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Casey Fiesler, PhD, JD, geekD

27 May, 9 tweets, 5 min read

@SocialMedia_Soc

We read 700+ Reddit papers, analysis described in this (open access!) @SocialMedia_Soc article (led by @moduloone, with @_sgilbert_ @NaiyanJones & @michaelzimmer). Here are some things we know about research that uses data from Reddit! 🧵 journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

Unsurprisingly, Reddit as a site of study or data source is on the rise. The first 2 papers we encountered were published in 2010, with a jump to 17 in 2013, and 230 in 2019.

I also think it's really interesting that though computing and related disciplines make up the largest number of journals represented in our dataset of Reddit papers, medicine and health is next - even (just) above social science.

But WHAT is actually being studied so much on Reddit related to health? The answer seems to be mental health, which is the top keyword above the obvious ones, right above machine learning (and there's definitely some overlap there); depression also appears in the top 20 keywords.

We also see r/depression as the most studied subreddit just below news-related subreddits and the popular r/AskReddit. r/depression, r/SuicideWatch, r/anxiety, r/bipolarreddit and r/opiates also appear in the top 20.

We also did some very high-level of analysis of ethics-related aspects in these 700+ Reddit papers. Some highlights:
- IRB or other review is rarely mentioned, nor is consent
- 28.5% used direct quotes, 2.4% paraphrased & 9.4% included usernames
- 7.4% mentioned sharing datasets

We also looked to see whether research was being shared back to the Reddit community - i.e., whether there were mentions of these papers anywhere on Reddit. Interestingly, almost 30% were, but rarely FROM the researchers or TO the subreddit where data was collected from.

@moduloone

Given the finding from @moduloone and I (in this OTHER @SocialMedia_Soc paper (journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…) that suggested that most Twitter users would want to READ a paper that includes their tweets as data - I actually suspect this would be even stronger on Reddit.

Anyway, there is far more detail in this exceedingly descriptive paper, with a handful of implications and thoughts from us at the end. And you probably won't be surprised to hear that we're digging much more closely into the research ethics side now. :)

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More from @cfiesler

Casey Fiesler, PhD, JD, geekD

@cfiesler

9 May

I'm increasingly frustrated with "I don't know enough about ethics to include it in my class."

My take: If you e.g. teach an ML class & you actually don't know ANYTHING about ML ethics... learn. Ethics is part of ML. I'm sorry your education was lacking, but now time to learn.

Like, professors should be constantly continuing to learn. I learn new things so that I can teach them all the time. If you say "I don't know enough about ethics" what you probably mean is "I don't care enough about ethics."

I'm not suggesting that if you teach an ML class you need to go read Kant. I'm suggesting go read about ethics IN YOUR FIELD. Ethics is part of that field. So go learn it in the same way you keep up to date on ANYTHING that is new or you don't know!

Read 7 tweets

Casey Fiesler, PhD, JD, geekD

@cfiesler

15 Apr

In honor of PhD application season winding down, here's a tweet-thread-that-should-probably-be-a-blog-post on things I have observed through hearing from a LOT of PhD applicants in many different fields over the past eight months. TL;DR this process can be better. 🧵

Consider things admissions committees or faculty might expect to see in an application: LORs from certain types of people that mention certain things, statements of purpose with certain elements (faculty mentioned, why this program, etc.)

Are applicants TOLD these expectations?

As one critical example, are you in a field where it is common or there is even an expectation that applicants reach out to potential advisors before they submit an application? Is there any reason applicants would know this if they don't already have mentorship in that field?

Read 8 tweets

Casey Fiesler, PhD, JD, geekD

@cfiesler

19 Mar

@SIGCSE_TS

This thread is for live-tweeting the ethics session at #SIGCSE2021. FIVE papers at @SIGCSE_TS this year about ethics in computer science education! 🧵

First up: "How Students in Computing-Related Majors Distinguish Social Implications of Technology" by Diandra Prioleau et al. at University of Florida.

They presented students with scenarios about AI technology (e.g. recidivism algorithms)...

... and found that their participants could spot social implications, but frequently missed issues of systemic discrimination. But surprisingly: About half of students had never heard of these issues, which points to a gap in computing curriculum. dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/34…

Read 14 tweets

Casey Fiesler, PhD, JD, geekD

@cfiesler

9 Mar

@tiktok_us

As you know, I am a fan of @tiktok_us these days, but I need to put them on blast for a bad design choice. Folks interested in content moderation/platform safety, buckle up. This is a story about bad people exploiting a loophole for harassment. We can learn from this. [Thread 🧵]

TikTok has a "block" feature that works similarly to Twitter. If you block someone, you can't see them and they can't see you. This includes comments.

So now we have A (person being harassed) and B (awful person who thinks it's fun to e.g. leave death threats in comments)...

B has figured out that they can comment on A's post and then immediately block A, which then means that A can't see that comment - and in fact doesn't even know it's there since it doesn't show up in their notifications.

Read 8 tweets

Casey Fiesler, PhD, JD, geekD

@cfiesler

7 Mar

Some thoughts on why this news - the potential for next gen watches (both Samsung Galaxy and Apple) to provide blood glucose readings - could be game-changing (not so much for #T1D folks but for everyone else). macrumors.com/2021/03/05/app…

This tech would almost certainly not be an improvement over existing continuous glucose monitors like what I use, but (I think?) it's rare for people with Type 2 to have insurance coverage for CGMs, especially if you're not on insulin and don't have to worry about lows.

The beauty of continuous monitoring over finger sticks is that you can get DATA. Unless you waste a lot of (expensive!) test strips to try to experiment, you're not going to know e.g. exactly when and how much your blood sugar spikes after meals.

Read 6 tweets

Casey Fiesler, PhD, JD, geekD

@cfiesler

26 Feb

@ThisAmerLife

Ever thought about how messed up it is from a harm vs benefit perspective that copyright infringement is more heavily moderated/enforced than, say, hate speech and harassment? I was reminded of this by re-listening to this @ThisAmerLife episode. [Thread🧵] thisamericanlife.org/670/beware-the…

The second act is the story of Lenny Pozner, the father of a Sandy Hook victim, who was harassed, threatened, and stalked by Alex Jones fueled conspiracy theorists accusing him of being a "crisis actor." And one tactic was making cruel memes out of photographs of his son.

And after trying to report content and get things taken down for lies and harassment, he finally realized that his best course of action was reporting copyright violations since he owned the photographs which were e.g. used in a YouTube video.