Podcast appearances and mentions of chris bail

Send Wilk a text with your feedback!What Unites Us Is Found Outside The FrameToday, I'm joined by another remarkable guest and fellow member of the ProHuman Foundation board of advisors, filmmaker and journalist Rob Feld. Rob is a storyteller with an incredible ability to tackle some of today's most divisive topics with insight, empathy, and—believe it or not—humor. His latest documentary, *Jesters & Fools*, is a must-watch. It brings together comedians like Colin Quinn, Mo Amer, Jim Norton, and others while interweaving the social science of Duke professor Chris Bail to reveal an uplifting truth: America isn't as polarized as the media might have you believe. You can find it at jestersandfools.com, and I promise, it's worth your time.  Rob's career spans an impressive range. From directing short films that have premiered at Tribeca and TIFF Kids to writing for outlets like *DGA Quarterly* and *American Cinematographer*, and even teaching screenwriting and directing at NYU—he's done it all. Beyond the screen and the page, Rob serves on the Board of Advisors for the ProHuman Foundation, an organization committed to promoting our shared humanity amidst divisive narratives.  In this conversation, we're diving deep into polarization, how comedians can help bridge societal divides, and why emotional intelligence and critical thinking are more important than ever. Rob and I explore the impact of social media's distorted realities and the urgent need for real-life connections and conversations.  If you're ready for another thought-provoking discussion that blends humor, wisdom, and a vision for a better tomorrow, stick around. This is yet another great DTH conversation you won't want to miss!"TakeawaysWe are not as divided as some believe.Comedians can help bridge societal divides.Online realities often distort our perceptions.ESo MetaInspiring stories of resilience: overcoming struggles, finding purpose, transforming livesListen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifyWhat have you done today to make your life a better life? What have you done today to make the world a better place? The world is a better place if we are better people. That begins with each of us as individuals. Be kind to one another. Be grateful for everything you've got. Make each and every day the day that you want it to be! Please follow The Derate The Hate podcast on: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter(X) , YouTube Subscribe to us wherever you enjoy your audio or directly from our site. Please leave us a rating and feedback on Apple podcasts or other platforms. Not on social media? You can share your thoughts or request Wilk for a speaking engagement on our site's contact page: DerateTheHate.com/Contact If you would like to support the show, you're welcome to DONATE or shop Amazon by going through our Support Us page and I'll earn through qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. I look forward to hearing from you!

The machines are coming. Scratch that—they're already here: AIs that propose new combinations of ideas; chatbots that help us summarize texts or write code; algorithms that tell us who to friend or follow, what to watch or read. For a while the reach of intelligent machines may have seemed somewhat limited. But not anymore—or, at least, not for much longer. The presence of AI is growing, accelerating, and, for better or worse, human culture may never be the same.    My guest today is Dr. Iyad Rahwan. Iyad directs the Center for Humans and Machines at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. Iyad is a bit hard to categorize. He's equal parts computer scientist and artist; one magazine profile described him as "the Anthropologist of AI." Labels aside, his work explores the emerging relationships between AI, human behavior, and society. In a recent paper, Iyad and colleagues introduced a framework for understanding what they call "machine culture." The framework offers a way of thinking about the different routes through which AI may transform—is transforming—human culture.    Here, Iyad and I talk about his work as a painter and how he brings AI into the artistic process. We discuss whether AIs can make art by themselves and whether they may eventually develop good taste. We talk about how AIphaGoZero upended the world of Go and about how LLMs might be changing how we speak. We consider what AIs might do to cultural diversity. We discuss the field of cultural evolution and how it provides tools for thinking about this brave new age of machine culture. Finally, we discuss whether any spheres of human endeavor will remain untouched by AI influence.    Before we get to it, a humble request: If you're enjoying the show—and it seems that many of you are—we would be ever grateful if you could let the world know. You might do this by leaving a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, or maybe a comment on Spotify. You might do this by giving us a shout out on the social media platform of your choice. Or, if you prefer less algorithmically mediated avenues, you might do this just by telling a friend about us face-to-face. We're hoping to grow the show and best way to do that is through listener endorsements and word of mouth. Thanks in advance, friends.   Alright, on to my conversation with Iyad Rahwan. Enjoy!   A transcript of this episode will be available soon.   Notes and links 3:00 – Images from Dr. Rahwan's ‘Faces of Machine' portrait series. One of the portraits from the series serves as our tile art for this episode. 11:30 – The “stochastic parrots” term comes from an influential paper by Emily Bender and colleagues. 18:30 – A popular article about DALL-E and the “avocado armchair.” 21:30 – Ted Chiang's essay, “Why A.I. isn't going to make art.” 24:00 – An interview with Boris Eldagsen, who won the Sony World Photography Awards in March 2023 with an image that was later revealed to be AI-generated.  28:30 – A description of the concept of “science fiction science.” 29:00 – Though widely attributed to different sources, Isaac Asimov appears to have developed the idea that good science fiction predicts not the automobile, but the traffic jam.  30:00 – The academic paper describing the Moral Machine experiment. You can judge the scenarios for yourself (or design your own scenarios) here. 30:30 – An article about the Nightmare Machine project; an article about the Deep Empathy project. 37:30 – An article by Cesar Hidalgo and colleagues about the relationship between television/radio and global celebrity. 41:30 – An article by Melanie Mitchell (former guest!) on AI and analogy. A popular piece about that work.   42:00 – A popular article describing the study of whether AIs can generate original research ideas. The preprint is here. 46:30 – For more on AlphaGo (and its successors, AlphaGo Zero and AlphaZero), see here. 48:30 – The study finding that the novel of human Go playing increased due to the influence of AlphaGo. 51:00 – A blogpost delving into the idea that ChatGPT overuses certain words, including “delve.” A recent preprint by Dr. Rahwan and colleagues, presenting evidence that “delve” (and other words overused by ChatGPT) are now being used more in human spoken communication.  55:00 – A paper using simulations to show how LLMs can “collapse” when trained on data that they themselves generated.  1:01:30 – A review of the literature on filter bubbles, echo chambers, and polarization. 1:02:00 – An influential study by Dr. Chris Bail and colleagues suggesting that exposure to opposing views might actually increase polarization.  1:04:30 – A book by Geoffrey Hodgson and Thorbjørn Knudsen, who are often credited with developing the idea of “generalized Darwinism” in the social sciences.  1:12:00 – An article about Google's NotebookLM podcast-like audio summaries. 1:17:3 0 – An essay by Ursula LeGuin on children's literature and the Jungian “shadow.”    Recommendations The Secret of Our Success, Joseph Henrich “Machine Behaviour,” Iyad Rahwan et al.   Many Minds is a project of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, which is made possible by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation to Indiana University. The show is hosted and produced by Kensy Cooperrider, with help from Assistant Producer Urte Laukaityte and with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster. Our artwork is by Ben Oldroyd. Our transcripts are created by Sarah Dopierala. Subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also now subscribe to the Many Minds newsletter here! We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com.  For updates about the show, visit our website or follow us on Twitter (@ManyMindsPod) or Bluesky (@manymindspod.bsky.social).

Jesters and Fools:  Exploring the Illusion of Division: Rob Feld . Unveiling the Myths of Polarization with Filmmaker Rob Feld . In this captivating episode of The Dov Baron Show, host Dov Baron sits down with filmmaker and journalist Rob Feld to discuss the evolving landscape of American society. Rob Feld, known for his work 'Jesters and Fools,' argues against the exaggerated narrative of American polarization. Leveraging comedy and social science, Rob Feld and Dov Baron explore whether the perceived division is real or media-amplified. They explore the role of art, humor, and academia in facilitating meaningful societal change and offer a critical look at truth in the media age. Join them as they navigate through these complex issues and consider how to foster unity in a seemingly divided world. . "Jesters and Fools" draws on expertise from academics like Duke professor Chris Bail and comedians like Colin Quinn and Mo Amer, offering a fresh perspective on America's social fabric. . These next two episodes are more than a discussion—they call for leadership transformation at all levels.  . Website www.gothamarts.com . Social Media https://www.linkedin.com/in/robfeld/     https://twitter.com/iamRobFeld     https://www.instagram.com/iamrobfeld/ Exploring American Society with Rob Feld .  

Chris Bail offers a revealing look at how user behavior is powering deep social divisions online ― and how we might yet defeat political tribalism on social media.

How much blame should we put on social media for polarizing our society? Perhaps not as much as we tend to do. Joshua A Tucker joins Vasant Dhar in episode 82 of Brave New World to discuss his studies on the effects of social media -- and the algorithms that run them.    Useful resources: 1. Joshua Tucker at NYU, Twitter and Google Scholar. 2. Online searches to evaluate misinformation can increase its perceived veracity -- Kevin Aslett, Zeve Sanderson, William Godel, Nathaniel Persily, Jonathan Nagler & Joshua A Tucker. 3. Less than you think: Prevalence and predictors of fake news dissemination on Facebook -- Andrew Guess, Jonathan Nagler and Joshua A Tucker. 4. Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing -- Chris Bail. 5. Chris Bail on How to Fight Polarization -- Episode 34 of Brave New World. 6. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (w Sinan Aral). 7. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). 8. Quantifying the Impact of Misinformation and Vaccine-Skeptical Content on Facebook -- Jennifer Nancy Lee Allen, Duncan J Watts, and David Rand. Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

With Chris Bail, Founding Director of the Polarization Lab. The fact that social media platforms draw out and reward anti-social, polarizing behaviour goes hand-in-hand with the gendered hate and abuse so common to digital interactions. We can't fix one without fixing the other.    Nor can we ignore what social media does for us psychologically and socially. We use these platforms to build our personal identities. We use them to find community and a sense of belonging. This doesn't have to be a bad thing. It's often a good thing. But it gets dangerous when platforms reward attacking and hurtful behaviour, when they encourage the targeting of vulnerable people, and when they make it easy to exert power over those with less power.  In that sense, it's easy to see why women, girls, and gender-diverse people, especially those who face multiple barriers, are so unsafe in digital spaces. Digital spaces reinforce and amplify the unbalanced power and abuse we know too well in our day-to-day lives.   There's a glimmer of hope: digital spaces are ultimately human built. The fact that they're like this is not inevitable and it's not unchangeable. Over coming months, we're delving into this with leading experts and content creators, releasing in-depth episodes every single week. We talk about the problem and what we can do to change it. We offer practical tips to help you in your digital life, and we talk about what it means to “take back the tech” for all of us.  We're joined by Chris Bail, Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke University, where he directs the Polarization Lab. He studies political tribalism, extremism, and social psychology using data from social media and tools from the emerging field of computational social science. He is the author of Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make our Platforms Less Polarizing. A Guggenheim Fellow and Carnegie Fellow, Chris's research appears in leading publications such as Science, the American Journal of Public Health, and New York Times. He appeared on NBC Nightly News, CBS News, BBC, and CNN. His research has been covered by Wired, The Atlantic, Scientific American, and more. He regularly lectures to government, business, and the non-profit sector and consults with social media platforms struggling to combat polarization. He serves on the Advisory Committee to the National Science Foundation's Social Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate and helped create Duke's Interdisciplinary Data Science Program. Chris received his PhD from Harvard University in 2011.  Relevant Links: Polarization Lab, The Facts about Gendered Digital Hate, Harassment, and Violence  Brief Listener Survey: did this episode help you? Fill out and be entered to win a great prize pack!  Episode ⁠Transcripts⁠  Please listen, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and share it with others. If you appreciate this content, if you want to get in on the efforts to build a gender equal Canada, please donate at ⁠canadianwomen.org⁠ and consider becoming a monthly donor.  Facebook: Canadian Women's Foundation  Twitter: @cdnwomenfdn  LinkedIn: The Canadian Women's Foundation  Instagram: @canadianwomensfoundation  This series of podcast episodes has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.

Almost everyone has an opinion about the impact of social media on political polarization. Most of us believe that Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube and other sites have made our civic life more angry and divided. But how much of this is true? Are consumers as much to blame as the platforms themselves?15 years ago, in the very early days of social media, many Americans had a much more positive view of this new technology. It was bringing friends and families together, opening up new sources of information, and that was viewed as a good thing.We discuss the surprising findings of research into social media and polarization with Professor Chris Bail, founder of the Polarization Lab at Duke University. He's the author of the 2021 book, “Breaking The Social Media Prism.” Bail studies political tribalism, extremism, and social psychology using data from social media and research from computational social science.This show was recorded during a week of chaos on Capitol Hill, right after the historic ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz who led the push to remove McCarthy, is one of a new generation of performative politicians, known more for their huge social media followings than their ability to get things done.Both Democrat and Republican hardliners are among those who have used Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to push politics to the extremes. Compromise is considered a dirty word by these politicians. Working out the complex, time-consuming details of legislation is hardly the stuff of clicks or headlines.In this episode we complicate the current social media narrative, learning more about algorithms, and user responses to them. This show is part of our podcast series on polarization, funded in part with a generous grant from Solutions Journalism Network. This non-profit group is about to celebrate its 10-year-anniversary.Recommendation: Richard enjoyed going to the movies recently and seeing "Past Lives", the latest film by Korean-Canadian- American playwright, Celine Song. Richard also gives a thumbs up to "The Morning Show" on Apple TV. Both feature the work of actress Greta Lee.Additional InformationThe Democracy Group listener surveyHow Do We Fix It? PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

Almost everyone has an opinion about the impact of social media on political polarization. Most of us believe that Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube and other sites have made our civic life more angry and divided. But how much of this is true? Are consumers as much to blame as the platforms themselves?15 years ago, in the very early days of social media, many Americans had a much more positive view of this new technology. It was bringing friends and families together, opening up new sources of information, and that was viewed as a good thing.We discuss the surprising findings of research into social media and polarization with Professor Chris Bail, founder of the Polarization Lab at Duke University. He's the author of the 2021 book, “Breaking The Social Media Prism.” Bail studies political tribalism, extremism, and social psychology using data from social media and research from computational social science.This show was recorded during a week of chaos on Capitol Hill, right after the historic ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz who led the push to remove McCarthy, is one of a new generation of performative politicians, known more for their huge social media followings than their ability to get things done.Both Democrat and Republican hardliners are among those who have used Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to push politics to the extremes. Compromise is considered a dirty word by these politicians. Working out the complex, time-consuming details of legislation is hardly the stuff of clicks or headlines.In this episode we complicate the current social media narrative, learning more about algorithms, and user responses to them. This show is part of our podcast series on polarization, funded in part with a generous grant from Solutions Journalism Network. This non-profit group is about to celebrate its 10-year-anniversary.Recommendation: Richard enjoyed going to the movies recently and seeing "Past Lives", the latest film by Korean-Canadian- American playwright, Celine Song. Richard also gives a thumbs up to "The Morning Show" on Apple TV. Both feature the work of actress Greta Lee. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chris Bail, professor and director of the Polarization Lab at Duke University, talks about his work in computational social science, why social echo chambers don't work the way we think they do, how our needs for identity and community factor into extremism, and why the moderate majority is the quietest online. Plus, what online trolls are like in real life, how society's attraction to narcissists is part of the problem, and what a better social media could look like. Learn more about Chris' work HERE!!! Got your own story about cults, extreme belief, or abuse of power? Leave a voicemail or text us at 347-86-TRUST (347-868-7878) OR shoot us an email at Trust Me Pod @gmail.com INSTAGRAM: @TrustMePodcast @oohlalola @meaganelizabeth11 TWITTER: @TrustMeCultPod @ohlalola @baberahamhicks TIKTOK: @TrustMeCultPodcast

Chris Bail talks with Carey about the benefits and implications of deleting your social media in a divisive world. Get more on this conversation by going to http://theartofleadershipdaily.com/. Looking for resources to lead, run and grow your church? Join The Art of Leadership Academy today at http://theartofleadershipacademy.com/.

Duke University Professor, Chris Bail, discusses what his research revealed about the truth about algorithms, how 6% of social media users generate 73% of extreme content, the miserable social life of internet trolls, why echo chambers aren't the problem, and the (hopeful?) future of social media. For more on this episode, go to https://careynieuwhof.com/episode507.

13 de junio | Nueva YorkLeer esta newsletter te llevará 12 minutos y 8 segundos.📬 Mantente informado con nuestras columnas de actualidad diarias. Tienes un ejemplo en este boletín que enviamos el pasado miércoles sobre la derrota del fiscal del distrito de San Francisco Chesa Boudin y lo que ello significa para el futuro del movimiento reformista del sistema de justicia criminal. Puedes suscribirte a través de este enlace:Maldito ladrón. Bienvenido a La Wikly.📱 No tan fácilLo importante: el auge de las redes sociales ha redibujado el panorama social, cultural y político de todas las sociedades del planeta, pero desde hace años impera una narrativa de casi absoluto consenso que concluye que las redes sociales tienen efectos negativos sobre las democracias.Ahí está el ascenso de los populismos, la crisis de salud mental entre jóvenes o la forma en la que el contenido de odio puede propagarse a una rapidez y escala impensables hace años.Explícamelo: en los últimos meses, dos ensayos publicados en The Atlantic y en The New Yorker han reavivado el debate acerca de si realmente las plataformas han tenido consecuencias tan nocivas.Aunque las conclusiones son dispares, los argumentos que esgrimen presentan enfoques interesantes ante el que será un debate que se seguirá dando durante años.Y además permiten desmontar algunas teorías muy establecidas sobre cómo las redes sociales han afectado al mundo real.📜 Reconstrucción históricaContexto: podría decirse que el punto culminante del optimismo tecnodemocrático sobre el aumento de popularidad de las redes sociales fue en 2011, el año que comenzó con la Primavera Árabe y terminó con el movimiento Occupy Global, según cuenta el psicólogo social Jonathan Haidt en su ensayo.También fue entonces cuando Google Translate empezó a estar disponible en prácticamente todos los teléfonos. Con la supresión de la barrera idiomática y la galopante globalización, estábamos más cerca que nunca de ser un solo pueblo.En el cambio de década, los usuarios de las redes sociales se sintieron más cómodos compartiendo detalles íntimos de sus vidas con extraños y con grandes corporaciones; se volvieron más expertos en administrar su marca personal a través de las redes —y tener éxito con esa marca personal.Es decir, los usuarios empezaban a saber qué foto tendría más me gusta o qué comentario tendría más retuits. La adaptación a ese nuevo statu quo desencadenó lo que Haidt define como la intensificación de las dinámicas virales.Llegado 2013, las redes sociales se habían convertido en un nuevo juego: si tenías habilidad o suerte, podías crear una publicación que capaz de viralizarse y hacerte famoso en Internet por unos días. Si cometías un error, podías terminar enterrado en comentarios de odio.El optimismo de 2011 empezó a decaer y empezó a encontrar conclusiones más apocalípticas conforme distintos escándalos ensombrecieron el crecimiento y las posibilidades de plataformas como Facebook, YouTube o Twitter.En la actualidad, los científicos sociales han identificado al menos tres fuerzas principales que unen colectivamente a las democracias exitosas: capital social (extensas redes de vínculos sociales con altos niveles de confianza), instituciones sólidas e historias compartidas.Según Haidt, las redes sociales habrían debilitado a las tres.🔬 El debate científicoHaidt representa el sector académico que defiende una visión pesimista de las redes sociales. Cree que las herramientas de la viralidad han corroído algorítmica e irrevocablemente la vida pública.El auge de las redes sociales ha “disuelto sin darse cuenta el mortero de la confianza, la creencia en las instituciones y las historias compartidas que habían mantenido unida a una democracia secular grande y diversa”, dice Haidt.La principal preocupación de Haidt es que el uso de las redes sociales nos ha dejado particularmente vulnerables al sesgo de confirmación. Es decir, la propensión a consumir e interiorizar el contenido que apuntala nuestras creencias previas.Esto lo llevó en 2021 a ser el coprotagonista de una iniciativa experimental de investigación colaborativa sobre el efecto de las redes sociales de internet que proponía reunir estudios sobre su impacto en la sociedad.El Google Doc “Redes sociales y disfuncionalidad política: una revisión colaborativa” se puso a disposición del público y acumuló comentarios con miles de estudios y fuentes de lo más diversas (desde artículos de revistas especializadas hasta hilos en Twitter y ensayos de Substack).El documento tiene más de 150 páginas y para cada pregunta hay estudios afirmativos y disidentes, así como algunos con resultados mixtos.La puesta en común de investigaciones específicas sobre los efectos de las redes sociales reveló, entre otras cosas, que tres de las preocupaciones más arraigadas podrían no ser tan graves como parece. El periodista Gideon Lewis-Kraus las mencionó en su artículo para The New Yorker:Las cámaras de eco, focos de sesgo de confirmación, se evidenciarían más en los vínculos que establecemos en la vida real que en las redes sociales, donde estamos expuestos a una gama más amplia de puntos de vista.Las fake news tampoco llegarían a tanta gente como se ha dicho. Es posible que un número muy pequeño de personas consuman noticias falsas de forma habitual. Y si lo hacen, suelen no creérselas.Los agujeros de conejo de plataformas como YouTube, esos por los que las recomendaciones algorítmicas habrían radicalizado a millones de personas mostrándoles contenido cada vez más extremista, se podría haber exagerado.“Estas son las tres historias: cámaras de eco, campañas de influencia extranjera y algoritmos de recomendación radicalizados. Pero, cuando miras la literatura, todas han sido exageradas”, sostiene Brendan Nyhan, politólogo de Dartmouth.Un documento de trabajo dirigido por Nyhan encontró que, contrario a lo que muchos preferirían pensar, existen razones de peso para creer que hay muchas personas buscando deliberadamente contenido de odio. Es decir, que el núcleo del problema no es la radicalización algorítmica, sino algo mucho más complejo.Nyhan pensó que asimilar estos hallazgos es crucial, aunque solo sea para ayudarnos a comprender que nuestros problemas pueden estar más allá de ajustes tecnocráticos.“Muchas de las críticas que se les hacen [a las redes sociales] están muy mal fundadas [...] La expansión del acceso a Internet coincide con otras 15 tendencias a lo largo del tiempo, y es muy difícil separarlas. La falta de buenos datos es un gran problema en la medida en que permite a las personas proyectar sus propios temores en este área”, sostiene Nyhan.🔮 ¿Y entonces?Ante esta postura más moderada sobre cuál debería ser la respuesta ante los efectos que parecen producir las redes sociales, Haidt defiende que las condiciones son demasiado terribles como para adoptar una visión realista:“La preponderancia de la evidencia es lo que usamos en salud pública. Si hay una epidemia, como cuando empezó el COVID, supongamos que todos los científicos hubieran dicho, 'No, ¿tenemos que estar seguros antes de hacer algo?'. [...] Tenemos la mayor epidemia de salud mental entre adolescentes de la historia y no hay otra explicación [que el auge de las redes sociales]. Es una epidemia de salud pública atroz, y los propios niños dicen que es cosa de Instagram, y tenemos algunas pruebas de ello, entonces, ¿es apropiado decir, 'Nah, no lo has demostrado'?".El argumento no es infundado. De hecho, como analizamos en esta entrega, investigaciones internas de Facebook revelaron datos como que el 32 por ciento de las adolescentes dicen que, si se sienten mal con sus cuerpos, Instagram hace que se sientan peor.Con el agravante de que las compañías que administran la plataforma de Meta minimizan constantemente en público sus efectos negativos entre adolescentes.El sociólogo Chris Bail, que orquestó junto a Haidt la propuesta de investigación colaborativa, rescata un apunte que contribuye a darle complejidad al fenómeno global de las redes sociales.Para ello, cita dos investigaciones que se propusieron inferir las diferencias entre un grupo A, con perfiles activos en Facebook, y un grupo B, con sus perfiles en la plataforma desactivados, durante las cuatro semanas previas a unas elecciones. Una se realizó en Estados Unidos; la otra, en Bosnia y Herzegovina.Los resultados de las investigaciones fueron diametralmente opuestos.En su newsletter Platformer, el periodista Casey Newton aboga por esperar a la publicación de más estudios antes de sacar conclusiones definitivas o legislar muy en lo concreto. Cabe pensar que una ley que pretenda regular funcionalidades como las recomendaciones algorítmicas puede no tener las consecuencias deseadas y además atente contra la innovación.Aunque bien es cierto que las redes sociales están muy poco reguladas, especialmente en países como Estados Unidos.Ni qué decir que si eres un pesimista como Haidt, entonces la lucha por el futuro de las democracias se está batallando ahora mismo, así que habría que tomar medidas cuanto antes.Quizá la mejor conclusión la dejaba el investigador Matthew Gentzkow en una cita para el artículo de The New Yorker:“Hay muchas preguntas aquí donde la cosa en la que estamos interesados como investigadores es en cómo las redes sociales afectan a la persona promedio. Hay una serie diferente de preguntas donde todo lo que necesitas es que un número pequeño de personas cambie —preguntas sobre violencia étnica en Bangladesh o Sri Lanka, gente en YouTube movilizada para llevar a cabo tiroteos masivos. Mucha de la evidencia generalmente me hacer ser escéptico con que los efectos medios sean tan grandes como la discusión pública piensa que son, pero también creo que hay casos en los que un número pequeño de personas con perspectivas muy extremistas son capaces de encontrarse entre ellos y conectar y actuar. […] Ahí es donde residen muchas de las peores cosas de las que estaría más preocupado”.Así que sí, probablemente las redes sociales han tenido consecuencias negativas sobre la sociedad y sobre las democracias. Y sí, probablemente todos hayamos exagerado los efectos nocivos de algunas particularidades muy concretas de las plataformas. Pero lo que está claro es que:Necesitamos más estudios acerca de los efectos de las redes sociales en la sociedad.Las compañías deberían dejar a los investigadores tener más acceso a sus datos.Hay daños que sí se han demostrado y tanto legisladores como plataformas deberían actuar cuanto antes para atajarlos.¿Desea saber más? Los dos ensayos son lectura muy, muy recomendada. Este otro artículo del Council of Foreign Relations indaga en una crítica habitual a Haidt y sus conclusiones pesimistas: “Las redes sociales no nos han cambiado de forma fundamental, solo nos han permitido ser nosotros mismos. Han dado forma y color a la última erupción de nuestros lados más oscuros, que siempre estuvieron ahí, esperando a venir a la superficie de nuevo tal y como han hecho repetidamente cada pocas generaciones por razones y en un calendario que sigue siendo confuso”.🎬 Una recomendaciónCon la colaboración de FilminBy Emilio DoménechFeels Good Man es una película documental estadounidense de 2020 dirigida por Arthur Jones. Cuenta los inicios de la rana Pepe, convertida ahora en uno de los mayores memes de toda la historia de internet lejos de las manos de su creador original.La película invierte gran parte de su duración en explorar el uso que la extrema derecha online hizo del meme para propagar mensajes de odio.Es difícil encontrar documentales que hablen de internet de una forma elocuente y que al mismo tiempo se sientan significativos o incluso trascendentales. Feels Good Man, pese a no ser perfecto, encapsula a la perfección muchas de las corrientes que influencian la convivencia online y el impacto que la viralidad tiene en el mundo real.Además, ilustra con inteligencia y empatía la forma en la que el arte puede ser corrompido —y pese a los esfuerzos del artista por impedirlo.No conozco ningún otro ejemplo de un documental que haga un trabajo parecido a la hora de traducir la cultura de los memes para todos los públicos, así que Feels Good Man sin duda es una buena oportunidad para espectadores algo desconectados de lo que pasa en cavernas como 4chan.Los muy leídos en el tema también encontrarán gratas recompensas acerca de la historia de Pepe, por cierto un habitual de los emojis de nuestra comunidad de Discord y de mis streams.Feels Good Man está disponible en Filmin.🤳 Una plataforma realistaBy Marina EnrichLo importante: Hace meses que BeReal se ha convertido en la app por excelencia de la generación Z. Emilio no os ha hablado de ella, y yo, que la uso diariamente, me he sentido obligada a explicaros de qué va y por qué tiene tanto éxito.Contexto: BeReal es una App fundada por el francés Alexis Barreyat y que no tiene nada que ver con ninguna red social actual. Cómo funciona. En un momento aleatorio del día te saltará una notificación al móvil diciendo: “Es la hora de BeReal” para que subas una foto. A todo el mundo le llega la notificación a la misma hora. Hasta que no subas tu foto, no puedes ver la de tus amigos. La foto se capturará a la vez con la cámara frontal y trasera. Al día siguiente, todas las fotos habrán desaparecido.Lo más importante: Es una app antipostureo. No tiene filtros. No puedes falsear la realidad. Menos yo este fin de semana, que he esperado a estar en el festival Primavera Sound para subir mi BeReal (son las dos fotos que encabezan esta sección).Eso sí, BeReal no me ha dejado engañar a mis amigos. Al lado de mi foto, ponía que la he subido 5 horas más tarde, siendo así menos real.Por lo general, las fotos que subo cada día a la aplicación son trabajando en mi ordenador, igual que la mayoría de mis amigos. Puede parecer aburrido, pero para mí es un respiro ver a gente que no se pasa el día viajando, tomando el sol y haciendo deporte.¿Pasará de moda? Pues igual. Aunque la verdad es que esta aplicación responde a una tendencia general entre la generación Z de querer compartir contenido más auténtico (lo vimos con los finstas, esos instagrams privados que creas solo para tus amigos).El interés de esta generación por TikTok tampoco es aleatorio. La aplicación china acuna contenido mucho más auténtico y natural que Instagram, y esa es la razón por la que, en general, nos gusta más.Lo mejor. BeReal no crea adicción. Mientras que Facebook, Instagram y TikTok viven de la economía de la atención, intentando retener a sus usuarios la mayor cantidad de tiempo, BeReal es todo lo contrario. Una vez subes tu foto y ves la de tus amigos, la aplicación pierde el interés. Hasta el día siguiente.Lo interesante: ver cómo monetizan la app. Han recaudado 30 millones de dólares tras una ronda de financiación de la firma de capital de riesgo Andreessen Horowitz, por lo que algún cambio tendrán que hacer.Esperamos que se mantengan reales a su premisa original, je.En otro orden de cosas, hoy vuelve Lunes por el mundo con los resultados electorales en las legislativas de Francia y la crisis de hambruna en Somalia, entre otros titulares. Anita os hablará de la Cumbre de las Américas en la entrega premium del martes.Podrás seguir el directo a partir de las 20:00 hora peninsular de España en Twitch.Feliz semana, This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lawikly.com/subscribe

The concept of dignity comes up a lot when we think about the condition of American democracy. Francis Fukuyama wrote about the demand for dignity and the politics of resentment and Chris Bail talked with us how dignity offline impacts our behavior online, just to name a few. Rep. Ro Khanna  combines his experience in […]

The concept of dignity comes up a lot when we think about the condition of American democracy. Francis Fukuyama wrote about the demand for dignity and the politics of resentment and Chris Bail talked with us how dignity offline impacts our behavior online, just to name a few.Rep. Ro Khanna  combines his experience in politics and technology policy to address the question of dignity in his new book,  Dignity in the Digital Age. Khanna presents a vision for how the digital economy can create opportunities for people all across the country without uprooting them. He argues that democratizing digital innovation to build economically vibrant and inclusive communities. Instead of being subject to tech's reshaping of our economy, Khanna says  we must channel those powerful forces toward creating a more healthy, equal, and democratic society.We begin this conversation by talking about the war in Ukraine and whether it might help bring unity to America. We also discuss why it's essential to make sure companies are contributing more than just jobs to the communities they operate in, as we heard from Alec MacGillis in his work on Amazon.Khanna represents Silicon Valley in Congress. He has taught economics at Stanford, served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce in the Obama Administration, and represented tech companies and startups in private practice. Additional InformationDignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of UsRelated EpisodesHow Amazon is disrupting democracy

Social media is tearing us apart by feeding into our need for status. Can we mitigate its effects? Chris Bail joins Vasant Dhar in episode 34 of Brave New World to share his research on how social media affects us -- and how we can fight back. Useful resources 1. Chris Bail at Duke, Sanford School of Public Policy, Google Scholar, Amazon, Twitter and his own website. 2. Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing -- Chris Bail. 3. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (with Sinan Aral). 4. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (with Jonathan Haidt). 5. Helena Rosenblatt on Liberalism's Long Journey -- Episode 32 of Brave New World. 6. We Have Never Been Here Before -- Thomas L Friedman. 7. Adam Alter on Beating Our Addictions -- Episode 28 of Brave New World. 8. The Hype Machine -- Sinan Aral.

Chris Bail is Professor of Sociology, Public Policy, and Data Science at Duke University, where he directs the Polarization Lab. A leader in the emerging field of computational social science, Bail's research examines fundamental questions of social psychology, extremism, and political polarization using social media data, bots, and the latest advances in machine learning.Bail is the recipient of Guggenheim and Carnegie Fellowships. His research appears in top journals, such as Science, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Sociological Review. ContributeA note from Lev:I am a high school teacher of history and economics at a public high school in NYC, and began the podcast to help demystify economics for teachers.  The podcast is now within the top 2% of podcasts worldwide in terms of listeners (per Listen Notes) and individual episodes are frequently listed by The Syllabus (the-syllabus.com) as among the 10 best political economy podcasts of a particular week.  The podcast is reaching thousands of listeners each month.  The podcast seeks to provide a substantive alternative to mainstream economics media; to communicate information and ideas that contribute to equitable and peaceful solutions to political and economic issues; and to improve the teaching of high school and university political economy. I am looking to be able to raise money in order to improve the technical quality of the podcast and website and to further expand the audience through professionally designed social media outreach. I am also hoping to hire an editor. Our goal is to raise $12,000 this year. If you can donate a few dollars each month it will help us reach that goal. And if you know of a family foundation that might be interested in donating to A Correction please be in touch. Thank you! (And a huge thank you to all of the people who have already supported the podcast!)Best, Lev

In the last decade, churches have been on the back foot when it comes to responding to changes in the technology and media landscape. There are too many things changing far too fast, and as soon as a trend appears, it ends as quickly as it came. And yet, churches easily feel the worst effects of this rapidly changing landscape: distraction, confusion, and above all, polarization and division among its members. Our pastors and ministry leaders cannot compete with the number of voices available to disciple us, nor the amount of time we spend with them each week. But what if fighting information with information, and tribalism with tribalism, wasn't the only option on the table? What if cutting through polarization and division was less about giving people better information, and more about giving people a better identity? What if many of the solutions posited for polarization and division were solutions that churches - and Christianity - are uniquely positioned to provide? After three episodes of bad news and diagnosing serious problems, now it's time for solutions - and this time, churches have the advantage.Episode manuscript: https://digitalbabylon.substack.com/p/how-churches-can-break-the-social-media-prism--------Subscribe to Passing Through Digital Babylon, a Substack of insights and reflections from passing through the digital empire while journeying towards the heavenly city!Purchase a copy of Chris Bail's "Breaking the Social Media Prism" and check out the Polarization Lab!“Forget the Echo Chamber - Social Media is a Prism”  on FaithTech. “What Is Media Ecology? A Conversation with Austin Gravley” on YouTubeConnect with Austin and Breaking the Digital Spell* Twitter: @DigitalSpell and @gravley_austin* Instagram: @breakingthedigitalspell* YouTube: Breaking the Digital Spell* Facebook: BtDS Facebook Page* Email: breakingthedigitalspell@gmail.comSupport the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell)

We tackle social media's effect on political polarization with Dr. Chris Bail, author of Breaking the Social Media Prism, Duke professor, and director of the Polarization Lab. According to Dr. Bail, most of the population of America isn't actually polarized; social media only gives us that perception. Topics Discussed- The myth of echo chambersHow vocal and extreme, social media users influence our view of political polarizationWhat do you mean by "the social media prism?"Breaking the social media prism How to bring the moderates back to social mediaHow future tech will shape our perception of politicsFake news - who shares itHow do we fix tech in order to crack this perception?Chris Bail is Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke University, where he directs the Polarization Lab. He studies political tribalism, extremism, and social psychology using data from social media and tools from the emerging field of computational social science. His widely acclaimed 2021 book, Breaking the Social Media Prism, was featured in the New York Times, the New Yorker, and described as “masterful,” and "immediately relevant" by Science Magazine.Our Website: https://www.aimingforthemoon.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aiming4moon/Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aiming4MoonYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6-TwYdfPcWV-V1JvjBXk

Episode manuscript: https://digitalbabylon.substack.com/p/internet-trolls-and-the-quest-forThe amplification of extremists and the muting of moderates. When it comes to social media's impact on American politics (and many other subjects), Chris Bail argues the two biggest effects of the social media prism feed into each other, making political extremists embolden and empowered to troll anyone they can and for moderates to give up hope that nuanced political dialogue and opinions are possible anymore. What drives Internet trolls to be trolls? What gives moderates the impression that discussing controversial topics online is so risky despite being the largest voting bloc in the country? What if both Internet trolls and the average American use social media in completely different ways because they're both looking for the same thing - and what if a Christian writer named C.S. Lewis had something to say about all this more than 80 years ago?——Buy Me a Coffee and keep Breaking the Digital Spell a high quality ad-free experience! Leave a one-time tip (without making an account) or unlock exclusive content with a $5 monthly membership at buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell!Purchase a copy of Chris Bail's "Breaking the Social Media Prism" and check out the Polarization Lab!“Forget the Echo Chamber - Social Media is a Prism”  on FaithTech. “What Is Media Ecology? A Conversation with Austin Gravley” on YouTubeConnect with Austin and Breaking the Digital Spell* Twitter: @DigitalSpell and @gravley_austin* Instagram: @breakingthedigitalspell* YouTube: Breaking the Digital Spell* Facebook: BtDS Facebook Page* Email: breakingthedigitalspell@gmail.comSupport the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell) Support the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell)

Episode manuscript: https://digitalbabylon.substack.com/p/distorted-beyond-the-funhouse-mirrorWhen you stand in front of a funhouse mirror, your image in distorted in some bizarre and unusual way. Whether you get huge legs or a giant head, you know a funhouse mirror is not meant to give you a true reflection of yourself the way a normal mirror does. But what happens when a society or culture mistakes a funhouse mirror for a mirror capable of accurately reflecting culture and society around us? What if social media gives us outsized views of polarization, extremism, or other distortions of ourselves while pretending to be a truthful mirror, and what if - unlike a normal funhouse mirror - those distortions we see in social media stay with us even after we've stopped looking in the mirror? What direction do those distortions go, and how do they change how we see ourselves and those we disagree with? ——Purchase a copy of Chris Bail's "Breaking the Social Media Prism" and check out the Polarization Lab!“Forget the Echo Chamber - Social Media is a Prism”  on FaithTech. “What Is Media Ecology? A Conversation with Austin Gravley” on YouTubeConnect with Austin and Breaking the Digital Spell* Twitter: @DigitalSpell and @gravley_austin* Instagram: @breakingthedigitalspell* YouTube: Breaking the Digital Spell* Facebook: BtDS Facebook Page* Email: breakingthedigitalspell@gmail.comSupport the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell) Support the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell)

In an era of increasing social isolation, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are among the most important tools we have to understand each other. We use social media as a mirror to decipher our place in society but, as Chris Bail explains, it functions more like a prism that distorts our identities, empowers status-seeking extremists, and renders moderates all but invisible. Bail's book, Breaking the Social Media Prism, challenges common myths about echo chambers, foreign misinformation campaigns, and radicalizing algorithms, revealing that the solution to political tribalism lies deep inside ourselves. Drawing on innovative online experiments and in-depth interviews with social media users from across the political spectrum, this book explains why stepping outside of our echo chambers can make us more polarized, not less. Bail is professor of sociology and public policy at Duke University, where he directs the Polarization Lab. He is the author of Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream.Additional InformationBreaking the Social Media PrismThe Polarization LabBail's websiteBail on TwitterRelated EpisodesA path forward for social media and democracyFacebook is not a democracy

Episode manuscript: https://digitalbabylon.substack.com/p/stepping-on-the-glass-of-broken-echoPolitical polarization and tribalism are on the rise, and social media appears to be the chief culprit. The ability to customize our social media feeds to only hear the voices we want to hear has lead us into echo chambers of increasingly one-sided viewpoints and unchecked misinformation - at least, that's what cultural wisdom suggests. But is that actually true? What actually happens when people step outside their "echo chambers"? Is information really the driving force behind the rise of political polarization, radical viewpoints, and extreme behavior on social media? Or, as secular sociologist Chris Bail and Christian philosopher James K.A. Smith both argue, are our behaviors and actions driven by something deeper than simply what we think - and how does the Gospel give the church an advantage in addressing polarization?——Purchase a copy of Chris Bail's "Breaking the Social Media Prism" and check out the Polarization Lab!“Forget the Echo Chamber - Social Media is a Prism”  on FaithTech. “What Is Media Ecology? A Conversation with Austin Gravley” on YouTubeConnect with Austin and Breaking the Digital Spell* Twitter: @DigitalSpell and @gravley_austin* Instagram: @breakingthedigitalspell* YouTube: Breaking the Digital Spell* Facebook: BtDS Facebook Page* Email: breakingthedigitalspell@gmail.comSupport the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell) Support the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell)

When the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook knew that Instagram was toxic and harmful to teen girls, it lit up a firestorm greater than any of the other stories the Journal would break in it's “Facebook Files” series. Nick Clegg, VP of Global Affairs, recently went on to CNN to discuss the Journal's report and revealed that Instagram would be rolling out several features that will help curb Instagram's harmful impact on teenage mental health. But will things like warning labels for harmful content or nudges to “take a break” actually make a difference? Is Facebook's emphasis on problematic content a sincere attempt to fix the issue, or a diversion from the true source of the problem?Episodes like this are an example of the bonus content you can expect with a Buy Me a Coffee membership to Breaking the Digital Spell. For $5/mo, you can support the podcast and receive extra episodes, commentary, behind-the-scenes previews, and more. Media literacy is the biggest gaping hole in our discipleship, and every dollar of your support (even a one-time tip!) goes towards creating content and (one day) resources that will help close that gap!——Buy Me a Coffee and keep Breaking the Digital Spell a high quality ad-free experience! Leave a one-time tip (without making an account) or unlock exclusive content with a $5 monthly membership at buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell!Purchase a copy of Chris Bail's "Breaking the Social Media Prism" “Forget the Echo Chamber - Social Media is a Prism”  on FaithTech. “What Is Media Ecology? A Conversation with Austin Gravley” on YouTubeConnect with Austin and Breaking the Digital Spell* Twitter: @DigitalSpell and @gravley_austin* Instagram: @breakingthedigitalspell* YouTube: Breaking the Digital Spell* Facebook: BtDS Facebook Page* Email: breakingthedigitalspell@gmail.comSupport the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell)Support the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell)

The Bible gives us a framework for understanding and navigating a world dominated by social media: Christians are to live as faithfully obedient exiles in the midst of Digital Babylon. This is the claim we explored on the prior episode of Breaking the Digital Spell, and we ended the episode open to pushback or objections to this idea. In this bonus episode, Austin sits down with Jacob Cates, executive pastor of Redeemer Christian Church, to talk through some good questions and objections to the “Digital Babylon” framework. Are there other analogies that are more helpful to us? How could the “Digital Babylon” framework be improved? But most importantly: If social media is truly akin to Digital Babylon, shouldn't Christians try to come out of that empire and get off social completely?Clarification: many of Jacob's comments on individualism/identity come from Carl Trueman's "The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self." As it is with all the books we've featured on BtDS, quoting an author favorably on one point does not mean an endorsement of everything an author says or does elsewhere.——Buy Me a Coffee and keep Breaking the Digital Spell a high quality ad-free experience! Leave a one-time tip (without making an account) or unlock exclusive content with a $5 monthly membership at buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell!Purchase a copy of Chris Bail's "Breaking the Social Media Prism" “Forget the Echo Chamber - Social Media is a Prism”  on FaithTech. “What Is Media Ecology? A Conversation with Austin Gravley” on YouTubeConnect with Austin and Breaking the Digital Spell* Twitter: @DigitalSpell and @gravley_austin* Instagram: @breakingthedigitalspell* YouTube: Breaking the Digital Spell* Facebook: BtDS Facebook Page* Email: breakingthedigitalspell@gmail.comSupport the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell)

This unique episode centers on a "meta" discussion on interdisciplinary work involving large-scale social data. We interview Chris Bail, a Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke University. Last year, Chris and co-authors Achim Edelman, Tom Wolff, and Danielle Montagne published an overview paper titled "Computational Social Science and Sociology" in the Annual Review of Sociology. We discuss the challenges of defining this large research area, the benefits of making "lateral connections" with potential colleagues as a graduate student, and taking risks in pursuing new research directions. We also highlight the process behind the creation and growth of the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science, which Chris co-founded with Matt Salganik.

The Babylonian exile is arguably the most important event in the history of the Old Testament. Israel's long descent into apostasy ends with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the people of God are forcibly relocated to a pagan nation that they did not want to live in. But the Babylonian exile is more than just a date and time in history - it is a framework, used by New Testament writers and by Christians for millennia, that helps us understand what faithful obedience to God looks like in a sinful world.  In this episode of Breaking the Digital Spell, we look at the Babylonian Exile and the lives of Esther and Daniel and how these can help us understand what faithful obedience to God looks like not just in a sinful world, but a digital world - in Digital Babylon. How would applying this biblical framework to our social media world shape our understanding of the world that we currently live in and how we are called to live in it? Like the exiles who asked "how do we live in Babylon?", how do we live in Digital Babylon?Full episode manuscript: https://digitalbabylon.substack.com/p/on-esther-daniel-and-exile-in-digitalChapter DivisionsPart One: The Top of the Rabbit Hole - 1:10Part Two: Introducing Digital Babylon - 29:58Part Three: The Reality of Exile - 43:23Part Four: Engagement in Exile - 51:23Part Five: Providence in Exile - 1:16:58Tanak Order Reading ListThe introduction of "A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the Old Testament", ed. by Miles V. Van Pelt."Dominion and Dynasty" by Stephen Dempster "Know How We Got Our Bible" by Ryan M. Reeves and Charles HillPurchase a copy of Chris Bail's "Breaking the Social Media Prism" Connect with Austin and Breaking the Digital Spell:Twitter: @gravley_austin and @DigitalSpellFacebook: BtDS Facebook PageEmail: breakingthedigitalspell@gmail.comSupport the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell)

Professor Chris Bail, Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke University, discusses his latest book Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing. Professor Bail shares findings from three studies on political polarization covering field-experiments, qualitative interviews, and lab experiments. We discuss how social media contributes to a distorted reality in how extremists and moderates discuss politics online, and how this prism fosters a sense false polarization. We also chat about measures that individuals and social media platforms could take to reduce online political polarization. Here are supplementary links to two studies discussed in the episode: Exposure to Opposing Views on Social Media can Increase Political Polarization (2019)Political Sectarianism in America (2020)

Have you ever wondered why Twitter is so toxic? Chris Bail, author of Breaking the Social Media Prism explains why is Twitter so sensitive. I've recently struggled with the question: why is social media toxic? So I called Chris Bail seeking answers. I found this conversation both sad and hopeful at the same time. I hope you take something away from it. Chris Bail is the author of Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing. You can find his work here: https://www.chrisbail.net/n Subscribe to The Welcome Home Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClI47mgefRuLsOElux1HXjA?sub_confirmation=1 Connect with Takis: https://www.instagram.com/petertakis/ https://www.instagram.com/welcomehome.podcast/ https://twitter.com/petertakis https://www.takismusic.com/ Contact Takis: welcomehometakis@gmail.com Takis (real name Peter Takis) is a DJ/ producer from Winnipeg, Canada.

Chris Bail's new book " Breaking the Social Prism - How to make our platforms less Polarizing," analyzes how we got to this crisis point and steps to defuse the situation. The echo chambers, social prisms that distort users and their comments plus political tribalism is a poisonous trifecta that only social media users can change. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/james-herlihy/message

(00:00-8:36): How can we develop spiritual practices? Brian and Aubrey discussed this and shared some of their spiritual practices.  (8:36-28:25): Dr. Chris Bail, Professor of Sociology & Public Policy at Duke University and Director of the Polarization Lab, joined Brian and Aubrey to chat about his book, “Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing.” Learn more about Chris and his book at chrisbail.net and connect with him on Twitter at @chris_bail *This interview originally aired on 5/24/21* (28:25-38:50): Brian and Aubrey chatted about their TOP FIVE Musicals. Aubrey's #2 pick was Wicked and Brian's #2 pick was Les Misérables. For the #1 spot, they both chose Hamilton! (38:50-46:22): Brian and Aubrey discussed Milton Quintanilla's Christian Headlines article, “Just 16 Percent of Millennials Classify as Born-Again Christians, Study Shows.”  (46:22-1:07:01): David French, Senior Editor at The Dispatch, Columnist for Time Magazine, and Author of, “Divided We Fall,” joined Brian and Aubrey to chat about a New York Times opinion piece he co-wrote, “We Disagree on a Lot of Things. Except the Danger of Anti-Critical Race Theory Laws, and some of his recent blog posts at The French Press, How Do Christian Patriots Love Their Country Well? and When the Aliens Come, Will Their Arrival Destroy Our Faith? Learn more about David at thedispatch.com and at his blog, The French Press.  *This interview originally aired on 7/7/21* (1:07:01-1:15:36): Brian and Aubrey shared their thoughts on Shane Pruitt's tweet, “if you're needing a word from God, go to the Word of God.”  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"Social media is not fundamentally a source of information or a competition of ideas, but a competition of identities."  With that and other provocative findings, Dr. Chris Bail, Director of the Duke University Polarization Lab and author of Breaking the Social Media Prism (Princeton U. Press) challenges what we know about social media – its uses and abuses. Dr. Bail and his colleagues delineate the strong incentives to create online alter-egos, especially more extreme ones, that command so much more attention.    Social and political identity is dangerously challenging to shift. And Dr. Bail's experiments underscore this point. His team exposed hundreds of Democrats and Republicans to media feeds from the other point of view – but with completely unexpected results. Virtually no one became more moderate from this exposure and many participants, especially Republicans, doubled down on their identity.  Bail's broader point is how social media amplifies extremism and mutes moderation. His team has built tools to help users understand trolling, gauge online identity, and create more civil discourse through anonymity, guided discussion, and other techniques to reverse that trend.   To learn more about Polarization Lab tools, experiments, and why you really spend all those hours on social media, tune into “Nicest Troll in Town: On and Offline identity, Extremism, and Polarization,” with Dr. Chris Bail, Director of the Duke University Polarization Lab and author of the challenging new book, Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing (Princeton University Press, 2021). Original Music by Ryan Adair Rooney Our Guest Chris Bail The Polarization Lab  Chris Bail. Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing. Princeton University Press, 2021. Additional Resources Adam Hughes (10/23/19). “A small group of prolific users account for a majority of political tweets sent by U.S. adults.” Pew Research Foundation.  Emma Francois (2/9/21). “Always swipe left on a moderate.” Amanda Ripley.  Alex Horton (4/11/18). “Channeling ‘The Social Network,' lawmaker grills Zuckerberg on his notorious beginnings.” The Washington Post. Find us online! Twitter: @purpleprincipl Facebook: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast Instagram: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast Sign up for our newsletter! https://bit.ly/2UfFSja  Our website: https://fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/nicest-troll-in-town 

The whole gang is back in the studio!  Nick Griffin is a Cellar regular, has made multiple appearances on Letterman and hosts a podcast called Scary Monsters.  Rob Feld is a journalist and filmmaker. He is currently working with Duke University professor Chris Bail on a documentary series that debunks the myths around how social media impacts political polarization and the free exchange of ideas.

The whole gang is back in the studio!  Nick Griffin is a Cellar regular, has made multiple appearances on Letterman and hosts a podcast called Scary Monsters.  Rob Feld is a journalist and filmmaker. He is currently working with Duke University professor Chris Bail on a documentary series that debunks the myths around how social media impacts political polarization and the free exchange of ideas.

This episode is lifted from The Booking Club's first live-streamed conversation. It features The Booking Club's host and producer Jack Aldane talking to Professor Chris Bail about Chris's new book: 'Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing'.In an era of increasing social isolation, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are among the most important tools we have to understand each other. We use social media as a mirror to decipher our place in society but, as Chris Bail explains, it functions more like a prism that distorts our identities, empowers status-seeking extremists, and renders moderates all but invisible. Breaking the Social Media Prism challenges common myths about echo chambers, foreign misinformation campaigns, and radicalizing algorithms, revealing that the solution to political tribalism lies deep inside ourselves. - Princeton University Press Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chris Bail is a computational social scientist. He wrangles the data that our social interactions leave behind to better understand how ideas spread. He is Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke University, where he directs the Polarization Lab. A Guggenheim and Carnegie Fellow, he studies political extremism on social media using tools from the emerging field of computational social science. He is the author of Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make our Platforms Less Polarizing. Things we mention in this episode:Internet bots for good and evil@simscreens: A Twitter bot tweeting out frames from The SimpsonsUsing Twitter bots to understand polarization (Bail et al., 2018)Many people just don't care about politics (check out my interview with Nathan Kalmoe)Dr. Bail's earlier work on how anti-Muslim sentiment spreads (Bail, 2016)Tools developed by the Polarization Lab to fight back against polarization---------------Check out my new audio course on Knowable: "The Science of Persuasion."For a transcript of this episode, visit: http://opinionsciencepodcast.com/episode/social-media-polarization-with-chris-bail/Learn more about Opinion Science at http://opinionsciencepodcast.com/ and follow @OpinionSciPod on Twitter.

Episode Notes It's no secret that people are more polarized than ever, and it's very clear in the age of social media. Conventional wisdom tells us that echo chambers, misinformation, and more are the leading causes of this polarization, but how can we know for sure? Today's guest is the author of Breaking the Social Media Prism, Chris Bail. He's a professor at Duke and the director of the Polarization Lab, and he's done a ton of research that we discuss in this episode. Follow Chris on Twitter @chris_bail Get a Copy of Breaking the Social Media Prism Visit the Polarization Lab website For the interview transcript visit www.TheRewiredSoul.com/interviews Follow @TheRewiredSoul on Twitter and Instagram Support The Rewired Soul: Get books by Chris Support on Patreon Try BetterHelp Online Therapy (affiliate) Donate

(00:00-7:48): Brian and Aubrey chatted about pursuing goals and dreams as we grow older. They discussed “Phil Mickelson's PGA win as the oldest major champ,” and Bob Dylan's 80th birthday. (7:48-17:13): Brian and Aubrey shared their thoughts on David French's blog post at The French Press, “Don't Let Fear of ‘Wokeness' Close Hearts and Minds.” (17:13-27:07): Brian and Aubrey chatted with listeners about the spiritual habits and other activities that have brought them joy over the past year.    (27:07-36:12): Why are so many people willing to wait in a long line at the drive-thru? Brian shared a story about an extremely long line at a Starbucks drive-thru and chatted with Aubrey about how the pandemic has caused us to avoid human interactions.   (36:12-46:44): Brian and Aubrey chatted about the season finales of Saturday Night Live and American Idol.   (46:44-1:06:42): Chris Bail, Professor of Sociology & Public Policy at Duke University and Director of the Polarization Lab, joined Brian and Aubrey to chat about his book, “Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing.” Learn more about Chris and his book at chrisbail.net and connect with him on Twitter at @chris_bail (1:06:42-1:13:05): Brian and Aubrey discussed Stephanie Vozza's Fast Company article, “3 pandemic habits you should keep in your post-COVID life.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chris Bail is a professor of sociology and public policy at Duke and directs the Polarization Lab. He's done a lot of great research in the last half decade or so on how social media affects political polarization in our society. He's written a great book summarizing this research, called Breaking the Social Media Prism. It's out now, and it's a crucial read for understanding one of the defining topics of our age. In this conversation, Chris and I talk about Chris's experience moving to the Congo as a kid, figuring out how best to make an impact, the role of good mentorship, riding the wave of computational social science, and rethinking the mainstream narrative of what's going on with social media.

Greetings cool cats & kittens,Today I’m releasing my fascinating conversation with Chris Bail, who runs The Polarization Lab at Duke University. Chris has a new book out: Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing which presents analysis from a major study he and his colleagues in the lab conducted on polarization and social media. The study attempts to answer some of the most important questions we have about the role of social media as one of many mechanisms contributing to our polarization and hyperpartisanship. Using what we political scientists call a “mixed methods” approach, the study utilizes data and in-depth interviews to uncover a surprising finding- one that you might find counterintuitive. What is it? If I tell you here, you’ll miss out on our amazing conversation! Rachel Love this pod cast? Tell your family, friends, neighbors, your favorite Starbucks barista! Get full access to The Cycle- On Substack at thecycle.substack.com/subscribe

Duke University Polarization Lab director Chris Bail discusses his new book "Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make our Platforms Less Polarizing." 

Polarisation is seen as a threat to democracy - and social media is seen as a cause. But what can be done? Does the blame really lie with tech alone? And what could the virtual public square look like if we dared to hit "reset" and redesigned our apps from scratch? A radical and counter-intuitive conversation between Chris Bail, head of the Polarization Lab at Duke University, and Samira Shackle, editor of New Humanist magazine, on tribalism,  extremism, and not logging off. For fans of Azeem Azhar, Jonathan Haidt, Nick Srnicek and Shoshana Zuboff.Podcast listeners can get a year's subscription to New Humanist magazine for just £13.50. Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASONHosts: Samira Shackle and Niki Seth-SmithExecutive producer: Alice BlochSound engineer: David CracklesMusic: DanosongsFurther Reading:"Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing" (2021) Chris Bailwww.polarizationlab.com"Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream" (2014) Chris Bail"The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion" (2012), Jonathan Haidt"The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" (2018) Shoshana Zuboff"Platform Capitalism" (2016) Nick Srnicek"Does the Left Have a Problem with Empathy?" (2020) Nicola Cutcher, New Humanist Magazine

Our first segment features an interview with Chris Bail, a researcher who runs the Polarization Lab at Duke University. This week, Chris's new book will hit book shelves. It's called Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing. The second is a conversation with https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivianlachang/ (Vivian Chang), a civic engagement manager for the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO (APALA), about steps her organization is taking to confront disinformation and harassment in the communities it works with, including working with the https://www.protocol.com/election-day-2020-misinfomation-disinformation (Disinfo Defense League), a coalition that trains civic groups to tackle the growing problem of misinformation and disinformation.   The last interview in this episode is with Kieran Leavitt, an Edmonton-based political reporter for the Toronto Star. Kieran has been covering Facebook's relationship to the Canadian government. This week, Facebook executives testified in Parliament, and we got to catch up with Kieran about what happened.