Danah Boyd | Lightnews

danah boyd

@zephoria.bsky.social

35K followers 650 following 370 posts

STS researcher who likes to look at things sideways. Founded Data & Society.
Topics: Census | Youth | Data | Society

Professor of Communication, Cornell
https://made-not-found-by-danah-boyd.ghost.io

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Danah boyd is an American technology and social media scholar. She is a partner researcher at Microsoft Research, the founder of Data & Society Research Institute, and a distinguished visiting professor at Georgetown University. .. more

Communication & Media Studies 26%

Sociology 20%

Posts Replies Media Videos

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · 7d

Haha. They DID try to convince me to go singular, but the people at the Census Bureau would lose their bloody minds if I published a book titled "data is." And I'm too much of an ethnographer not to embrace their emic language.

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · 9d

OMG OMG OMG. I handed in my upcoming book on the census - "Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census." Now, the fine folks at the University of Chicago Press will begin the march towards production (September 2026). OMG OMG OMG.

Reposted by Danah Boyd

Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 11d

Join us on Monday November 3 at 7pm ET for a Peoples & Things livestream featuring Cory Doctorow @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy on his book, _Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It_, with special guest host @zephoria.bsky.social!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFv...

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · 23d

I can't stop thinking about @bedoyausa.bsky.social's essay this week. It is a story-forward account of why the American people are struggling. (Hint: political economy.) It's the kind of account that makes an ethnographer swoon. I can't recommend this enough: newrepublic.com/article/2011...

How I Became a Populist

My time at the Federal Trade Commission—before Donald Trump fired me—totally changed the way I see our political divide.

newrepublic.com

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · Aug 26

Today is one of those days where I can’t stop thinking about Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron.” I invite you to (re)read it. archive.org/stream/Harri...

archive.org

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · Aug 23

I’m so grateful for the committee who recognized our paper, which was a wonderful collaboration with @cyberlyra.bsky.social marrying insights from two in-depth ethnographic projects to examine how time and money are weaponized for political agendas in govt.

ASA SKAT @asaskat.bsky.social · Aug 12

#ASA2025 Star-Nelkin Paper Award Honorable Mention:

Janet Vertesi and danah Boyd:
@cyberlyra.bsky.social @zephoria.bsky.social
“The Resource Bind: System Failure and Legitimacy Threats in Sociotechnical Organizations Authors”

🔗: doi.org/10.6092/issn...

The Resource Bind: System Failure and Legitimacy Threats in Sociotechnical Organizations | Sociologica

doi.org

Reposted by Danah Boyd

ASA SKAT @asaskat.bsky.social · Aug 12

The Resource Bind: System Failure and Legitimacy Threats in Sociotechnical Organizations | Sociologica

doi.org

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · Jul 28

The sociotechnical team at MSR is amaaaazing. I’m sad to be leaving but I really hope some amazing researcher gets to work with them. Check out this fabulous job opportunity:

Nancy Baym @nancybaym.bsky.social · Jul 28

We may have the chance to hire an outstanding researcher 3+ years post PhD to join Tarleton Gillespie, Mary Gray and me in Cambridge MA bringing critical sociotechnical perspectives to bear on new technologies.

jobs.careers.microsoft.com/global/en/jo...

Search Jobs | Microsoft Careers

https://jobs.careers.microsoft.com/global/en/job/1849026/Principal-Researcher-–-Sociotechnical-Systems-–-Microsoft-Research

Reposted by Danah Boyd, Devon Greyson, Patrick S. Forscher , and 3 more Danah Boyd, Devon Greyson, Patrick S. Forscher, Fabio Giglietto, Bryan Pfaffenberger, Dean Eckles

Nancy Baym @nancybaym.bsky.social · Jul 28

Search Jobs | Microsoft Careers

https://jobs.careers.microsoft.com/global/en/job/1849026/Principal-Researcher-–-Sociotechnical-Systems-–-Microsoft-Research

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · Jul 22

"Is AI inevitable?" was a fun podcast convo on "AI for All Tomorrows." Check it out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l5g...

Is AI Inevitable? with danah boyd

YouTube video by AI for All Tomorrows

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Danah Boyd

Reposted by Danah Boyd, Cathy N. Davidson

Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · Jul 10

EFF is 35! 🎉
We've spent three+ decades defending your rights online—and we're not slowing down:

35 Years for Privacy, Free Speech, and a Brighter Future

Through July 10, new monthly or annual Sustaining Donors get an EFF35 Challenge Coin! With your help, EFF is here to stay.

eff.org

Reposted by Mona Eltahawy, Danah Boyd, Jennifer Bussell , and 10 more Mona Eltahawy, Danah Boyd, Jennifer Bussell, Kimberly A. Prather, Alan M. MacEachren, Éric Gilbert, Mattias Hallquist, Márk E. Hauber, Joshua S. Weitz, John Horgan, Rafael H. M. Pereira, Terry Gaasterland, Kimberly A. Clausing

Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · Jul 8

BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · Jul 8

I did this interview back in November. It's so so so weird to read it now. Especially the stuff about US politics. But hopefully the other parts are helpful to junior researchers. www.journalofculturaleconomy.org/a-sociology-...

A Sociology of Dragons: danah boyd on AI, Trump, and critique | Journal of Cultural Economy Journal of Cultural Economy

www.journalofculturaleconomy.org

alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · Jun 11

#ica25 folks: @zephoria.bsky.social and I are gearing up for the No Kings protest on Sat! It’s 10min walk from the venue. Bring water, sunscreen, phone chargers: it’s gonna be HOT. Join us!!!

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · Jun 5

I too am a fan for this kind of geekery.

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · Jun 4

I was actually surprised by how enjoyable Disney was on the ground but it’s definitely true that there’s a game to it. I ended up embracing the game. I failed at the restaurants in pre-plan but this let me get to most of them: mousewatcher.com

MouseWatcher : Disney Dining Alerts

Disney dining alerts for Walt Disney World and Disneyland restaurants. Includes 'Ohana, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, Cinderella's Royal Table, Blue Bayou, Space 220 and more!

mousewatcher.com

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · Jun 4

Do you mean the defunct land one? youtu.be/9yjZpBq1XBE?... This gave me such geeky joy.

Disney's FastPass: A Complicated History

YouTube video by Defunctland

youtu.be

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · May 28

Blitzscaling is one of those things that disturbs me (starting w/the Nazi bombing reference). Things that scale like that are usually cancerous. @himself.bsky.social offers a great take on how DOGE is taking the worst lessons from blitzscaling. www.programmablemutter.com/p/blitzscali...

Blitzscaling for tyrants

The lightning-fast path to tearing down due process

www.programmablemutter.com

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · May 22

When I showed this to my historian friend, his first remark was "the Great Lakes region would have aligned with Canada." I love historians.

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · May 22

Definitely all evil, terrible, no good technologies!

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · May 22

Ooh - that's a good one! And let's be honest - electricity is at the root of both of our evils. <grin>

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · May 22

When someone says "technology broke people's relationship to nature," which technology do you blame? Apparently, I'm a weirdo for thinking "air conditioning" is the right answer. Le sigh.

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · May 21

Well this is a powerful but depressing take of how “America” dissolves. www.tiktok.com/t/ZTju4YLFC/

Time Traveler from 2051 reveals unexpected grim future #igorkryan #timetraveler #grimfuture #americacollapse

TikTok video by Igor Kryan

www.tiktok.com

A. Feder Cooper @afedercooper.bsky.social · May 21

Llama 3.1 70B contains copies of nearly the entirety of some books. Harry Potter is just one of them. I don’t know if this means it’s an infringing copy. But the first question to answer is if it’s a copy at all/in the first place. That’s what our new results suggest:

arxiv.org/abs/2505.12546

Extracting memorized pieces of (copyrighted) books from open-weight language models

Plaintiffs and defendants in copyright lawsuits over generative AI often make sweeping, opposing claims about the extent to which large language models (LLMs) have memorized plaintiffs' protected expr...

arxiv.org

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · May 21

Bwahaha. I love how the 5yo in this scenario has no opinion re: the bday party. Oh how dreamy it would be to throw a kiddo bday party w/o last min changes of themes, invite lists, cake flavors. I feel like kiddo bday parties are a test to see who cries first: kid or parent.

Reposted by Éric Gilbert

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · May 20

I shouldn't be surprised that Meta's "open source" AI models are not only built on thieving but also happy to cough up what they stole. But seriously? arxiv.org/abs/2505.12546

Extracting memorized pieces of (copyrighted) books from open-weight language models

arxiv.org

The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · May 18

The Atlantic’s 2025 Summer Reading Guide is here. Our writers and editors have selected 24 books to read this season. Megan Garber chose “The Known Citizen” as one of four titles you’ll read all summer. https://theatln.tc/7PAJ3Hgh

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