New research on census, youth, mental health; a recent talk and an upcoming one tl;dr:  1. New paper with Janet Vertesi: “The Resource Bind: System Failure and Legitimacy Threats in Sociotechnical Organizations” 2. “Techno-legal Solutionism: Regulating Children’s Online Safety in the United States” (my paper with María Angel) was officially published as part of the ACM CS+Law symposium.  3. Crisis Text Line’s report on what youth need to be more resilient is haunting but important 4. Watch Tressie McMillan Cottom, Janet Vertesi, and I riff on tech ..read more

Congress is using kids to hold Big Tech accountable. Kids will get hurt in the process. In a few minutes, the Senate Judiciary will start a hearing focused on “Big Tech and the Online Child Exploitation Crisis.” Like most such hearings, this will almost certainly go off the rails in a wide variety of directions that I can’t even predict. But almost certainly, given the committee, it will include references to the various efforts by Congress to purportedly protect children from the ill-intended motivations of social media companies. Photo 78194516 © Petar Vician  ..read more

Congress is using kids to hold Big Tech accountable. Kids will get hurt in the process. In a few minutes, the Senate Judiciary will start a hearing focused on “Big Tech and the Online Child Exploitation Crisis.” Like most such hearings, this will almost certainly go off the rails in a wide variety of directions that I can’t even predict. But almost certainly, given the committee, it will include references to the various efforts by Congress to purportedly protect children from the ill-intended motivations of social media companies. Photo 78194516 © Petar Vician  ..read more

I know I’ve been doing a crap job of sharing updates or juicy blog posts. Sorry! Here are some varied updates. And hopefully I’ll pen a proper commentary shortly. New paper alert: María Angel and I just posted a pre-print of our upcoming ACM CS+Law paper “Techno-legal Solutionism: Regulating Children’s Online Safety in the United States.” I am joining the board of trustees of the Computer History Museum. If Girl Scout Cookies are your thing, my kiddo would love if you ordered from her. STS Graduate students: Submit your paper to the Hacker-Mullins Student Paper Award  ..read more

I know I’ve been doing a crap job of sharing updates or juicy blog posts. Sorry! Here are some varied updates. And hopefully I’ll pen a proper commentary shortly. New paper alert: María Angel and I just posted a pre-print of our upcoming ACM CS+Law paper “Techno-legal Solutionism: Regulating Children’s Online Safety in the United States.” I am joining the board of trustees of the Computer History Museum. If Girl Scout Cookies are your thing, my kiddo would love if you ordered from her. STS Graduate students: Submit your paper to the Hacker-Mullins Student Paper Award  ..read more

Perhaps surprisingly, I don’t particularly like technology. And certainly not technology for technology’s sake. My brother was always the one who picked up every new gadget to see what it did. I tended to shrug and go back to reading a book. I still do.  That said.. Like most people, I enjoy technologies that improve my world in some way. I’m fond of technologies that become invisible infrastructure in my life. Technologies that just work without me noticing – like the toilet. When it comes to digital tech, I’m grateful for systems that make me smile. Not the ones that make me vomit. Lite ..read more

Last week, tech commentators were flush with stories about the speed of new users on Threads. Unprecedented downloads! A sign that Meta is stronger than ever! Networks born in one service can transfer to another! This week? There’s a lot of speculation that Threads is crashing. Folks keep asking me what my take is on Threads (and Mastodon and Bluesky and …) and I keep responding with the same story: we’ll see. And every time I do, I’m reminded of talking to historians who, when you ask them about the last hundred years, they say “we’ll see.” As I watch these various alt-Twitters emerge ..read more

Photo 148941930 / Robot Economy © Andrey Popov | Dreamstime.com I find it deeply disturbing that the tech industry represents 9% of the U.S. GDP and only five Big Tech companies account for 25% of the S&P 500. Prior to Covid, most of the growth in stock market came from Big Tech (not the Trump Administration…). Now, as the U.S. economy is all sorts of wacky, Big Tech is what is keeping the stock market’s chin above water. In the process, Big Tech is accounting for more and more of the stock market. ::gulp:: If capitalism and stock markets aren’t your thing, it’s easy to shrug your sho ..read more

Photo 216171598 / Robots Jobs © Victor Moussa | Dreamstime.com When it comes to AI’s potential future impact on jobs, Camp Automation tends to jump to the conclusion that most jobs will be automated away into oblivion. The progressive arm of Camp Automation then argues for the need for versions of universal basic income and other social services to ensure survival in a job-less world. Of course, this being the US… most in Camp Automation tend to panic and refuse to engage with how their views might intersect with late-stage capitalism, structural inequality, xenophobia, and political polarizat ..read more

(Some thoughts on the efforts to regulate children’s use of social media) Getty Images Have you noticed how many people ages 65+ watch television every day? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost 90% of those in this age bracket watch TV Every.Single.Day!!!! ::gasp:: And that data was collected before the pandemic! By <hand-waving logics of a moral panic>, it must be so much worse now! And they don’t just watch a little bit. According to Nielsen, before the pandemic, these elders were watching over 7 hours a day of television! Our elders are glued to their boob tub ..read more