Lauren Herckis

Anthropologist, education researcher, digital archaeologist, and enthusiastic baker of cookies. Looking at the social side of technology adoption.

[nature @Nature]

A large language model that is trained to respond in a warm manner is more likely to give incorrect information and reinforce conspiracy beliefs

https://t.co/iyjP5bfzQP

[Elena Llaudet @ellaudet]

Using Data Analysis for Social Science (DSS) to teach R and stats to beginners?

You might be interested in my recently updated teaching resources:

https://t.co/OIxWjQ50W1

[The Chronicle of Higher Education @chronicle]

Opinion | AI requires revisiting learning outcomes that have been stable for years and accepting that some of what we have long measured is no longer a reliable proxy for the capabilities we care about. https://t.co/goq4ISbLBF

[Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel]

AI now allows propaganda campaigns to reach unprecedented scale and precision.

Our new paper in @sciencemagazine Magazine explains how a disruptive threat is emerging: swarms of collaborative, malicious AI agents.

We describe the potential risks and some interventions for this growing threat to organizations, institutions, and nations.

This paper was led by @daniel_thilo & @JonasKunst22246 :

https://t.co/n7Ot8OvALn

[Andrew Stockey @astockeyWTAE]

NEW: Title 9, Pittsburgh’s first women's sports watch bar, has announced plans to open in East Liberty in mid-February.

Located next to Square Cafe, Title 9 says it will serve food and drink and will exclusively air women's sports.

📷: Title 9

[Marc Johnson @SolidEvidence]

I knew there were a lot of fake accounts on this platform, but they are usually obvious. I had no idea how intricate and complex the ruse could be.

Get a load of this story.
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[Calliste Camu 🐇 @CallisteCamu]

@Breliloquy Fashion girlies are always accidentally doing historical materialism and I love it

[Dr. Shahid Aziz @Shahid_cl]

Not every experiment needs an optimized protocol. Some can be approached with a more flexible, freestyle method @PostdocVoice @PhDVoice

[Amy J. Ko 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌮 🐈 @amyjko]

The @UW_iSchool is hiring this year! Tenure track open area, tenure track LIS, teaching track data science, teaching track LIS. Come join us in the bustling, drizzly, booming Pacific Northwest! https://t.co/TzzBdAV7mh

[oso-tee.bsky.social | Oluwatobi (Tobi) Oso☄️ @OSO_Tee]

My PI: So, do you have a plan?

Me: I have concepts of a plan

My PI:

[nolen @itseieio]

At the height of One Million Checkboxes's popularity I thought I'd been hacked. A few hours later I was tearing up, extraordinarily proud of some brilliant teens.

A thread about my favorite story from running OMCB....

[Neil Renic @NC_Renic]

Professors in 2024 deciding which memes from 2004 to include in their slides

[Nature is Amazing ☘️ @AMAZlNGNATURE]

This is how big elephant herds used to be (1950s)

[Facu Suenzo @facundosuenzo]

me with all my academic friends

[SHANE REACTION @imshanereaction]

Cyndi Lauper going to the US Senate to change a law that allowed homeless shelters to deny someone a bed based on their sexuality is the most rock star thing I've seen a rock star do.

[Q. Liu | 刘启民, Ph.D. @QMmmmmmLiu]

Me: Hello Dad.
Dad: How was your week? How many new grants did you get?
Me: Zero. Still writing it.
Dad: The one from last week???
Me: Yep.
Dad: Did you at least published some new papers?
Me: Nope.

This happens every week… Mind you he knows nothing about academia…

[Lee Altenberg, Ph.D. 🇺🇸 @AltenbergLee]

Of course, I don't know when each person thinks the pandemic ended, so that graphic just adopts the May 11, 2023 end of the US Pandemic Emergency as the dividing line.
And the point is: that "end of the pandemic" is no more real than the boundary lines on a map.

[Olivia Julianna 🇺🇸🦅🗳️ @0liviajulianna]

I have seen so many people talk about select young voters and Biden 2024 who say they won’t vote/ don’t care if Trump gets re-elected and here is the context I think a lot of people are missing.

Gen Z is a very politically unique generation. Saving Democracy is not as salient of an issue because we’ve never lived in a stable democracy. You have to think, for most of us the election we recall is 2016. Trump was the president for most of our fundamental years— and when Obama was president we grew up with our parents dealing with the recovery or the recession. We also grew up with violence like school shootings. With major global events like the “war on terror” (many of us born post 9/11) and a global pandemic for many of our high school years. On top of that, the major civil rights movements and mass protests of police brutality in 2020. Roe v Wade being overturned. We have only known instability and chaos and violence.

For older folks it is different. You recall political elections when the candidates were respectful. You know what it’s like to have a Congress pass landmark legislation unlike ever before such as the Affordable Care Act. (Not that Biden hasn’t but that the perception and makeup is different and it was happening in a chaotic era)

My overall point is— young voters need to understand that this is not a normal political system. That the chaos we’ve experienced is not normal. That the elections we’ve experienced are not normal. That we have to build a coalition to fix the obstacles standing in the way of a functioning and healthy democracy.

Just some thoughts for people who are struggling to understand why so many young people may not understand the bigger picture.

I understand, but unfortunately that is largely based in doing on the ground work in Texas and seeing the results of right wing extremists first hand. Not every young person sees that. Let’s approach them with compassion, patience, and an eagerness to understand and educate.