Impact & Society, Data Collection Lou Coady Impact & Society, Data Collection Lou Coady

Humans broke the internet, understanding them better might help fix it

By Timo Hannay

Here's a multiple-choice question: Is the internet (a) the most open, egalitarian and empowering means of communication ever devised, or (b) a dystopian nightmare populated by hucksters, trolls and miscellaneous abusers of human rights? The answer is, of course, (c) all of the above and much else besides. This stark contrast between the internet's light and dark sides has become a defining characteristic of the digital age, but is not an inevitable consequence of the mostly innocuous technologies on which it's built. Rather, it is the product of their bewilderingly diverse and eccentric user base – otherwise known as humanity.

Read More

Bev Skeggs on social media siloing

"Basically 90 percent of Facebook profit is made from advertising — selling your data to advertising companies so that they can place an advert on your browser..." says Bev Skeggs in a new interview with Social Science Bites. Bev Skeggs joins the podcast in order to reveal interesting new findings in her research that studies how social networks were structuring or restructuring friendships. 

Read More