Bluesky will trap academics in the same way Twitter/X did - Impact of Social Sciences
"Bluesky is a nascent “Twitter-like” and decentralized social media network with novel features and unprecedented data access. This paper provides a characterization of its interaction network, studying the political leaning, polarization, network structure, and algorithmic curation mechanisms of five million users. The dataset spans from the website’s first release in February of 2023 to May of 2024. We investigate the replies, likes, reposts, and follows layers of the Bluesky network. We find that all networks are characterized by heavy-tailed distributions, high clustering, and short connection paths, similar to other larger social networks. BlueSky introduced feeds—algorithmic content recommenders created for and by users. We analyze all feeds and find that while a large number of custom feeds have been created, users’ uptake of them appears to be limited. We analyze the hyperlinks shared by BlueSky’s users and find no evidence of polarization in terms of the political leaning of the news sources they share. They share predominantly left-center news sources and little to no links associated with questionable news sources. In contrast to the homogeneous political ideology, we find significant issues-based divergence by studying opinions related to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Two clear homophilic clusters emerge: Pro-Palestinian voices outnumber pro-Israeli users, and the proportion has increased. We conclude by claiming that Bluesky—for all its novel features—is very similar in its network structure to existing and larger social media sites and provides unprecedented research opportunities for social scientists, network scientists, and political scientists alike."
I strongly agree with the points put forward here by @TechConnectify@mas.to
Algorithmic complacency, surrendering what we consume and how we consume information to the thinking machine, has dangerous consequences that will require a Butlerian Jihad-level event to come back from.
I have also noticed the same aggressive patterns of people coming from other social media platforms that use the algorithm of engagement. The need for immediate convenience in what is fundamentally human, to talk to one another, has resulted in our present situation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJpZjg8GuA #AlgorithmicComplacency #SocialNetworks
Making a whole new website. Check it out! https://streamgrid.link
#socialmedia #socialnetworks #networking #twitter #streamers #gamers #streaming #gaming
Scriverò un lungo thread per fare i complimenti a @kenobit per il suo fantastico lavoro e per condivedere con tuttx voi la mia esperienza.
Chiedo scusa se riempirò le vostre timeline ma dato che non lo faccio quasi mai, sono sicuro che saprete perdonarmi 
1/10
A few days ago, Facebook (which I rarely use for some contacts) showed me two advertisements.
They featured fake videos: one had Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting to invest in a specific product, and the other simulated an interview by a well-known journalist with a minister, promoting certain types of investments.
I promptly reported the ads.
Just now, I reopened Facebook and saw this: they won’t remove the ads as it “doesn’t violate their advertising standards.”
I know people who might believe in such videos, especially older ones. I had hoped that reporting them would lead to action.
Prepare for an unsettling future ahead.
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"Meta is deleting links to Pixelfed, a decentralized Instagram competitor. On Facebook, the company is labeling links to Pixelfed.social as “spam” and deleting them immediately.
Pixelfed is an open-source, community funded and decentralized image sharing platform that runs on Activity Pub, which is the same technology that supports Mastodon and other federated services. Pixelfed.social is the largest Pixelfed server, which was launched in 2018 but has gained renewed attention over the last week.
Bluesky user AJ Sadauskas originally posted that links to Pixelfed were being deleted by Meta; 404 Media then also tried to post a link to Pixelfed on Facebook. It was immediately deleted."
https://www.404media.co/meta-is-blocking-links-to-decentralized-instagram-competitor-pixelfed/
A new lawsuit accuses TikTok Live of enabling money laundering, drug sales, terrorism funding, and exploiting minors for sexual content. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/01/06/tech/tiktok-video-minors-utah-ag/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #business #tech #socialnetworks #tiktok #us #childporn #sexcrimes
"The latest phase of the digital media transition, the rapid rise of short-form video, is arguably an even bigger step-change. Platforms such as TikTok and Instagram now dwarf Facebook, X and Bluesky among young people, and the same shift is under way among adults.
These platforms are fundamentally different. Text-based social media still favoured mainstream journalism, partly because pithy writing helps — and the chronological feed rewarded news. With the pivot to video, the balance tilts the other way. On TikTok and Instagram, the currency is charisma, energy and delivery: being first is less important than being hyper-engaging.
This is borne out in more Reuters data showing that even as social media began to cannibalise news websites, the most prominent news accounts on text-based social platforms were still mainstream journalists and news organisations. In video land, people are more likely to turn to influencers and content creators than traditional sources, not just for lifestyle content but for news."
https://www.ft.com/content/2262f82e-fb65-445b-b99c-b039c1b32ce9
We're proud to support A New Social, a non-profit helmed by @quillmatiq and @snarfed.org. Learn more here about its mission to liberate people's networks from their platforms, and level the playing field across the open social web.
The fediverse has no central authority — which brings both challenges and opportunities for how it's governed. For Dot Social, @mike spoke with @kissane and @darius, two of the smartest people working on this, about the impact of the 2024 U.S. Presidential election on fediverse work, the "Xodus," what needs to be done next, and how to fund and sustain better networks for humans.
Read more about it in this blogpost.
https://about.flipboard.com/fediverse/erin-kissane-and-darius-kazemi/
Listen to the conversation on https://flipboard.video/c/dot_social/videos or wherever you get your podcasts.
Mathew Duggan has a brilliant post called "Self-Hosting Isn't a Solution; It's A Patch". In it, he (correctly and convincingly) argues that compelling people to run their own computer services is a complex and distracting crutch for the current problems we face. It's expensive to self-host, there are moderation pro…
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#fediverse #ReDeCentralize #SocialNetworks
‘A place of joy’: why scientists are joining the rush to Bluesky
Researchers are flocking to the social-media platform Bluesky, hoping to recreate the good old days of Twitter.
'For the study, the researchers combined comprehensive mapping of the social networks of 1,787 adults living in 18 isolated villages in Honduras with detailed microbiome data from each participant...
They found that people connected through a variety of relationship types — including non-familial and non-household connections — exhibit similarities in their microbiomes that go beyond what one would expect through chance.'
https://news.yale.edu/2024/11/20/gut-feelings-social-connections-change-our-microbiomes
People trying to find miraculous explanations for BlueSky's success forget a basic point: users go where the people they want to follow are. In this sense, BlueSky was the logical choice. It's not about algorithms, nor about onboarding or ease of use. I know this may upset some of us here at Mastodon. But the truth is that those who are here were not able to attract a larger mass of users.
#mastodon #bluesky #socialmedia #socialnetworks
This afternoon, an acquaintance joined a Mastodon instance and asked me which "celebrities" are present in the Fediverse, as if it were important to determine the value of a social network based on that.
I told him that the most important user in the Fediverse is him. Just as it’s you, reading this. Someone who has decided to interact with others freely. Who has chosen to trust their administrator (or create their own instance) more than they trust those who run traditional, monolithic, centralized social networks.
So, I want to thank all the friends of BSD Cafe, whether local or not, for being here and making this place what it is. And I thank all my friends in the Fediverse, who make my timeline lively, interesting, intelligent, fun, and thought-provoking - every day, at any time.
I believe that the events of the last few days have finally clarified the reasons why Elon Musk bought Twitter.
The return on investment, of course, is not and never has been in the platform itself.
Erin's xoxo talk was really all of it great but the kernel is just before 14m.
"There is a pretty strong belief in many quarters that because of corporate predation and and human nature, no many-to-many social system can ever be anything but corrosive
The Dark-forest theory of the internet... posits that the public internet is now so hostile to authentic human sociability that all real interaction has to go underground - into group chats, private slacks, and discords.
This is happening both because the platforms themselves are extractive surveillance monsters, and also because they've incentivized so much predatory Player-Vs-Player behavior...
In this light, retreating into private spaces is obviously wise and protective.
But my fundamental discomfort with that conclusion is that when those of us who have found our friends [online] all retreat into private spaces, we're slamming the doors on everyone who hasn't gotten there yet.
Leaving them out there to get eaten....
The answer can't be that we cede everything above ground to the billionaires and demagogues and predatory forces they've arrayed around themselves...
So there's only one option: we fix the fucking networks.
