Social Media | Penn Today

Social media’s ‘infodemic’

Dominic Sisti and Raina Merchant of the Perelman School of Medicine and Alison Buttenheim of the School of Nursing discussed the role of social media in public health.

Hand holding a smartphone in front of an open laptop pressing oversized buttons for liking things on social media

The dangers of sharing personal information on social media

Joseph Turow, a professor of communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, says hackers may be using your posts against you.

illustration of many hands holding laptops, tablets and smartphones all with images or the words COVID-19 on the screen implying that everyone is searching online for coronavirus information

Reddit reveals peaks of public interest in COVID-19 topics

Online forums can be used by public health officials to quickly identify topics of public interest during the COVID-19 pandemic and to quell misinformation.

Sarah J. Jackson, Duncan Watts awarded 2020 Andrew Carnegie Fellowships

The program supports high-caliber scholarly research in the humanities and social sciences that addresses important and enduring issues confronting our society.

A teenager looks critically at a smartphone in their hand

How tweets may influence substance abuse in youth

While social media provides youth the opportunity to discuss and display substance use-related beliefs and behaviors, little is known about how posting or viewing drug-related content influences the beliefs and behaviors of youth relative to substance use.

A person with arms crossed at the chest standing outside between two rock walls, in front of a glass building.

Q&A

Language in tweets offers insight into community-level well-being

In a Q&A, researcher Lyle Ungar discusses why counties that frequently use words like ‘love’ aren’t necessarily happier, plus how techniques from this work led to a real-time COVID-19 wellness map.

Cartoon of a person wearing a face back wondering if they should panic while reading a tabloid newspaper with the headline reading pandemic alert covid-19.

Use of conservative and social media linked with COVID-19 misinformation

A study of media use and public knowledge has found people who relied on conservative or social media were more likely to be misinformed about how to prevent COVID-19 and believe conspiracy theories about it.

Polarizing tweets by Russian trolls on vaccination targeted groups in 2016

During the 2016 election cycle, politically polarizing tweets about vaccination included pro- and anti-vaccination messages targeted at people with specific political inclinations by Russian trolls using an assortment of fake persona types, according to a recent study.

drawing of a pack of cigarettes and symbols of tobacco use alongside a YouTube play button image

Viewership soars for misleading tobacco videos on YouTube

Misleading portrayals of the safety of tobacco use are widespread on YouTube, where viewership of popular pro-tobacco videos has soared over the past half-dozen years, according to research by the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

Influencers are getting paid to promote pregnancy tests on Instagram, and people are applauding it as a way for new moms to make money

Jessa Lingel of the Annenberg School for Communication weighed in on criticisms of influencers announcing their pregnancies with sponsored Instagram posts. “We still have a puritan way of thinking that pregnancy announcements are sacred,” she said. “Everything can be commercialized, but not this.”

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