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Social Media
Do smartphones and social media lead to adolescent suicide?
Do smartphones and social media lead to adolescent suicide?
The Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Daniel Romer argues that the tendency to correlate uptick in suicides and social media is not backed by data. Instead, he argues the economic recession may be to blame.
Tweets from Twitter users could predict loneliness
Tweets from Twitter users could predict loneliness
By identifying similar themes across tweets, researchers are uncovering markers that could be used to predict loneliness, something that could lead to depression, heart disease, and dementia.
The culture of coworking spaces
The culture of coworking spaces
As Penn sociologist David Grazian discovered through hundreds of hours of fieldwork, despite today’s digital work-anywhere economy, having a physical place to conduct business still matters.
#OldBoysClub: Twitter and gender disparities in health services research
#OldBoysClub: Twitter and gender disparities in health services research
A JAMA Internal Medicine study of Twitter users find that female health services and policy researchers had considerably less reach and influence on the social media platform than their male counterparts.
Brevity is the soul of Twitter
Brevity is the soul of Twitter
A new study from the Annenberg School for Communication finds that the 280-character limit makes Twitter more civil.
Deepfake detector wins PennApps XX
Deepfake detector wins PennApps XX
An app designed to detect deepfakes took home the grand prize at PennApps XX, beating nearly 250 tech projects developed over the course of a weekend.
When you watch online porn, who is watching you?
When you watch online porn, who is watching you?
A forthcoming study from the Annenberg School for Communication analyzed over 22,000 pornography websites and found that 93% of them were sending user data to at least one third party.
Cross-cultural similarities and differences in emoji usage
Cross-cultural similarities and differences in emoji usage
While the idea of emojis unifying people across language barriers is enticing, people of different cultures might not use emojis in the same way.
Reaching millennial women ‘where they’re at’—on Instagram
Reaching millennial women ‘where they’re at’—on Instagram
Researchers in the Women’s Health Clinical Research Center at Penn Medicine began experimenting with using Instagram for clinical birth control trial recruitment in 2017, and have since seen a surge in research participants.
Facebook posts better at predicting diabetes, mental health than demographic info
Facebook posts better at predicting diabetes, mental health than demographic info
Analyzing language shows that identifying certain groups of words significantly improves upon predicting some medical conditions in patients.
In the News
Philadelphia Inquirer
Cutting social media time can lessen depression and loneliness
Melissa Hunt of the School of Arts and Sciences shared her research on social media and wellness. “The extent to which young people are using social media can interfere with time spent on activities that can more genuinely foster self-esteem, like getting your work done, or true intimacy, like hanging out with your friends in the real world,” said Hunt.
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Wired
Twitter and Instagram unveil new ways to combat hate—again
Jessa Lingel of the Annenberg School for Communication said “we need humans” to help parse what is and isn’t offensive language based on context. “The tech just isn’t there yet.”
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