Online civic engagement is generally viewed as a positive way for individuals to improve the quality of life in their community. But new research led by School of Information associate professor Libby Hemphill suggests that online civic engagement doesn’t always feel good, and it doesn’t always improve the community. Hemphill and her team interviewed 40 nonprofit employees and… Read More »
Social media companies face increasing scrutiny for amplifying fringe anti-vaccine sentiment amid measles outbreaks in several states like Washington. In response, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest recently made headlines by announcing initiatives to reduce vaccine misinformation on their platforms. Brendan Nyhan, a professor of public policy at the Ford School, recently wrote in “The New York Times” that while… Read More »
A study conducted by U-M professor of public policy Brendan Nyhan suggests that the effect of fake news on the 2016 election has been overestimated. Using laptop/desktop web traffic data from a nationally representative online panel allowed Nyhan and his colleagues to measure who visited fake news sites before the 2016 election with unprecedented precision. “Relatively few people consumed this form… Read More »
To say Privacy@Michigan 2019 was well-connected would be an understatement. Online conversations happened throughout the day on Twitter and continued on Reddit Tuesday.
Do you long for more civility in social media, comment sections, and online discussions? Consider what you can do, and encourage others to be better digital citizens.
I recently returned from the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network Annual Conference. My boss asked me how it went. I replied that every single session was useful. That impressed both of us! Everything. I mean, quite literally, EVERYTHING. It’s all good, and there is nothing they offered that I didn’t want to see. You can see the program… Read More »
As technology becomes ever more integrated into our daily lives, there’s a growing push for people in the computer and data science world to think about the social impact of tech. H. V. Jagadish, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at U-M, joined Michigan Radio’s Stateside program to talk about the moral questions companies should ask when… Read More »
It’s always wonderful to share happy news – in person and on social media. But when the news is sad, distressing or traumatic, people are far less likely to share it – even though they may need lots more support than when good things are happening in their lives. Nazanin Andalibi, a postdoctoral research fellow at U-M’s School of… Read More »
Many developers market apps for children as being educational. So Jenny Radesky, a pediatrician at the U-M Medical School who wrote the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines for children and media, wanted to check that out. Her team of researchers spent hundreds of hours playing 135 different games. Published in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, the… Read More »
Make plans to join us on Tuesday, November 27, at 6:15 p.m., in the Rackham Assembly Hall on the UM-Ann Arbor campus (915 E. Washington St.) for an exciting Dissonance event: Catching Fake News. There is no charge for this event and no need to register. A panel of experts will explore, two years after the 2016 election,… Read More »
As the mid-term election approaches, the U-M Center for Social Media Responsibility offers media and the public a tool to help monitor the prevalence of fake news on social media through a Platform Health Metric called the Iffy Quotient. Housed in the U-M School of Information, the center’s first report confirms from a deep analysis what was suspected… Read More »
When most people think of a cyborg, they may think of a half-human, half-machine hybrid akin to Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Terminator.” Sophia Brueckner would argue a bit differently about what being a cyborg means, as she considers herself to be one. “To me, being a cyborg doesn’t just mean biohacking or body modification. There are other ways we… Read More »
Online harassment usually originates from deviants operating in dark corners of the internet. But research shows that, more and more, anyone online is capable of becoming a troll. Efforts to curb this behavior have not been effective because they approach the problem with the wrong tools, says Sarita Schoenebeck, assistant professor of information at the School of Information (UMSI).… Read More »
A new study has shown that people feel online harassment is deserved when the person commits an offense, even though the common consensus is that on principle, harassing is not appropriate. U-M researchers at the School of Information discovered that bystander intervention could change this perception. These researchers recruited participants from Twitter and Amazon Mechanical Turk and… Read More »
A new U-M website launches today at SocialIntegrity.umich.edu — just in time for Social Media Day June 30.
Is it an invasion of your child’s privacy to take their picture and post it on social media? Sarita Schoenebeck, assistant professor at the School of Information, is an expert on how families use technology. She suggests that parents should respect their children and keep their feelings in mind before posting their pictures. A survey of 331… Read More »
Campus Mind Works, a student wellness group that promotes mental health education and provides support through the U-M Depression Center, recently held a seminar on the potentially harmful effects of a world increasingly dependent on technology. Held in partnership with the College of Engineering, the Newnan LSA Academic Advising Center, and clinical staff affiliated with the Department of… Read More »
According to a new report from the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, parents may struggle balancing the need for independence with appropriate supervision as children hit the “tween” stage between early elementary grades and the teenage years. And modern technology has changed the ground rules. Nearly all parents of tweens ages 9-12 agree that… Read More »
School of Information experts are sounding the alarm on a potential information apocalypse, a state when fake news and altered videos on social media and elsewhere effectively end social reality as we know it. To address this growing concern and bring some of the brightest minds together to brainstorm creative solutions, U-M has formed the School of Information… Read More »
Protect your privacy and stay secure when using social media sites and apps. Before you post, tweet, or share, pay attention to privacy by following some simple guidelines. For example, strive to “undershare” (rather than overshare), avoid sharing your location, and be aware that anonymous doesn’t mean untraceable. These tips and more are on the Social Media Privacy page… Read More »