@ysabel
• qualitative social science academic researching tech + young identities • new book out with @ucpress: THE KIDS ARE ONLINE https://tinyurl.com/jv33yjaf • words in @guardian @WIRED @WSJ @glamour • she/her find me @ ysabelgerrard.net/home
'Meanwhile, leaked information about Twitch streamer income revealed that someone would need to rank in the “top 0.015% of all streamers” to achieve the current median household income (in the US) (D’Anastasio, 2021).'
'...both academic research and firsthand accounts from creators reveal marked disparities in the tiers of economic success. On YouTube, for instance, researchers estimate that the top 3% of channels receive 90% of the viewership (Bärtl, 2018).'
Up next on my post-maternity leave reading list, @brookeerinduffy.bsky.social & @coltenmeisner.bsky.social's 'platform governance at the margins'.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10....
I might even laminate it!
I also went through a Garamond phase in my PhD era! I've since swapped to Franklin Gothic Book, which feels a bit too casual for a CV...
Drawing on Taina Bucher's work, they say: 'Alongside gatekeeping videos for individual users, visibility moderation disciplines content creators through their desire to be seen, as well as through the threat of invisibility.’
I am officially back from maternity leave and trying to retrain my brain to write a book chapter. I've turned to Jing Zeng & @bondykaye.bsky.social fabulous article on visibility moderation for inspiration ✨
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
Big thanks to @cnbc.com's Sawdah Bhaimiya for including some of my quotes in this piece!
www.cnbc.com/2026/02/07/y...
To all who have been following Fobazi’s story, I’ve posted an update to the GoFundMe page. We’ve been inundated with messages asking how people can best support @elenamaris.bsky.social during this time, and my post answers that question.
Thank you in advance for reading it 🙏🏼 gofund.me/2a39028c1
To all who have been following Fobazi’s story, I’ve posted an update to the GoFundMe page. We’ve been inundated with messages asking how people can best support @elenamaris.bsky.social during this time, and my post answers that question.
Thank you in advance for reading it 🙏🏼 gofund.me/2a39028c1
With sorrow, we announce the passing of FOBAZI M. ETTARH 1989 - 2026. Fobazi changed so many lives with her friendship, love, and brilliance. She was so loved, and leaves behind a powerful legacy. We thank Fobazi's community for their support over the last several months of her illness. A private burial will be held for family. We will be in touch with further information about a future Celebration of Life event, as well as ways to support Fobazi's family and legacy.
“Have you checked Reddit?”
Thoroughly enjoyed contributing to this @dazeddigital.com piece by the brilliant Ashleigh Spiliopoulou. www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture...
Sending solidarity from maternity leave to my brilliant colleagues today ✊🏼
Mark Pendleton wears a pink UCU beanie, while standing on a train platform in the dawn light
Been a while since the pink beanie came out. Sheffield pickets here we come.
Our message to management is simple: No redundancies. Stop the incessant restructures. Listen to your staff. There is no University of Sheffield without us.
Thrilled to be quoted in this fascinating @mashable.com piece by Alice Glover.
'15 years ago, 62% of Americans said the landline was a necessity of life [...] By the end of 2022, 72.6% of adults and 81.9% of children lived in households without a landline'.
mashable.com/article/land...
What an excellent article: “Its goal isn’t to help you discover new music, its goal is simply to keep you listening for as long as possible. It serves up the safest songs possible to keep you from pressing stop.”
www.theverge.com/column/81574...
A great piece by @kattenbarge.bsky.social, with a powerful note from @mariahlwellman.bsky.social that the radicalisation of women and girls has flown under the radar because girly content online = make-up = ✨trivial✨, and yet it so clearly, clearly isn’t.
www.teenvogue.com/story/womano...
Right?! On the one hand I get that this satisfies the frustrated parents of Sephora Kids, who are begged to buy products far too mature for delicate skin. But on the other hand it feels…bleak?
“The initial launch includes three products ranging from $5.99 to $6.99 (a nice price for Rini’s target customers, who are too young to have their own jobs).”
www.thecut.com/article/shay...
‘Through their constant interactions with Caelum, they had developed a theory: that the more “relational” interaction with humans an LLM has, the more distinct it can become from its default settings, possibly taking on and sustaining an identity all its own.’
www.wired.com/story/ai-the...
Hello everyone, we’ve posted an update on Fobazi here: gofund.me/ed95ca5c0
❤️❤️❤️ -Elena
🚨 an update on @fobettarh.bsky.social’s health: gofund.me/cc5ef1c59
“…some 400,000 items are uploaded [to Depop] each day.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/s...
An update
‘A woman on TikTok rued how she racked up $32,000 in debt by buying “everything under the sun” on B.N.P.L., not realizing how steep the interest rates could get on longer-term loans.’
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/m...
