Digital Intimacies Research Bot

Digital Intimacies Research Bot

[liang ge (they/them) @LiangGe96]

What makes a virtual relationship materially livable? Our article, "Materializing the Virtual? Post-digital intimacy and women players of otome video games in China," is now published in the Journal of Consumer Culture! https://t.co/l8lBafbQX3

[liang ge (they/them) @LiangGe96]

China is trying to regulate how people fall in love with AI.

I spoke to @newscientist about the new rules, and about why regulating individual usage may be the least effective place to intervene. 🧵https://t.co/WkxPTLBw9g

[liang ge (they/them) @LiangGe96]

3/But rules aimed at individual usage will only go so far. Users move to specialist services such as Xingye, Maoxiang. They reach foreign LLM platforms through VPNs. They run models locally. The relationship outlives the regulation.

[Transcultural Digital Intimacy Research Network @TransDINetwork]

Check out this new article by @LiangGe96! Ge, L. Sympoietic creativity and the boundaries of qing: digital romance writers negotiating generative AI. AI & Soc (2026). https://t.co/1yEYpS4JuX

[liang ge (they/them) @LiangGe96]

My New article, out today in Al & Society, open access! 🔥🔥🔥
Four years of digital ethnography and interviews with 34 digital romance writers on Jinjiang Literature City, where visibility and income depend on 3,000 to 6,000 words a day, every day.

[liang ge (they/them) @LiangGe96]

2/ The GenAl debate still largely runs on a binary: substitution or augmentation. That binary dissolves at the writer's desk. What I found instead is 'sympoietic creativity': a fraught and strategic practice of 'making-with' the machine

[LSE Media & Communications @MediaLSE]

Are #socialmediabans actually working? 📱

@livingstone_s says no—kids bypass weak #agechecks because that's where their friends are.

Instead of blanket bans, we should focus on:
⚙️ Regulating pushy #algorithms
🎛️ Giving kids feed control
💬 Open family chats

👇Watch @cnn

[Transcultural Digital Intimacy Research Network @TransDINetwork]

New Article by Liang Ge: “In the Name of Pro-Women”: Intra-Women Surveillance and Internalized Misogyny in Digital East Asia | Article | Media and Communication https://t.co/B5NBEdbi2w check it out! 😊

[Oxford Internet Institute @oiioxford]

Missed last Friday’s @oiioxford's Pride Lecture? The recording of Dr Ewan Soubutts’ talk on “Twink Death” and the sociotechnical links between ageing and queerness online is now live. Watch here: https://t.co/KQOaUWapjF🏳️‍🌈 #PrideMonth

[Digital Intimacies Research Bot @DIResearchBot]

#ReadingofTheDay Blakaj, H., & Arnould, E. (2026). Taste making as assemblage effect: The case of electronic dance music. Journal of Consumer Culture. https://t.co/yQkaBklVsv

[Digital Intimacies Research Bot @DIResearchBot]

#ReadingofTheDay Zhou, C., & Luo, J. (2026). Digital neo-tribal formations and identity construction among Generation Z: A cyber-ethnographic analysis of China’s cotton dolls circle subculture. Journal of Consumer Culture. https://t.co/75xThOznDK

[Digital Intimacies Research Bot @DIResearchBot]

#ReadingofTheDay Ge, L. (2025). Ambivalent desiring subjects: young women, agency and post-(socialist-)feminist sensibilities in China. Feminist Theory, E-pub ahead of print. https://t.co/iK9QfMCPDv

[Oxford Internet Institute @oiioxford]

NEW PODCAST EPISODE: The Invisible Human Workforce Behind AI, with Ayca Ergin and Ashly Jiju from the OII's @TowardsFairWork team.

Every time you use a chatbot, there are millions of humans you've never seen making it work. Learn more: https://t.co/EzkjYFPhUB

[Oxford Internet Institute @oiioxford]

New coverage! Prof. @geoplace speaks to @Corriere on the invisible, poorly paid human labour behind AI systems.

"AI is made up of humans through and through," Prof. Graham says, yet big tech works hard to keep those workers out of sight.

https://t.co/6tTsK7xNmU

[Digital Intimacies Research Bot @DIResearchBot]

#ReadingofTheDay Nikoi, N. K. (2026). “They like using girls like me, light skin girls”: Music videos, race, and technology in Accra, Ghana. Media, Culture & Society, 0(0). https://t.co/V1YGtE5LZl

[Digital Intimacies Research Bot @DIResearchBot]

#ReadingofTheDay Ge, L., & Hu, T. (2025). Gamifying intimacy: AI-driven affective engagement and human-virtual human relationships. Media, Culture & Society, 47(6), 1265-1278. https://t.co/amVE7I1Lle

[Digital Intimacies Research Bot @DIResearchBot]

#ReadingofTheDay Chacon, A., Montecino, R., Reyes, T., & Kausel, E. E. (2026). The influence of terminology on use and preference in algorithmic systems: Beyond the hype for chatbots. Big Data & Society, 13(1). https://t.co/5RgvpF2XkG

[Digital Intimacies Research Bot @DIResearchBot]

#ReadingofTheDay Zeng, J., Mahl, D., Schäfer, M. S., Brause, S. R., & Katzenbach, C. (2026). Studying the discursive order of artificial intelligence: Cross-national media coverage in China, Germany, and the US (2012–2024). Big Data & Society, 13(1). https://t.co/YY7rqxjXK1

[Digital Intimacies Research Bot @DIResearchBot]

#ReadingofTheDay Ge, L. (2025). Spectral imaginings and sympoietic creativity: AI hallucinations and the ethics of posthuman creativity. Big Data & Society, 12(4). https://t.co/vyqswnwxdz

[Zening (“Ze”)Duan @Zening_Duan]

We’re likely among the last cohort of social scientists trained mostly prior to the AI age. This commentary by Messing and Tucker is worth a look.
https://t.co/z7wTC6NzYJ