@mariannealq
Postdoctoral Fellow @ Princeton CITP. ex-Cornell PhD, future UIUC asst prof (fall 2026). Looking at AI's impact on information ecosystems and news consumption. social computing, computational social science & journalism mariannealq.com
Sharing a great opportunity for those in our field: GESIS is hiring a Doctoral Researcher in Computational Social Science (full-time, funded through March 2029). Excellent place to develop CSS skills in a leading research environment.
#AcademicJobs #ComputationalSocialScience
youtu.be/zMY2zqYFIMg
@csmapnyu.org is hiring two postdocs.
Amazing group, highly recommend applying.
🚨✨I want your input for the next survey of GenAI use for information and news!
Please fill out the super quick survey here buff.ly/kFDRLqw
Details in the thread!
We've extended submissions for our #CHI2026 workshop on Developing Standards and Documentation For LLM Use as Simulated Research Participants.
Submit a short position paper by Feb 20th and let's think through some thorny issues together!
sites.google.com/andrew.cmu.e...
If anybody is curious about local search and AI summaries, I’ll be speaking about some of our results from a large scale audit at this upcoming panel on AI Search and News on Feb 19th!
journalism.columbia.edu/events/ai-se...
Internship opportunity! Please share!
📣 I'm looking to hire an intern in human-centered NLP for the agents team at Together AI. Come work on frontier AI systems that tackle complex agentic tasks!
Research direction is open and looking to publish in NLP and HCI venues!
Excited to see this preprint. I use & love skygest for keeping up with papers on bluesky, highly recommend
This is so disappointing.
I was just talking with an aspiring PhD student last week about how the primary function of papers is to clearly communicate the crisp truth of what you did and found. We can produce other forms of writing, but papers must be the ground truth.
Consider my face slapped.
Nothing like a polar vortex to make you EXTREMELY happy you decided to go to Miami for a conference... I am at C+J this week if anyone wants to catch up!
events.miami.edu/event/cplusj...
The Psychological Impact of Digital Isolation: How AI-Driven Social Interactions Shape Human Behavior and Mental Well-Being Felix Eling 3697-3705 Apr 30, 2025 Education The Psychological Impact of Digital Isolation: How AI-Driven Social Interactions Shape Human Behavior and Mental Well-Being Felix Eling Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Pharmacy, Gulu College of Health Sciences, Gulu City, Northern Uganda DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.90400265 Received: 13 March 2025; Revised: 22 March 2025; Accepted: 25 March 2025; Published: 30 April 2025 ABSTRACT The increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in social interactions has transformed how humans experience companionship, communication, and mental well-being. This review examines the psychological impact of AI-driven social interactions, focusing on virtual assistants, AI chatbots, and digital companions. It explores the benefits, risks, and ethical concerns associated with AI companionship. A systematic review methodology was employed, detailing inclusion criteria, databases searched, and analysis techniques. Findings suggest that while AI can offer emotional relief and support, over-reliance may disrupt real-world social bonding. Ethical concerns such as data privacy, emotional manipulation, and regulatory gaps are highlighted. The study underscores the need for balanced AI integration in human socialization. The study also addresses gaps in previous literature by examining AI’s influence on different demographic groups and cultural contexts.
Let me tell you a story. Perhaps you can guess where this is going... though it does have a bit of a twist.
I was poking around Google Scholar for publications about the relationship between chatbots and wellness. Oh how useful: a systematic literature review! Let's dig into the findings. 🧵
Our School of Information Sciences is running four searches, and we can hire more than four candidates. Here’s the first link, for a job that might appeal to people working in history of information, history of science, or digital humanities. +
New study finds that down-ranking hostile political content in people’s social media feeds decreases political polarization.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
I can think of no more important time to be doing work with this extraordinary community at UW
🚨Out in PNAS🚨
Examining news on 7 platforms:
1)Right-leaning platforms=lower quality news
2)Echo-platforms: Right-leaning news gets more engagement on right-leaning platforms, vice-versa for left-leaning
3)Low-quality news gets more engagement EVERYWHERE - even BlueSky!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Cornell Information Science is hiring a Teaching Professor! Apply this week for full consideration:
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30763
A circular flow diagram that compares current and proposed practices for LLM development using data from adopters and non-adopters. Three gray boxes represent current practices: “R&D,” “Chat Models,” and “Adopters’ Needs and Usage Data,” connected in a clockwise loop with black arrows. A blue box labeled “Non-adopters’ Needs and Usage Data” adds a proposed feedback path, shown with blue arrows, linking non-adopter data back to R&D and adopters’ data.
As of June 2025, 66% of Americans have never used ChatGPT.
Our new position paper, Attention to Non-Adopters, explores why this matters: AI research is being shaped around adopters—leaving non-adopters’ needs, and key LLM research opportunities, behind.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.15951
Following last week's thread on using gen AI for news, this one looks at our research on AI search results based on data from 🇦🇷🇩🇰🇫🇷🇯🇵🇬🇧🇺🇸.
It's already true that most people (54%) say that they have seen AI search results in the last week.
It's more common than the use of all chatbots combined (34%).
🇳🇴 I'm in Bergen for #CSCW25 🇳🇴
This Wednesday, in the "Content Moderation" session, I'll present my paper about how Reddit moderators are grappling with AI-Generated Content. I'm honored that it received a Best Paper Honorable Mention 🤓 If you're here too, let's connect!
dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
A rectangular Northwestern University flyer titled “Call for Study Participants.” The top banner is pink with bold black text reading “CALL FOR STUDY PARTICIPANTS.” Below it, highlighted in yellow, is the question: “Are you a journalist writing about technology and/or computing?” The flyer explains that researchers at Northwestern University are seeking professional journalists who cover technology or related topics, write news in English, and are based in the U.S. to participate in an online study. The study involves using a tool for two weeks, providing feedback, and receiving $100 compensation (IRB Study #STU00224608). It includes a yellow box that says “Fill out our eligibility form if you’re interested!” with the link https://tinyurl.com/newscompass and contact emails: Nick Diakopoulos (nad@northwestern.edu) and Sachita Nishal (nishal@u.northwestern.edu). The Northwestern University seal appears in the top-right corner.
📣 Attention science + tech journalists!
Trying to keep up with the flood of research papers that come out every day? Attempting to track what research has already been covered by others, and what may benefit from deeper exploration?
You are invited to participate in our research study!
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One week away from our CSCW panel on applying LLMs in conversation-based research! Excited to engage in another methodological discussion with my amazing co-organizers and panelists @mariannealq.bsky.social @hopeschroeder.bsky.social Alejandro @stevenpdow.bsky.social Shivani and Eugenia!
Come join my wonderful colleagues at Princeton next year!
Come work with us 🚨
We are looking for a #postdoc in our @aimediademlab.bsky.social lab.
Profile: Comm sci / poli sci/ computational social science.
Great team, timely topocs, fabulous city, good conditions.
DL 🗓️ November 1
werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...
My first Princeton AND my first systems paper!
In this work, we develop a system (Bonsai 🌱) to enable users to design intentional social media feeds. Our findings identify trade-offs between engagement- and intention-driven social feeds. Can we build towards hybrid approaches in the future?
Great job at the Pew Research Center for a Computational Social Science Assistant: pewtrusts.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Center...
T&S / Red Teaming folks!
I'm trying a new thing at @cornelltech.bsky.social: A Red Team Clinic for non profits / public interest groups who want an additional layer of scrutiny for their AI tools.
Please share with organizations that might be interested: mailchi.mp/tech/sets-ai...
Models as Prediction Machines: How to Convert Confusing Coefficients into Clear Quantities Abstract Psychological researchers usually make sense of regression models by interpreting coefficient estimates directly. This works well enough for simple linear models, but is more challenging for more complex models with, for example, categorical variables, interactions, non-linearities, and hierarchical structures. Here, we introduce an alternative approach to making sense of statistical models. The central idea is to abstract away from the mechanics of estimation, and to treat models as “counterfactual prediction machines,” which are subsequently queried to estimate quantities and conduct tests that matter substantively. This workflow is model-agnostic; it can be applied in a consistent fashion to draw causal or descriptive inference from a wide range of models. We illustrate how to implement this workflow with the marginaleffects package, which supports over 100 different classes of models in R and Python, and present two worked examples. These examples show how the workflow can be applied across designs (e.g., observational study, randomized experiment) to answer different research questions (e.g., associations, causal effects, effect heterogeneity) while facing various challenges (e.g., controlling for confounders in a flexible manner, modelling ordinal outcomes, and interpreting non-linear models).
Figure illustrating model predictions. On the X-axis the predictor, annual gross income in Euro. On the Y-axis the outcome, predicted life satisfaction. A solid line marks the curve of predictions on which individual data points are marked as model-implied outcomes at incomes of interest. Comparing two such predictions gives us a comparison. We can also fit a tangent to the line of predictions, which illustrates the slope at any given point of the curve.
A figure illustrating various ways to include age as a predictor in a model. On the x-axis age (predictor), on the y-axis the outcome (model-implied importance of friends, including confidence intervals). Illustrated are 1. age as a categorical predictor, resultings in the predictions bouncing around a lot with wide confidence intervals 2. age as a linear predictor, which forces a straight line through the data points that has a very tight confidence band and 3. age splines, which lies somewhere in between as it smoothly follows the data but has more uncertainty than the straight line.
Ever stared at a table of regression coefficients & wondered what you're doing with your life?
Very excited to share this gentle introduction to another way of making sense of statistical models (w @vincentab.bsky.social)
Preprint: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
Website: j-rohrer.github.io/marginal-psy...
New job ad: Assistant Professor of Quantitative Social Science, Dartmouth College apply.interfolio.com/172357
Please share with your networks. I am the search chair and happy to answer questions!
I find this feed to be a consistently good way to see relevant papers and thinkpieces here!
Hu, Y., Diesner, J., Underwood, T., LeBlanc, Z., Layne-Worthey, G., & Downie, J. S. (2025). Who decides what is read on Goodreads? Uncovering sponsorship and its implications for scholarly Research. Big Data & Society, 12(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517251359229 (Original work published 2025)
My co-authors, Jana Diesner, @tedunderwood.me, @zoeleblanc.bsky.social, @gworthey.bsky.social and
@profdownie.bsky.social, and I are excited to share our paper in @bigdatasoc.bsky.social "Who decides what is read on Goodreads?" on book review sponsorship, open access at doi.org/10.1177/2053....
Exciting work coming from @pranavgoel.bsky.social looking at the effect of ChatGPT and similar tools on web browsing habits.
When people use these tools do they tend to stay on the platform instead of being referred elsewhere? Could this lead to the end of the open web? #pacss2025 #polnet2025