took place during the course of the scandal. However, our algorithm discovered an influential group with Sera occupying a central position.</p>
<h2>Dissecting power dynamics</h2>
<p>Society has intricate structures at the levels of individuals, friendships and communities. In-crowds are not just ragtag groups of characters talking to one another, or a single ringleader calling all the shots. Many in-crowds, or influential groups, have a sophisticated structure. </p>
<p>While much still remains to be discovered about such groups and their influence, network science can help uncover their complexity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179064/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mayank Kejriwal receives funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). </span></em></p>A mathematical method of analyzing networks can spot hidden features such as people who wield soft power in organizations.Mayank Kejriwal, Research Assistant Professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1803612022-04-14T11:11:41Z2022-04-14T11:11:41ZNetworking online: how to make professional connections remotely and why it matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458133/original/file-20220414-26-w13935.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Making connections with people in online events requires planning and a proactive attitude. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/working-home-during-covid19-pandemic-video-1705122784">SwitchedDesign | Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On paper, networking is a relatively simple task. Mingle with like-minded professionals while sipping wine and you greatly increase your chances of landing a coveted role, or building your dream career. </p>
<hr>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/networking-online-how-to-make-professional-connections-remotely-and-why-it-matters-180361&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Pre-COVID, gearing up for a <a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-tips-to-help-students-become-more-employable-62367">networking</a> event, you would probably have walked into a venue, thinking, “Smile. Remember your elevator pitch. If all else fails, talk about the weather.” </p>
<p>Now though, many of us are faced with a slightly different predicament: how to network while working remotely. Operating out of makeshift home offices, with children demanding tea or pets stepping on keyboards, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2021/3/11/22325564/bbc-dad-kids-interrupt-zoom-video-call-anniversary-covid-19-pandemic">we have collectively become</a> BBC Dad, AKA <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-52050099">Robert Kelly</a>. The Busan-based political scientist famously went viral in 2017 when his children interrupted a live interview he was doing on television, and his wife had to scramble to get them out of his office. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Quarter life, a series by The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of Quarter Life</a></strong>, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.</em></p>
<p><em>More articles:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/can-we-ever-fully-separate-our-work-and-home-lives-philosophy-suggests-we-should-stop-trying-177582">Can we ever fully separate our work and home lives? Philosophy suggests we should stop trying</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/student-loans-would-a-graduate-tax-be-a-better-option-179253">Student loans: would a graduate tax be a better option?</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-it-makes-good-business-sense-for-your-employer-to-look-after-your-mental-health-177503">Why it makes good business sense for your employer to look after your mental health</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>As tricky a proposition as it might be to meet people in such circumstances, research shows that rising to the challenge is worth it. According to one online survey, networking accounts for up to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-survey-reveals-85-all-jobs-filled-via-networking-lou-adler">85% of all filled vacancies</a>. It can also lead to substantial pay rises, as evidenced by <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/salary-story-24k-pay-rise-networking">the recent story</a> of how one employee secured a £24,000 pay rise solely through networking. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of smartly dressed employees eat canapes and chat, standing in an office space." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458127/original/file-20220414-26-7u80c1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458127/original/file-20220414-26-7u80c1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458127/original/file-20220414-26-7u80c1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458127/original/file-20220414-26-7u80c1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458127/original/file-20220414-26-7u80c1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458127/original/file-20220414-26-7u80c1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458127/original/file-20220414-26-7u80c1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Networking is about showing an interest in what other people in your field are doing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/delegates-networking-during-conference-lunch-break-479733907">Monkey Business Images | Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>My research shows that in early 2022, 44% of young people used social media to look for career information – up from <a href="https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Students%27+use+of+social+media+for+job+seeking%3A+a+recruitment+guide+...-a0328945398">only 19%</a> a decade ago – and 42%<a href="https://theconversation.com/job-seeking-is-the-religious-pilgrimage-of-the-21st-century-166227">consulted their social networks when looking to make a</a> career decision. Online networking, even before the pandemic, was a <a href="https://www.napier.ac.uk/%7E/media/worktribe/output-2656687/using-social-media-during-job-search-the-case-of-16-24-year-olds-in-scotland-published.pdf">crucial tool</a> for career development.</p>
<h2>How to network online</h2>
<p>Remote working has of course seen videoconferencing become the norm. Online networking events are now routinely held on platforms including EventBrite, Slack, Yammer and Instagram live. </p>
<p>So first, do your research: identify the organisations, associations, and causes of most interest to you. Find the blogs and forums that are relevant to your field of work, and sign up to as many mailing lists as you can efficiently handle. Find your people and follow them on social media.</p>
<p>The goal of this first step is to increase the volume of information that you receive passively. This creates what is known as <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1745691619868207#:%7E:text=Gibson%20(1979)%2C%20who%20introduced,127">environmental affordance</a>: the possibility for action afforded to you by your environment. The more regular updates about relevant events that you receive, the more likely you are to attend them.</p>
<p>Second, be strategic. In a world where conference dinners and impromptu water cooler conversations have been replaced by Zoom catch-ups, things aren’t as spontaneous as they were before. Scheduling is key.</p>
<p>Create a <a href="https://www.rivier.edu/academics/blog-posts/how-to-develop-a-successful-networking-plan/">personal networking plan</a>. Decide how much time you are going to devote to online networking and note down your goals: how many people you want to speak to; which companies you want to find out more about; which specific people you need to seek out to discuss specific topics. Make sure to schedule in time to maintain your online presence. And opt for a variety of engagements such as webinars, online recruitment fairs, one-to-one Zoom meetings, and online conferences.</p>
<p>Third, research shows that the most prolific networkers possess proactive personality traits, and are likely to score high on extroversion – a trait associated with being outgoing and seeking out new experiences – in personality tests. That does not mean, however, that you have to be an extrovert to succeed at networking. You just need to be proactive: proactive behaviour is the <a href="https://www.hf.uni-koeln.de/data/orgwipsy/File/Bendella_2020_aam.pdf">strongest predictor of networking success</a>.</p>
<p>If there is a specific person or a group of professionals that you would like to build a relationship with, get in touch with them directly. Email them, message them on Twitter, set up a Zoom meeting, or research the online networking mixers they might take part in.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in grey jeans and a black t-shirt stands in a large room in front of three tall screens filled with hundreds of zoom windows." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458138/original/file-20220414-20-v4chvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458138/original/file-20220414-20-v4chvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458138/original/file-20220414-20-v4chvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458138/original/file-20220414-20-v4chvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458138/original/file-20220414-20-v4chvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458138/original/file-20220414-20-v4chvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458138/original/file-20220414-20-v4chvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Schedule in time to go to online events and follow the people aligned with your interests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bangkok-thailand-21-may-2020-young-1739200667">Siam Stock | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why networking is critical to success</h2>
<p>Networking underpins two key aspects of professional advancement: employability and self-directed career development. </p>
<p>The first, employability, pertains to what economists refer to as the <a href="https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/34309590/human_capital_handbook_of_cliometrics_0.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">human capital</a> of a potential employee: their external marketability and the relative value of their educational background, technical skills, and soft skills – such as communication, time management and creativity – on the job market. Networking makes your human capital readily apparent to employers and prompts hiring decisions.</p>
<p>Self-directed career development, meanwhile, is an <a href="https://www.napier.ac.uk/%7E/media/worktribe/output-2747064/new-information-literacy-horizons-making-the-case-for-career-information-literacy-1.pdf">ongoing personal development project</a>, whereby you seek career information and take action towards longterm career goals. Here, networking is a crucial means for obtaining <a href="https://www.napier.ac.uk/%7E/media/worktribe/output-2291075/networking-as-an-information-behaviour-during-job-search-an-study-of-active-jobseekers-in.pdf">career information</a>. This both helps you raise your personal aspirations and figure out whether a particular job, company, or sector is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0099133319300424">right for you</a>. The firsthand experiences of other people working in a given profession can be helpful in gauging whether you too would be a good fit.</p>
<p>Networking also helps to build relationships with mentors and role models, and gives access to peer support communities and professional groups. This is about more than just securing a job. It creates a sense of belonging and of professional identity, and in doing so develops what social scientists term “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233546004_What_Is_Social_Capital_A_Comprehensive_Review_of_the_Concept">social capital</a>”: shared <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-internet-helps-us-translate-social-capital-to-economic-benefits-64664">norms, values, and beliefs</a> in professional communities.</p>
<p>Networking involves a number of skills – approaching others, finding common ground, maintaining relationships – that can be practised and learned. Of these, <a href="https://blog.bni-sterling.co.uk/networking-skills-the-art-of-active-listening">listening</a> –- not talking – is perhaps the most important. Express an interest in other people’s work and ask them questions, and you’ll be well on your way to making meaningful connections that benefit not only you as an individual. Because they bolster knowledge exchange and collective problem-solving, they benefit your community too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marina Milosheva receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).</span></em></p>Networking involves a skillset that can be learned and practised. Doing so – online or in person – is crucial to career advancement.Marina Milosheva, PhD candidate in Social Informatics, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1808192022-04-08T16:12:28Z2022-04-08T16:12:28ZBehind French election tweets, the far right is hidden in plain sight<p>During the 2017 French presidential election, Emmanuel Macron was the darling of digital democracy. With his calls for a “startup nation,” the future head of state placed technology at the centre not only of his programme but also of his <a href="https://frenchcrossroads.substack.com/p/startup-president-part-3?s=r">campaign</a>.</p>
<p>The now-president’s digital performance in the run-up to this year’s election has been much less clear-cut. It’s left-wing Jean-Luc Mélenchon who’s been trying to push the technological envelope, going so far as to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/06/jean-luc-melenchon-hologram-french-election">appear in the form of a hologram</a>, while Macron concentrated on shifting his programme to the right. And while he still leads in the polls, his <a href="https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/france/">margin is slipping</a>. Indeed, five years after Macron took office, far-right candidates have been more effective than Macron at exploiting the Internet and social networks.</p>
<p>In the newly published book <a href="https://www.epflpress.org/produit/1047/9782889154548/l-illusion-de-la-democratie-numerique"><em>L’illusion de la démocratie numérique. Internet est-il de droite?</em></a> (EPFL Press), I argue that conservatives dominate online. While the Internet may have been a key part of left-leaning movements, such as the Arab Spring or Occupy Wall Street, the right dominates the online world thanks to factors such as its popular bases, hierarchical organisations, capital, as well as social inequality. The French presidential elections are a case in point.</p>
<h2>The French Internet: a political genealogy</h2>
<p>But before we turn to the current elections, it is worth revisiting French politics’ digital history. France is no newcomer to digital politics, with the egalitarian use of the 1980s pre-web French <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/thank-minitel-for-the-french-election/">Minitel computers for political information</a> paving the way to current global networks. Imagining the early web as a bastion of left-leaning French politics led by Macron is overly simplistic, though, as the National Front was the first political party in France to have a web presence, as well as an army of trolls working behind the scenes.</p>
<p>But it would be a mistake to view Le Pen’s support as artificial or top-down. She has been the sleeper in this current election, pulling ahead in the polls. While digital media eyes were on Zemmour, Le Pen boasts a strong base of support throughout the country, both online and offline. From Facebook groups, Twitter, down to WhatsApp channels, she dominates her rival. Despite extensive coverage in international media outlets, the former <em>Figaro</em> columnist has fewer than 400,000 Twitter followers, versus 2.7 million in the case of Le Pen.</p>
<h2>Zemmour and Le Pen</h2>
<p>Both have launched their campaigns amid a rightward turn of French politics, as voters increasingly resent the gap between their purchasing power and that of previous generations. While Zemmour and Le Pen have both clearly capitalised on such sentiments, scapegoating immigrants subtly or explicitly, there are differences between them.</p>
<p>Throughout his campaign, Zemmour has deployed an openly Islamophobic rhetoric that closely mirrored that of a <a href="http://hatemeter.eu/">research project tracking online anti-Muslim hatred</a> between 2018 and 2020. Zemmour’s movement, Reconquête (“Reconquer”) echoes the theme of a supposed “invasion” by immigrants that marked the 2016 US presidential campaign. Like former US president Donald Trump, Zemmour asserts the need to make France “great again”.</p>
<p>Le Pen also privileges imagery celebrating “traditional France”, including its agricultural heritage. Unlike Zemmour, she has confined most of her speeches to bread-and-butter issues, directly appealing to much of the working-class and rural <em>gilets jaunes</em> base. The movement started out in 2018 as a fuel-tax occupations in mostly small towns stopping traffic and morphed into a series of mostly urban marches. Once focused on cost-of-living issues, the protesters’ demands became diverse and sometimes contradictory ideologically, and the movement lost steam in late 2019 when the pandemic hit.</p>
<h2>Popular bases</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456985/original/file-20220407-21-mlmngx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456985/original/file-20220407-21-mlmngx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456985/original/file-20220407-21-mlmngx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456985/original/file-20220407-21-mlmngx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456985/original/file-20220407-21-mlmngx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456985/original/file-20220407-21-mlmngx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456985/original/file-20220407-21-mlmngx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456985/original/file-20220407-21-mlmngx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In advance of the French election, Eric Zemmour has been sinking in the polls relative to Marine Le Pen, and so has sought to dismiss them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eric Zemmour/Twitter</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Too many people on the left present right-wing leaders as puppet masters and downplay the role of organised people on the ground. The fantasy is that by somehow getting rid of these leading online influencers, whether Zemmour or Le Pen, or even Putin or Trump, that the right-wing digital base will disappear.</p>
<p>The reality is in fact the opposite. These leaders built their movements on existing networks and groups. These include everything from the far-right component of the <em>gilets jaunes</em> to Civitas, Action Française, and even elements of the Catholic Church. Institutions like these are more likely to have a solid network of political supporters that are in constant communication, as well as have dedicated armies of volunteers to post and promote online content relevant to its members.</p>
<p>This finding of the role of organisations, and especially what I found in the United States in how hierarchical organisations dominated online as opposed to the myth of horizontal digital activism. Simply put, conservative groups are more likely to be hierarchical, as compared to many of those on the left, and this enables more online engagement.</p>
<h2>A media ecosystem benefiting the far right</h2>
<p>But it is not just individual groups peppered throughout France, or any other country, that enable conservative digital activism. Key to the circulation of social media information is how these groups work in sync with an ecosystem of other like-minded organisations. As in the United States, conservative media outlets are growing in France: the far-right media empire of <a href="https://www.vivendi.com/en/biography/vincent-bollore/">Vincent Bolloré</a> includes CNews, which propelled Zemmour into the nightly TV spotlight, while the media conglomerate of <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20200122-bernard-arnault-france-s-wolf-in-cashmere-billionaire">Bernard Arnault</a> pushes free-market ideas. And the content they produce and personalities they promote feed directly into conservative social-media feeds, despite – and because of – conservative claims that the media censors them.</p>
<p>By contrast, the left in France is fragmented and does not work as effectively as the far right does with all types of media outlets. This has a direct relationship with what works – and doesn’t – in terms of virality on social media. Conservative conceptions of <em>freedom</em> play better on platforms that favour simplistic, short, and provocative posts, whether it is “freedom” from immigrant “invasions” or from “mask mandates.” The left focuses more on principles such as <em>fairness</em>, and the messages are inherently more nuanced and dispersed. Whether it is the environment, gender rights, anti-racism, or LGBTQ+ issues, the broad coalition of ideas can lead to fuzzy messaging. So in today’s digital era, the left has a bigger hill to climb, and France is no exception.</p>
<p>So this is how ideology, even in its own right, fuels the digital activism gap I found in my research in why conservatives dominate online.</p>
<h2>Inequality</h2>
<p>Now for the last factor that we also see in France: inequality. The Internet was supposed to be a place where everyone can come together on the same playing field, but this is not the case. But how does this map onto the French working-class increasingly voting for Le Pen?</p>
<p>As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. Not included in polls of Le Pen’s working-class base are the members of the working-class who do not vote or those who are not citizens and thus can’t vote. As it is defined in surveys, the working class in France also does not include other low-wage workers or those unable to work. The digital divide in access and skills, for example, is still strong in France, especially in rural areas. The cliche of far-right supporters is that they are duped, uninformed, and uneducated, but in my research and with Zemmour’s base, it’s key to see the dominance of middle to upper-class “well-educated” voters that he has captured.</p>
<h2>The right’s big money</h2>
<p>Questions have also swirled around who may be financing Zemmour’s glitzy campaign of slick posters, synced social media, and well-orchestrated rallies. Certainly, conservatives are more likely to have these resources, both individually and organisationally. And this kind of big money is key to digital <em>production</em> of online content, but it does not automatically result in digital <em>participation</em>. It takes people on the ground who believe and support these far-right philosophies to keep the social media content flowing. It is not just individual supporters. Political organisations, whether parties or civil society groups, that have a lot of resources can harness the power of platform algorithms by paying staff (or trolls) to engage online or can afford the high-tech software and other gadgets to sustain digital participation.</p>
<p>The result, then, of differences in institutions, ideologies, and inequalities offline is a dominance of the far right online. The bottom line is that offline power results in online power, and with conservatives having and gaining power, it is an uphill battle for those on the left.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=158&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=158&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=158&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=198&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=198&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=198&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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</figure>
<p><em>Created in 2007 to help accelerate and share scientific knowledge on key societal issues, the AXA Research Fund has been supporting nearly 650 projects around the world conducted by researchers from 55 countries. To learn more, visit the site of the <a href="https://www.axa-research.org">Axa Research Fund</a> or follow on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/axaresearchfund?lang=fr">@AXAResearchFund</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180819/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jen Schradie ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>While many progressive movements have organised online, conservatives dominate because of better organisation, capital, and social inequality. France’s presidential elections are a case in point.Jen Schradie, Digital Sociologist, Sciences Po Paris, Sciences Po Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1787412022-03-15T12:14:20Z2022-03-15T12:14:20ZWhat is Discord? An internet researcher explains the social media platform at the center of Pentagon leak of top-secret intelligence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521072/original/file-20230414-18-btpfoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4343%2C2884&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some of the nation's most closely guarded secrets were posted to a small online gaming community.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/GameDevelopersConference2023/58194bcb07674162b68227fc1d248dc3/photo">AP Photo/Jeff Chiu</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Justice Department on April 14, 2023, charged <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/04/13/document-leak-jack-teixeira-og/">Jack Teixeira</a>, a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard member, with <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/pentagon-looking-into-how-accused-leaker-accessed-top-secret-documents-6c6b0972">unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information</a> and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material. Media reports suggest that Teixeira didn’t intend to leak the documents widely but rather shared them <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/04/12/discord-leaked-us-intelligence-documents/">on a closed Discord community</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/12/discord-leaked-documents/">focused on playing war games</a>. </p>
<p>Some of the documents were then shared to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/11/business/discord-leaked-military-documents.html">another Discord community</a> with a larger following and became widely disseminated from there. </p>
<p>So what is Discord and should you worry about what people are encountering there?</p>
<p>Ever since the earliest days of the internet in the 1980s, getting online has meant getting involved in a community. Initially, there were <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/11/the-lost-civilization-of-dial-up-bulletin-board-systems/506465/">dial-up chat servers</a>, email lists and <a href="https://usenetreviewz.com/history-of-usenet/">text-based discussion groups</a> focused on <a href="https://cfiesler.medium.com/the-secret-garden-of-the-internet-how-fanfiction-transforms-lives-12cfa5881cd5">specific interests</a>.</p>
<p>Since the early 2000s, mass-appeal social media platforms have collected these small spaces into bigger ones, letting people find their own little corners of the internet, but only with interconnections to others. This allows social media sites to <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/cmci/2022/02/21/cmci-researchers-dive-dual-experience-lgbtq-users-tiktok">suggest new spaces users might join</a>, whether it’s a local neighborhood discussion or a group with the same hobby, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/solving-the-political-ad-problem-with-transparency-85366">sell specifically targeted advertising</a>. But the small-group niche community is making a comeback with adults, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/29/business/discord-users-gen-z.html">with kids and teens</a>.</p>
<p>When <a href="https://discord.com">Discord</a> was initially released <a href="https://discord.fandom.com/wiki/Discord">in 2015</a>, many video games did not provide players with live voice chat to talk to one another while playing the game – or required them to <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/31/the-history-of-gaming-an-evolving-community/">pay premium prices</a> to do so. Discord was an app that <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/10/discord-video/">enabled real-time voice and text chatting</a>, so friends could team up to conquer an obstacle, or just chat while exploring a game world. People do still use Discord for that, but these days most of the activity on the service is part of wider communities than just a couple of friends meeting up to play.</p>
<p>Examining Discord is part of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kEcMLswAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">my research</a> into how scholars, developers and policymakers might design and maintain healthy online spaces.</p>
<h2>A little bit old school</h2>
<p>Discord first came onto my radar in 2017 when an acquaintance asked me to join a writer’s support group. Discord users can set up their own communities, called servers, with shareable links to join and choices about whether the server is public or private.</p>
<p>The writer’s group server felt like an old-school chat room, but with multiple channels segmenting out different conversations that folks were having. It reminded me of descriptions of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/what-the-wells-rise-and-fall-tell-us-about-online-community/259504/">early online chat</a> and forum-based communities that hosted lengthy conversations between people all over the world.</p>
<p>The people in the writers’ server quickly realized that a few of our community members were teenagers under the age of 18. While the server owner had kept the space invite-only, he avoided saying “no” to anyone who requested access. It was supposed to be a supportive community for people working on writing projects, after all. Why would he want to exclude anyone?</p>
<p>He didn’t want to kick the teens out, but was able to make some adjustments using Discord’s server moderation system. Community members had to disclose their age, and anyone under 18 was given a special “role” that tagged them as a minor. That role prevented them from accessing channels that we marked as “not safe for work,” or “NSFW.” Some of the writers were working on explicit romance novels and didn’t want to solicit feedback from teenagers. And sometimes, adults just wanted to have their own space.</p>
<p>While we took care in constructing an online space safe for teens, there are still dangers present with an app like Discord. The platform is criticized for lacking <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/discord-chat-app-is-safer-now-for-kids-but-still-lacks-parental-controls-11610805602">parental controls</a>. The terms of service state that no one under 13 should sign up for Discord, but <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/29/business/discord-users-gen-z.html">many young people</a> use the platform regardless. </p>
<p>Additionally, there are people who have used Discord to organize and encourage hateful rhetoric, including <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/7/17660308/white-supremacists-charlottesville-rally-discord-plan">neo-Nazi ideologies</a>. Others have used the platform to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-edpa/pr/chicago-man-pleads-guilty-engaging-internet-based-child-exploitation-enterprise-and">traffic child pornography</a>.</p>
<p>However, Discord does maintain that these sorts of activities are illegal and unwelcome on its platform, and the company <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/28/17062554/discord-alt-right-neo-nazi-white-supremacy-atomwaffen">regularly bans servers</a> <a href="https://www.engadget.com/discord-transparency-report-222737366.html">and users</a> it says perpetuate harm.</p>
<h2>Options for safety</h2>
<p>Every Discord server I’ve joined since then has had some safeguard around young people and inappropriate content. Whether it’s age-restricted channels or simply refusing to allow minors to join certain servers, the Discord communities I’m in share a heightened concern for keeping young people on the internet safe. </p>
<p>This does not mean that every Discord server will be safe at all times for its members, however. Parents should still take the time to talk with their kids about what they’re doing in their online spaces. Even something as innocuous as the popular children’s gaming environment <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/roblox-online-games-irl-fascism-roman-empire/">Roblox</a> can turn bad in the right setting.</p>
<p>And while the servers I’ve been involved in have been managed with care, not all Discord servers are regulated this way. In addition to servers lacking uniform regulation, account owners are able to lie about their age and identity when signing up for an account. And there are new ways for users to misbehave or annoy others on Discord, like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3359157">spamming loud and inappropriate audio</a>. </p>
<p>But, as with other modern social media platforms, there are safeguards to help administrators keep online communities safe for young people if they want to. Server members can label an entire server “NSFW,” going beyond single channel labels and locking minor accounts out of entire communities. But if they don’t, <a href="https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500005389362-NSFW-Server-Designation">company officials can do it themselves</a>. When accessing Discord on an iOS device, NSFW servers are not visible to anyone, even accounts belonging to adults. Additionally, Discord runs a <a href="https://discord.com/moderation">Moderator Academy</a> to support training up volunteer moderators who can appropriately handle a wide range of situations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450803/original/file-20220308-27-zqe3g7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A screenshot of a Discord community" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450803/original/file-20220308-27-zqe3g7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450803/original/file-20220308-27-zqe3g7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450803/original/file-20220308-27-zqe3g7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450803/original/file-20220308-27-zqe3g7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450803/original/file-20220308-27-zqe3g7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450803/original/file-20220308-27-zqe3g7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450803/original/file-20220308-27-zqe3g7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Discord is another way for people to gather and communicate online.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045138571-Beginner-s-Guide-to-Discord">Discord</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Stronger controls</h2>
<p>Unlike many other current popular social media platforms, Discord servers often function as closed communities, with invitations required to join. There are also large open servers flooded with millions of users, but Discord’s design integrates content moderation tools to maintain order. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://discord.com/moderation/1500000176222-201:-Permissions-on-Discord">a server creator has tight control</a> over who has access to what, and what permissions each server member can have to send, delete or manage messages. In addition, Discord allows community members to add <a href="https://discord.com/moderation/1500000178701-321:-Auto-Moderation-in-Discord">automations</a> to a server, continuously monitoring activity to enforce moderation standards.</p>
<p>With these protections, people use servers to form tight-knit, closed spaces safe from chaotic public squares like Twitter and less visible to the wider online world. This can be positive, keeping spaces safer from bullies, trolls and disinformation spreaders. In my own research, young people have mentioned their Discord servers as the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3983/twc.2018.1583">safe, private space</a> they have online in contrast to messy public platforms. </p>
<p>However, moving online activity to more private spaces also means that those well-regulated, healthy communities are <a href="https://medium.com/acm-cscw/transformative-spaces-how-fandom-creates-communities-of-support-for-lgbtq-people-4123744c49cd">less discoverable for vulnerable groups</a> that might need them. For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702205">new fathers looking for social support</a> are sometimes more inclined to access it through open subreddits rather than Facebook groups. </p>
<p>Discord’s servers are not the first <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/why-did-fans-leave-livejournal-and-where-will-they-go-after-tumblr.html">closed communities on the internet</a>. They are, essentially, the same as old-school chat rooms, private blogs and curated mailing lists. They will have the same problems and opportunities as previous online communities.</p>
<h2>Discussion about self-protection</h2>
<p>In my view, the solution to this particular problem is not necessarily banning particular practices or regulating internet companies. Research into <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/protecting-children-online">youth safety online</a> finds that government regulation aimed at protecting minors on social media <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2018/08/22/protecting-children-online/">rarely has the desired outcome</a>, and more often results in disempowering and isolating youth instead. </p>
<p>Just as parents and caring adults tell the kids in their lives about recognizing dangerous situations in the physical world, talking about healthy online interactions can help young people protect themselves in the online world. Many youth-focused organizations, and many internet companies, have <a href="https://beinternetawesome.withgoogle.com/en_us">internet safety information</a> aimed at kids of all ages.</p>
<p>Whenever young people hop onto the next technology fad, there will <a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-smartphones-for-kids-is-just-another-technology-fearing-moral-panic-74485">inevitably be panic</a> over how the adults, companies and society may or may not be keeping young people safe. What is most important in these situations is to remember that talking to young people about how they use those technologies, and what to do in difficult situations, can be an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444815577797">effective way</a> to help them avoid serious harm online.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on March 15, 2022.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brianna Dym receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>Discord was initially a service to let gamers voice and text chat while playing. Most of its current users build and maintain online communities, though not always very big ones.Brianna Dym, Lecture of Computer Science, University of MaineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1754362022-02-23T16:03:13Z2022-02-23T16:03:13ZAncient DNA helps reveal social changes in Africa 50,000 years ago that shaped the human story<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446822/original/file-20220216-3870-1o2qb6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=186%2C0%2C3661%2C2475&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Together with artifacts from the past, ancient DNA can fill in details about our ancient ancestors.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kondoa_Irangi_Rock_Paintings_(51507918388).jpg">Nina R/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every person alive on the planet today is descended from people who lived as hunter-gatherers in Africa. </p>
<p>The continent is the cradle of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-handful-of-prehistoric-geniuses-launched-humanitys-technological-revolution-171511">human origins and ingenuity</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/archaeological-discoveries-are-happening-faster-than-ever-before-helping-refine-the-human-story-128743">with each new fossil and archaeological discovery</a>, we learn more about our shared African past. Such research tends to focus on when our species, <em>Homo sapiens</em>, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-homo-sapiens-became-the-ultimate-invasive-species/">spread out to other landmasses 80,000-60,000 years ago</a>. But what happened in Africa after that, and why don’t we know more about the people who remained?</p>
<p>Our 2022 study, conducted by an interdisciplinary team of 44 researchers based in 12 countries, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04430-9">helps answer these questions</a>. By sequencing and analyzing ancient DNA (aDNA) from people who lived as long ago as 18,000 years, we roughly doubled the age of sequenced aDNA from sub-Saharan Africa. And this genetic information helps <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GlrnQDgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">anthropologists</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MQkcYDYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">like</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3QKcZMoAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">us</a> understand more about how modern humans were moving and mingling in Africa long ago.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441914/original/file-20220121-8326-sxvlib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="View from above of archaeological excavation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441914/original/file-20220121-8326-sxvlib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441914/original/file-20220121-8326-sxvlib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441914/original/file-20220121-8326-sxvlib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441914/original/file-20220121-8326-sxvlib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441914/original/file-20220121-8326-sxvlib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441914/original/file-20220121-8326-sxvlib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441914/original/file-20220121-8326-sxvlib.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People took shelter in natural rock overhangs, leaving behind an archaeological record of their daily activities – and sometimes their graves. By digging carefully, archaeologists can connect information from aDNA to information about the social lives of these people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jacob Davis</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tracing our human past in Africa</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/new-moroccan-fossils-suggest-humans-lived-and-evolved-across-africa-100-000-years-earlier-than-we-thought-78826">Beginning about 300,000 years ago</a>, people in Africa who looked like us – the earliest anatomically modern humans – also started behaving in ways that seem very human. They made <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-drastic-ecological-change-led-leap-forward-behavior-weapons-and-tools-180976101/">new kinds of stone tools and began transporting raw materials</a> up to 250 miles (400 kilometers), likely through trade networks. By 140,000-120,000 years ago, people made <a href="https://scitechdaily.com/early-humans-used-bone-tools-to-produce-clothing-in-morocco-120000-years-ago/">clothing from animal skins</a> and began to <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/worlds-oldest-jewelry-discovered-in-moroccan-cave-180978766/">decorate themselves with pierced marine shell beads</a>. </p>
<p>While early innovations appeared in a patchwork fashion, a more widespread shift happened around 50,000 years ago – around the same time that people started <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/australia-aboriginal-early-human-evolution-spd">moving into places as distant as Australia</a>. New types of stone and bone tools became common, and people began <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-tiny-ostrich-eggshell-beads-that-tell-the-story-of-africas-past-128577">fashioning and exchanging ostrich eggshell beads</a>. And while most <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-ancient-san-rock-art-mural-in-south-africa-reveals-new-meaning-157177">rock art in Africa</a> is undated and badly weathered, an increase in <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-use-of-ochre-tells-us-about-the-capabilities-of-our-african-ancestry-47081">ochre pigment at archaeological sites</a> hints at an explosion of art. </p>
<p>What caused this shift, known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Stone_Age">Later Stone Age</a> transition, has been a longstanding archaeological mystery. Why would certain tools and behaviors, which up until that point had appeared in a piecemeal way across Africa, suddenly become widespread? Did it have something to do with changes in the number of people, or how they interacted? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441913/original/file-20220121-9541-bx79fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Nine disc-shaped beads" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441913/original/file-20220121-9541-bx79fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441913/original/file-20220121-9541-bx79fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441913/original/file-20220121-9541-bx79fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441913/original/file-20220121-9541-bx79fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441913/original/file-20220121-9541-bx79fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441913/original/file-20220121-9541-bx79fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441913/original/file-20220121-9541-bx79fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beads made from ostrich eggshell were hot trade items and can show the extent of ancient social networks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jennifer Miller</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The challenge of accessing the deep past</h2>
<p>Archaeologists reconstruct human behavior in the past mainly through things people left behind – remains of their meals, tools, ornaments and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-discovered-the-oldest-human-burial-in-africa-and-what-it-tells-us-about-our-ancestors-160122">sometimes even their bodies</a>. These records may accumulate over thousands of years, creating views of daily livelihoods that are really averages over long periods of time. However, it’s hard to study ancient demography, or how populations changed, from the archaeological record alone. </p>
<p>This is where DNA can help. When combined with evidence from archaeology, linguistics and oral and written history, scientists can piece together how people moved and interacted based on which groups share genetic similarities.</p>
<p>But DNA from living people can’t tell the whole story. African populations have been transformed over the past 5,000 years by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-dna-is-revealing-the-origins-of-livestock-herding-in-africa-114387">spread of herding and farming</a>, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-recreated-a-lost-african-city-with-laser-technology-92852">development of cities</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/archaeology-shows-how-ancient-african-societies-managed-pandemics-138217">ancient pandemics</a> and the ravages of <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-digital-archive-of-slave-voyages-details-the-largest-forced-migration-in-history-74902">colonialism and slavery</a>. These processes caused <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/science/west-africa-ancient-humans.html">some lineages to vanish</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/mitochondrial-dna-reveals-unexpected-ancestral-connections-122053">brought others together</a>, forming new populations. </p>
<p>Using present-day DNA to reconstruct ancient genetic landscapes is like reading a letter that was left out in the rain: some words are there but blurred, and some are gone completely. Researchers need ancient DNA from archaeological human remains to explore human diversity in different places and times and to understand what factors shaped it.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, aDNA from Africa is particularly hard to recover because the continent straddles the equator and heat and humidity degrade DNA. While the <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/oldest-ancient-human-dna-details-dawn-of-neandertals/">oldest aDNA from Eurasia is roughly 400,000 years old</a>, all sequences from sub-Saharan Africa to date have been younger than around 9,000 years. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444879/original/file-20220207-47158-11n9ym1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map with markers showing distribution of ancient DNA data in Africa, and the world." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444879/original/file-20220207-47158-11n9ym1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444879/original/file-20220207-47158-11n9ym1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444879/original/file-20220207-47158-11n9ym1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444879/original/file-20220207-47158-11n9ym1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444879/original/file-20220207-47158-11n9ym1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444879/original/file-20220207-47158-11n9ym1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444879/original/file-20220207-47158-11n9ym1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Map of all published ancient genomes, with black dots scaled to the number of individuals’ genomes. Blue dots indicate Later Stone Age foragers comparable to those in our study. Red stars indicate individuals reported for the first time in our study. Inset map underscores the gap between Africa and other parts of the world in terms of published ancient genomes. Ancient DNA preserved between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn is rare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mary Prendergast; basemaps by Natural Earth</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Breaking the ‘tropical ceiling’</h2>
<p>Because each person carries genetic legacies inherited from generations of their ancestors, our team was able to use DNA from individuals who lived between 18,000-400 years ago to explore how people interacted as far back as the last 80,000-50,000 years. This allowed us, for the first time, to test whether demographic change played a role in the Later Stone Age transition. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04430-9">Our team sequenced aDNA</a> from six individuals buried in what are now Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia. We compared these sequences to previously studied aDNA from 28 individuals buried at sites stretching from Cameroon to Ethiopia and down to South Africa. We also generated new and improved DNA data for 15 of these people, trying to extract as much information as possible from the small handful of ancient African individuals whose DNA is preserved well enough to study.</p>
<p>This created the largest genetic dataset so far for studying the population history of ancient African foragers – people who hunted, gathered or fished. We used it to explore population structures that existed prior to the sweeping changes of the past few thousand years.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444614/original/file-20220205-23-d1055k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Museum building, palm trees" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444614/original/file-20220205-23-d1055k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444614/original/file-20220205-23-d1055k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444614/original/file-20220205-23-d1055k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444614/original/file-20220205-23-d1055k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444614/original/file-20220205-23-d1055k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444614/original/file-20220205-23-d1055k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444614/original/file-20220205-23-d1055k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">National Museum of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam. Ancient DNA studies in Africa are made possible by the efforts of curators to protect and preserve remains in tropical conditions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mary Prendergast</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>DNA weighs in on a longstanding debate</h2>
<p>We found that people did in fact change how they moved and interacted around the Later Stone Age transition.</p>
<p>Despite being separated by thousands of miles and years, all the ancient individuals in this study were descended from the same three populations related to ancient and present-day eastern, southern and central Africans. The presence of eastern African ancestry as far south as Zambia, and southern African ancestry as far north as Kenya, indicates that people were moving long distances and having children with people located far away from where they were born. The only way this population structure could have emerged is if people were moving long distances over many millennia. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446008/original/file-20220211-21-gafkub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Lush African landscape" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446008/original/file-20220211-21-gafkub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446008/original/file-20220211-21-gafkub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446008/original/file-20220211-21-gafkub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446008/original/file-20220211-21-gafkub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446008/original/file-20220211-21-gafkub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446008/original/file-20220211-21-gafkub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446008/original/file-20220211-21-gafkub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Genetic data now suggests that people moved and mingled across the eastern African Rift Valley during the Ice Ages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elizabeth Sawchuk</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Additionally, our research showed that almost all ancient eastern Africans shared an unexpectedly high number of genetic variations with hunter-gatherers who today live in central African rainforests, making ancient eastern Africa truly a genetic melting pot. We could tell that this mixing and moving happened after about 50,000 years ago, when there was a major split in central African forager populations.</p>
<p>We also noted that the individuals in our study were genetically most like only their closest geographic neighbors. This tells us that after around 20,000 years ago, the foragers in some African regions were almost exclusively finding their partners locally. This practice must have been extremely strong and persisted for a very long time, as our results show that some groups remained genetically independent of their neighbors over several thousand years. It was especially clear in Malawi and Zambia, where the only close relationships we detected were between people buried around the same time at the same sites. </p>
<p>We don’t know why people began “living locally” again. Changing environments as the last Ice Age peaked and waned between about 26,000-11,500 years ago may have made it more economical to forage closer to home, or perhaps elaborate exchange networks reduced the need for people to travel with objects.</p>
<p>Alternatively, new group identities may have emerged, restructuring marriage rules. If so, we would expect to see artifacts and other traditions like rock art diversify, with specific types clumped into different regions. Indeed, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/16/trail-of-african-bling-reveals-50000-year-old-social-network">this is exactly what archaeologists find</a> – a trend known as regionalization. Now we know that this phenomenon not only affected cultural traditions, but also the flow of genes. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446872/original/file-20220216-20-cuzc12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="workers at a table sort tiny items by hand" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446872/original/file-20220216-20-cuzc12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446872/original/file-20220216-20-cuzc12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446872/original/file-20220216-20-cuzc12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446872/original/file-20220216-20-cuzc12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446872/original/file-20220216-20-cuzc12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446872/original/file-20220216-20-cuzc12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446872/original/file-20220216-20-cuzc12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recovering and sorting archaeological remains is a slow and laborious process, where even small fragments can tell big stories.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chelsea Smith</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>New data, new questions</h2>
<p>As always, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-dna-is-a-powerful-tool-for-studying-the-past-when-archaeologists-and-geneticists-work-together-111127">aDNA research raises as many questions as answers</a>. Finding central African ancestry throughout eastern and southern Africa prompts anthropologists to reconsider how interconnected these regions were in the distant past. This is important because central Africa has remained archaeologically understudied, in part because of political, economic and logistical challenges that make research there difficult. </p>
<p>Additionally, while genetic evidence supports a major demographic transition in Africa after 50,000 years ago, we still don’t know the key drivers. Determining what triggered the Later Stone Age transition will require closer examination of regional environmental, archaeological and genetic records to understand how this process unfolded across sub-Saharan Africa.</p>
<p>Finally, this study is a stark reminder that researchers still have <a href="https://theconversation.com/lesson-from-brazil-museums-are-not-forever-102692">much to learn from ancient individuals and artifacts</a> held in African museums, and highlights the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-its-like-curating-ancient-fossils-a-palaeontologist-shares-her-story-96555">critical role of the curators</a> who steward these collections. While some human remains in this study were recovered within the past decade, others have been in museums for a half-century.</p>
<p>Even though technological advances are pushing back the time limits for aDNA, it is important to remember that scientists have only just begun to understand human diversity in Africa, past and present.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GUau26szdzA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175436/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Sawchuk receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Thompson has received funding from the Leakey Foundation, National Geographic Society, Wenner-Gren Foundation, Australian Research Council, National Science Foundation, and Hyde Family Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Prendergast does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new study doubles the age of ancient DNA in sub-Saharan Africa, revealing how people moved, mingled and had children together over the last 50,000 years.Elizabeth Sawchuk, Banting Postdoctoral Fellow and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, University of AlbertaJessica Thompson, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Yale UniversityMary Prendergast, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Rice UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1754342022-01-25T19:02:16Z2022-01-25T19:02:16ZWhy online groups are parents’ best friends in getting ready for the school year<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442169/original/file-20220124-25-66em69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4889%2C3249&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you’re a parent, chances are that, like me, you are frantically trying to get a head start on the new school year. In coping with the stress of COVID-19 lockdowns, restrictions, empty shelves in stores, working from home and minimal communications by schools over the holidays, we’ve turned to our virtual community of friends for help.</p>
<p>Let’s face it, most of us probably don’t have the time to or simply can’t pop in for a cuppa with one of the other parents to just have a chat. And there are pressing things to discuss, such as the school book list that has gone missing over the holidays, where to get the best deal on a headset with a microphone suitable for an eight-year-old, which brand of white sport shoes will last more than a week in the dusty schoolyard, or where to get the two boxes of facial tissues the teacher asked children to supply when there are none at the shops! </p>
<p>This is where our online friends can help.</p>
<h2>Our digital ‘tribes’</h2>
<p>People have formed tribes since the dawn of time. We are no different in this digital age. Members of a tribe typically share some similarities, which are like glue that holds the group together. Our online groups, or digital “tribes”, connect us based on a common interest, topic, location or school. They include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>mum groups – for example, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/australianschoolmums">Australian School Mums</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/761841587987059">School Mums Australia</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2137302706589877">Organised Mums Australia</a></p></li>
<li><p>location-based groups – <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/525115141203861">6009 and 6010 Community Notice Board</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/community.mansfield/">Mansfield and District Community Noticeboard</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/brunswickheadscommunity/">Brunswick Heads Community</a></p></li>
<li><p>consumer groups – <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/158634060914178">Second Hand School Uniforms</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/sorschooluniforms">School Uniforms and Books Buy Swap and Sell</a></p></li>
<li><p>school-based groups.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The pandemic has fuelled the rise in online tribes, as people have been restricted in their movement, locked down in their homes and limited in their access to family and friends. They now rely on their online connections for information, advice, help and friendship. </p>
<p>My team’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-05-2020-0303">recent research</a> into online communities suggests these are rife with “prosumers”. Proactive consumers (“prosumers”) create and share online content, which makes them influential members of social networks. Our prosumer-friends are well informed, quick to respond and supportive when the school-work-life juggling act overwhelms us.</p>
<p>These are people like us. The digital tribe is much bigger than our real, physical community. We don’t have to know each member personally to be able to connect with them digitally. </p>
<p>And as our lives are so digitally integrated, we no longer differentiate between our real and virtual friends. Linda Thomas, who has two primary school-aged children, says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“As a full-time working mum, I’m often unable to keep in touch with my friends in person, which can be quite isolating, especially now during COVID. Facebook and WhatsApp groups have been so important to me in maintaining contact and community support by networking with parents similar to me.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mrs Linda Thomas" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442197/original/file-20220124-21-9zzmde.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442197/original/file-20220124-21-9zzmde.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=650&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442197/original/file-20220124-21-9zzmde.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=650&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442197/original/file-20220124-21-9zzmde.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=650&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442197/original/file-20220124-21-9zzmde.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442197/original/file-20220124-21-9zzmde.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442197/original/file-20220124-21-9zzmde.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Linda Thomas says online networking with other parents has been very important to her as a mother of two children in primary school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Linda Thomas</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Online marketplaces help with the budget</h2>
<p>With the rise in online groups comes a rise in online consumer marketplaces. Facebook groups, such as <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SustainableSchoolShop/">Sustainable School Shop</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/947637151958609/about/">Perth Buy and Sell</a>, can help parents manage the return-to-school budget. </p>
<p>Items that are no longer needed or unused, such as uniforms, books, electronics and stationery, are often given away, swapped or sold at a fraction of the original cost. An example is a Facebook local community group post by a mum giving away a spare laptop to someone who needs it for school.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.inderscience.com/info/ingeneral/forthcoming.php?jcode=ijasm">our research</a>, my colleagues and I found social media users’ exchanges have not been all negative during the pandemic – there has been a lot of positivity. The support, information and advice that social media users provide one another in these online groups have been invaluable for navigating purchasing at stores affected by supply disruptions.</p>
<p>Such positivity often reflects <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10696679.2017.1389246">online brand advocacy</a> (<a href="https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-10-2018-2090">OBA</a>), with online group members recommending brands they have tried to others. This sort of advocacy is authentic as it is freely given and based on online group member’s actual experience with the brand. It is also influential as it is trusted more than brand-generated content, such as when a parent suggests trying Officeworks to find that headset for our eight-year-old.</p>
<p>Interestingly, targeted advertising is also rife online. When you interact with content on a school-related topic, be it <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClarksAustralia">kids’ shoes</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BrightStarKids">school labels</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kumonanz/">tutoring</a> or kids sports, the platform’s algorithm will serve you ads that mirror your engagement. Such advertising is not necessarily a nuisance as it can help us in deciding what to buy.</p>
<p>As parents, we are in this “get our child ready for school” mission together. Online groups provide support, information and friendships beyond what we have access to in real life during these trying times. </p>
<p>So, if you haven’t already, join a digital tribe! It might make the start of the new school year that little bit easier.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175434/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Violetta Wilk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>People have formed tribes since the dawn of time and, in the digital age, online tribes are helping members deal with all the uncertainties and decisions involved in getting kids ready for school.Violetta Wilk, Lecturer & Researcher in Digital Marketing, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1699272021-11-19T02:07:58Z2021-11-19T02:07:58ZChance encounters in the workplace help build trust – so how do you replicate that online?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430118/original/file-20211104-16987-whs1wa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C934%2C6000%2C3053&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For many of us it feels like there’s no going back – at least not full-time. We’ve had working from home foisted upon us. We’ve worked through it. We don’t want to give it all up.</p>
<p>Yes, there are employers who want everyone back into the office. Google, for example, plans to end its global voluntary work-from-home policy <a href="https://www.austpayroll.com.au/google-pushes-back-return-to-office-plan-to-january-2022/">on January 10</a>. But other employers are happy to let staff continue to work remotely. Australian software company <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/small-business/four-times-a-year-in-the-office-atlassian-goes-all-in-on-wfh-20210428-p57n4w.html">Atlassian</a>, for one, is insisting only that its employees come into the workplace four times a year.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-many-days-a-week-in-the-office-are-enough-you-shouldnt-need-to-ask-166418">How many days a week in the office are enough? You shouldn't need to ask</a>
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<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/have-we-just-stumbled-on-the-biggest-productivity-increase-of-the-century-145104">Studies</a> and surveys are consistently clear: most of us don’t believe our productivity has been harmed, and those who do are offset by those who think they are more productive. Crucially, many <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-management-resistance-overcome-working-from-home-may-be-here-to-stay-144850">managers feel the same way</a>.</p>
<p>The real sticking point in working from home is not the “work” part. It’s the loss of the fun parts of a workplace – the informal networking and socialising that’s good for the individual as well as the group. </p>
<h2>Experiments in online socialising</h2>
<p>Managers have had their reasons for being averse to remote working. Quite apart from worries about individual productivity, many studies have shown how proximity promotes communication. For example, when Harvard organisational researchers Ethan Bernstein and Ben Waber <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-truth-about-open-offices">examined a major US retailer</a> occupying a campus with more than a dozen buildings, they found just 10% of all communications took place between employees whose desks were more than 500 metres apart. </p>
<p>Over the past 18 months there have been many experiments with using technology to replicate this communication. I’ve been part of one as a university academic, moving all my teaching online, and another as an organisational consultant, helping a small enterprise make the shift to remote operations.</p>
<p>My client, a small private TAFE college, has 11 permanent staff as well as casuals. In May 2020 the college asked me to help it move all business processes – teaching, office communications, support services and more – online. This had to be done on a shoestring given the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/25/74percent-of-colleges-face-financial-challenges-according-to-survey-of-higher-ed-workers.html">financial impact</a> of the pandemic. In this work we agreed it was fundamental to address the need for socialising. </p>
<p>This presented some challenges, particularly for a small organisation.</p>
<h2>The value of ‘casual collisions’</h2>
<p>Work-based socialising occurs in two broad ways. </p>
<p>First are “organised” social activities, such as sharing a morning tea, getting lunch, or having drinks on Friday night. To some extent these aspects are the easiest to simulate, using conferencing apps. For my client, this included activities such as <a href="https://www.wallstcom.com/news/we-built-a-virtual-pub/">virtual drinks</a> and <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a32775193/best-zoom-games/">online games</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="It's easier to simulate organised activities such as after-work drinks than the haphazard 'casual collisions' of the physical workplace." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430702/original/file-20211108-16752-2dto0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430702/original/file-20211108-16752-2dto0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430702/original/file-20211108-16752-2dto0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430702/original/file-20211108-16752-2dto0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430702/original/file-20211108-16752-2dto0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430702/original/file-20211108-16752-2dto0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430702/original/file-20211108-16752-2dto0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s easier to simulate organised activities such as after-work drinks than the haphazard ‘casual collisions’ of the physical workplace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More difficult to replicate are what organisational expert <a href="https://smlr.rutgers.edu/faculty-staff/jessica-r-methot">Jessica Methot</a> and her fellow researchers call “casual collisions”. As they wrote in the Harvard Business Review <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/03/remote-workers-need-small-talk-too">in March</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The tidbits we learn about our colleagues – for instance, that they play guitar or love dogs – build rapport and deepen trust. Research even suggests that chance encounters and spontaneous conversations with our coworkers can spark collaboration, improving our creativity, innovation, and performance.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One of the best-known examples of designing a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289697794_Chance_encounters_Where_do_they_take_place_and_what_is_the_benefit">workplace for chance encounters</a> is the <a href="https://www.inc.com/jeff-miller/3-ways-to-design-an-office-for-collaboration-not-c.html">headquarters of Pixar Animation Studios</a>, which Steve Jobs oversaw during his exile from Apple. The building has a central atrium with bathrooms only on the ground floor, the idea being to create more opportunities for people to run into one another.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Designed for serendipity: the 'Steve Jobs Building', headquarters of Pixar Animation Studios." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432772/original/file-20211118-22-16acfn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432772/original/file-20211118-22-16acfn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432772/original/file-20211118-22-16acfn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432772/original/file-20211118-22-16acfn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432772/original/file-20211118-22-16acfn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432772/original/file-20211118-22-16acfn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432772/original/file-20211118-22-16acfn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Designed for serendipity: the ‘Steve Jobs Building’, headquarters of Pixar Animation Studios.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Steve_Jobs_building_at_Pixar.gk.jpg">Grendelkhan/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet the research by Methot and her colleagues also shows small talk can be both <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2018.1474">uplifting and distracting</a>. This makes attempts to use software to replicate this informal, unstructured socialising even trickier.</p>
<h2>Building an online networking space</h2>
<p>In seeking to provide staff with an online substitute for casual collisions and chats in the lunch room, we chose an “enterprise social networking service” called <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/microsoft-365/yammer/yammer-overview">Yammer</a>. There are alternatives, each with their own strengths, but Yammer has the advantage of functionality similar to Facebook. The idea was to provide staff with an intuitive tool to communicate, and then leave it to them to use it as they liked. </p>
<p>It’s a work in progress. We’ve learnt some things along the way. One complaint was we didn’t provide enough initial training on how to use Yammer’s main options, which meant some staff took time to appreciate its use. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-a-year-of-zoom-meetings-well-need-to-rebuild-trust-through-eye-contact-160405">After a year of Zoom meetings, we’ll need to rebuild trust through eye contact</a>
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<p>But most feedback has been positive. Despite the unplanned (and therefore chaotic) nature of the move, surveys indicate most staff think communication has actually improved. We appear to have avoided <a href="https://www.unleash.ai/remote-working-communication-vitalsmarts/">distance destroying dialogue</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210315-why-remote-work-has-eroded-trust-among-colleagues">breeding distrust</a>, as reported in other workplaces. </p>
<p>Can technology ever fully replace the serendipitous exchanges of a physical workplace? I doubt it. But done well it may provide enough of a facsimile to ensure there’s no downside to staff continuing to work a few days a week from home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169927/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Baron does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Zoom parties are one thing. Harder for organisations to replicate online are ‘casual collisions’ between colleagues.Michael Baron, Lecturer, Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.