Our preprint has evolved! v2 of “Digital Behaviourism” is out now with a new title, new co-authors, and a deeper dive into the behavioural concepts that shape our online lives. It’s time to move beyond “screen time” and focus on function of online behaviours. osf.io/preprints/ps...

A new paper by George Borjas—who served this past year in the Trump White House designing some of its anti-immigration policies—claims to display evidence of ideological bias among researchers who study immigration. doi.org/10.1126/scia... 🧵 Thread—>

Huh I wonder if there were any other global events happening in in 2008. Guess we’ll never know.

Jay Van Bavel, PhD@jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 8mo ago

A new PNAS paper finds that polarization increased immediately after the invention of smartphones and the advent of social media, which both appeared around the same year, 2008. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Our new study on the everyday effects of digital disconnection on well-being is finally out! 🎉

Alicia Gilbert@aliciagilbert.bsky.social · 9mo ago

📬 Pub alert Do effects of digital disconnection interventions translate to well-being benefits in *daily life*? Our new ESM study concludes: yes but no... kinda 👽🔋 @klingelhoefer.bsky.social @adrianmeier.bsky.social Out now in Communication Research doi.org/10.1177/0093...

📣New paper: Are Swiss adolescents' (gendered) self-perceptions towards ICT related to selection into VET occupations? 💡ICT interest ↔️ ICT-intensive careers 💡ICT self-concept ↔️ ICT-specialist occupations 💡Gender diff.s in ICT interest contribute to occupational segregation doi.org/10.1186/s404...

ICT interest and self-concept as determinants of Swiss adolescents’ vocational choices - Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training

This study examines whether adolescents’ interest and self-concept regarding information and communication technologies (ICT) affect their subsequent career paths through the selection into different vocational education and training (VET) programs. Drawing on Eccles’ situated expectancy value theory and related theories, we argue that ICT interest and self-concept should influence adolescents’ vocational choices, possibly contributing to occupational gender segregation regarding ICT. Using longitudinal data from the TREE2 study (Transitions into Education and Employment) on 1,995 Swiss adolescents transitioning into firm-based VET, we find strongly gendered patterns. ICT interest predicts selection into occupations with greater intensity of basic and advanced ICT use, but this positive association is driven entirely by girls. In contrast, ICT self-concept significantly predicts ICT use intensity in future occupations only among boys. Selection into ICT specialist occupations is associated exclusively with adolescents’ ICT self-concept rather than their ICT interest, questioning whether girls’ lower average ICT interest represents a relevant barrier for entry into ICT specialist occupations in the context of VET. Our findings emphasize that ICT are an important content domain of adolescents’ vocational choices today and highlight how gendered interests and self-concepts towards ICT perpetuate occupational gender segregation.

doi.org

Another new paper out - this one is about public support for the digitalization of education systems. Many in politics believe that the promotion of digitalization in education is a no-brainer, this paper shows that the public is more cautious... onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Who Supports the Digitalization of Education? New Survey Evidence From Six OECD Countries

This paper investigates how citizens perceive and evaluate the digitalization of education. Drawing on original survey data from six OECD countries (Germany, Japan, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the US)...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

I hate the argument that AI is being used in lots of jobs so students have to learn how to use it in school. AI is not that hard to use. Lots of jobs also use job-specific convoluted enterprise software and we don't teach them how to use those in school.

@leoroe.bsky.social finds no evidence that early adolescents spend less time on enrichment, physical activity, or sleep after acquiring their first mobile phone. Read this open access article here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

What happens when kids get their first smartphone? They spend less time watching TV/movies, but no less time sleeping or engaging in enrichment activities like reading or going to museums or playing musical instruments or… From @leoroe.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #psych

You may have heard of the back-door criterion and the front-door criterion for causal identification. Introducing: The door-in-the-face criterion (start with outrageous causal claim and hedge) and the foot-in-the-door criterion (start with trivial causal claim and escalate).

Happy to share my new study, publ. in Social Science Research 🎉 Bottom line: Yes, adolescents use their phones a lot 🤳 But I find no support for the notion that this use displaces reading, homework, hobbies, physical act., sleep... Instead: Changing media preferences 📺 ->📱. doi.org/10.1016/j.ss...

Sebastian E. Wenz@sewenz.bsky.social · last yr.

From the abstract: "[...] no evidence that early adolescents spend less time on enrichment, physical activity, or sleep after acquiring their first mobile phone. Instead, acquiring their first mobile phone is associated with a significant reduction in time spent watching TV, movies, or videos."

Being a social scientist means holding two truths at once: 1. This is all deeply complicated 2. I have to submit something by Tuesday

Conni geht zu weit

After 3 years in the making, our Registered Report is out in @nathumbehav.nature.com! We analyse nationally representative UK data from 3,340 adolescents (aged 11–19) to examine how social media use differs between those with and without mental health conditions. 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Social media use in adolescents with and without mental health conditions - Nature Human Behaviour

Using a nationally representative UK sample of adolescents with clinical-level mental health symptoms, this Registered Report examined differences in social media use. The results suggest that adolesc...

nature.com

We Now Know How AI ‘Thinks’—and It’s Barely Thinking at All Maybe you've heard that AIs are "black boxes" But a growing body of research keeps arriving at the same conclusion: Today's AIs all work in surprisingly similar -- and simplistic -- ways 1/2 www.wsj.com/tech/ai/how-...

We Now Know How AI ‘Thinks’—and It’s Barely Thinking at All

The vast ‘brains’ of artificial intelligence models can memorize endless lists of rules. That’s useful, but not how humans solve problems.

wsj.com

Some cool German/Swiss postdoc opportunities for a quantitative sociologist or similar in this thread:

"Very thrilled to share my new working paper on..."

🎉 Happy to share my first PhD paper, published in @journalcam.bsky.social! 💡 4 types of Swiss children’s ICT use 🧒📱 💡 Higher-SES: Limited use vs. learning-oriented use as competing strategies 💡 Lower-SES: Parents more critical of ICT, but limited use is still less common doi.org/10.1080/1748...

Finally an AI model full of self-doubt, constantly requiring external validation, and taking several months to write a single paragraph.

‪Best wishes! Interesting opportunity to join us in 2025: Sciences Po - CRIS (Paris) is hiring an Assistant Professor (Tenure track)! Candidates with a recent PhD dealing with digital inequalities with a solid methodological background + an ambitious research agenda www.sciencespo.fr/osc/sites/sc...

Are young men and women in Europe becoming more polarized in their political ideologies? It depends. Across 32 countries: 14 show no meaningful gender gap 7 have a stable small to medium gap with women leaning more left 11 show widening modern gender gaps osf.io/preprints/os...

Christmas-y vibes in Paris 🎄✨ Was a pleasure to present results from my collab w/ @rsmloh.bsky.social at the Digital Inequalities Symposium at @cris-sciencespo.bsky.social Super cool to meet other early-career researchers interested in this fascinating topic and a great way to end the year!

How effective have schools’ ICT resources been—not just in building students’ #digitalskills, but also in narrowing digital skill inequalities? Well... I bring good news, a challenge, and a hopeful twist. 🔍 More in our latest article (open access in Computers & Education!): doi.org/10.1016/j.co...

📄 New working paper! We explore ICT-related career choices using Swiss longitudinal data. 💡 Key findings: Girls’ choices align with their ICT interest, boys’ with their ICT self-concept. ICT interest does not predict choice of ICT-specialist careers. 🖥️ Implications for gender disparities in tech!

SocArXivBot@socarxivbot.bsky.social · 2y ago

ICT Interest and ICT Self-concept as Determinants of Adolescents' Vocational Choices. Implications for Gender Segregation in the Labor Market: http://osf.io/spjvb/

#ECSR2024 was amazing! Great vibe and high-quality research. And, of course, paella, sunshine, and all that rumba 🎶 Looking forward to next year‘s edition! #sociology

Anton B Andersson@antonbandersson.bsky.social · 2y ago

Many thanks to the organisers of the #ECSR in Barcelona for a great conference (and party!). #sociology

New working paper out! I test whether phone use in early adolescence displaces academically beneficial activities, using DiD and longitudinal #TimeUse data 📱👧👦 Key finding: No time displacement effects on enrichment, sports, & sleep, but reduction in TV/movie watching. dx.doi.org/10.48350/199...

Unser DigiPrim Bericht zum Status quo der Digitalisierung im Primarbereich in der Schweiz ist veröffentlicht 📖📊 Der Bericht zeigt erstmalig schweizweite Auswertungen zum Stand der #Digitalisierung in den #Primarschulen doi.org/10.48350/193898 (Vollversion, Deutsch) Kurzversionen in FR, IT, EN

Im liberalen Sinne heißt liberal nicht einfach nur liberal.

Piet Hansen@piethansen.eurosky.social · 2y ago

Das BMBF hat geprüft, ob es Hochschulangestellten der FU Berlin, die politische Erklärungen unterschrieben haben, deshalb Fördermittel entziehen kann. Der Mailwechsel dazu ist dokumentiert. Falls noch jemand Illusionen darüber hatte, was das Ministerium unter Wissenschaftsfreiheit versteht.

🆕 3-year Postdoc in Quantitative Sociology & Population!! - Topics: Social Stratification, Adolescent Wellbeing, Digitalisation, Life Course. - Place: Centre for Demographic Studies & Department of Sociology at UAB, Barcelona. -Deadline: June 17th. Share & apply!! 😃👇 Link: ced.cat/recursos/DIG...

Very excited to be a part of this amazing conference and to present my PhD paper on mobile phones and early adolescents‘ time use 🤩 Will be my first visit in the country that brought us Käärijä and the Windows95man, so the overall expectations are pretty high 😬

INVEST Research Flagship Centre@invest-flagship.bsky.social · 2y ago

🤩 Preliminary programme now available 🤩 Remember to register by 30 April! #AcademicSky #Sociology #Demography #Psychology #EconSky #PhDSky #Tiedetaivas @janierola.net utu.fi/invest-confe...