Ethan Plaut
@ethanplaut.bsky.social
Research: Disconnection, tech refusal & beautiful, broken media. Sometime coder & dusty journo. Now Aotearoa NZ, always Chicago, formerly Stanford, SF, Phnom Penh, Fukui. Silence when I can. Music when I can't. Tangata Tiriti, Jew, he/him.
ethanplaut.com
ethanplaut.com
Pinned
Ethan Plaut
@ethanplaut.bsky.social
· Apr 29
Surveillance on Exhibit: Using Problematic Technology To Teach About Problematic Technology | Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
doi.org
🚨 New Pub! 🚨 Our augmented reality museum installation about data surveillance & rights in Aotearoa NZ used by 128,000x visitors over 2 yrs — we interviewed visitors & present conclusions on how to get the public thinking about problematic technologies!
doi.org/10.1145/3706...
#OpenAccess #chi2025
doi.org/10.1145/3706...
#OpenAccess #chi2025
happy 14th anniv. to all who celebrate the greatest academic listserv email of all time
![Screenshot of email reading:
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011
Subject: [cultstud-i] Whales
Hi,
Just wondering if someone had written something interesting on the question of why we love the whales so much.
Thanks](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:iiaclrkg2ynzmgml4gjycp35/bafkreib2obvotydjipflq3mziuhkxevzvnghyhim6zptbem7hzpgrq6xme@jpeg)
November 15, 2025 at 4:58 AM
happy 14th anniv. to all who celebrate the greatest academic listserv email of all time
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
When I chose to study politics for a living I had no idea that politics would get this dumb.
November 15, 2025 at 2:43 AM
When I chose to study politics for a living I had no idea that politics would get this dumb.
🍿 [cracks knuckles] 🍿
Universities in 'battle of the century' with journal publisher Elsevier
One New Zealand university told its staff all universities in New Zealand and Australia would "lose some degree of access" to the publisher's 1600 titles from the start of next year.
www.rnz.co.nz
November 14, 2025 at 7:02 PM
🍿 [cracks knuckles] 🍿
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
ouroboreos
oh wow that’s crazy
oreos with bits of
of oreos. in them
Real Bits of Oreos
oreos with bits of
of oreos. in them
Real Bits of Oreos
November 13, 2025 at 10:13 PM
ouroboreos
computer and information science undergrad and grad enrolments in the US have dropped 7.7% and FIFTEEN PERCENT respectively
Report: College Enrollment On Track To Increase For 3rd Straight Year
A preliminary report finds that total enrollment at colleges and universities increased 2.0% this fall, powered largely by a 2.4% increase in undergraduate enrollment.
www.forbes.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:52 PM
computer and information science undergrad and grad enrolments in the US have dropped 7.7% and FIFTEEN PERCENT respectively
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
!Stop Press! Article on bias in digitised newspaper collections: ’Whose News’, in the new journal of @comphumresearch.bsky.social by Kaspar Beelen, @jonhistorian61.bsky.social, @kmcdono.bsky.social and me. See blog for summary & 🧵 1/7
Article doi.org/10.1017/chr....
Blog is.gd/2IFc30
#dh #c19 🗃️
Article doi.org/10.1017/chr....
Blog is.gd/2IFc30
#dh #c19 🗃️
Whose news? Critical methods for assessing bias in large historical datasets | Computational Humanities Research | Cambridge Core
Whose news? Critical methods for assessing bias in large historical datasets - Volume 1
doi.org
November 11, 2025 at 4:05 PM
!Stop Press! Article on bias in digitised newspaper collections: ’Whose News’, in the new journal of @comphumresearch.bsky.social by Kaspar Beelen, @jonhistorian61.bsky.social, @kmcdono.bsky.social and me. See blog for summary & 🧵 1/7
Article doi.org/10.1017/chr....
Blog is.gd/2IFc30
#dh #c19 🗃️
Article doi.org/10.1017/chr....
Blog is.gd/2IFc30
#dh #c19 🗃️
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
Man Wouldn't Have Worn Costume To Work If He'd Known He Was Getting Laid Off
October 31, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Man Wouldn't Have Worn Costume To Work If He'd Known He Was Getting Laid Off
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
Preliminary data from @umich.edu survey on student AI use for class.
Most rarely/sometimes use AI & always follow class policies, but think others frequently use AI & only sometimes follow policies.
Perceptions of misuse ≠ reality
Misperceptions may provide implicit permission for misuse.
Most rarely/sometimes use AI & always follow class policies, but think others frequently use AI & only sometimes follow policies.
Perceptions of misuse ≠ reality
Misperceptions may provide implicit permission for misuse.
November 10, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Preliminary data from @umich.edu survey on student AI use for class.
Most rarely/sometimes use AI & always follow class policies, but think others frequently use AI & only sometimes follow policies.
Perceptions of misuse ≠ reality
Misperceptions may provide implicit permission for misuse.
Most rarely/sometimes use AI & always follow class policies, but think others frequently use AI & only sometimes follow policies.
Perceptions of misuse ≠ reality
Misperceptions may provide implicit permission for misuse.
$13 Billion projected investment in new undersea cables from 2025-2027
How A Million Miles Of Undersea Cables Power The Internet — And Now AI
Subsea fiber-optic cables are the world’s information superhighways with over 95% of the world’s international data traveling through them. This not only includes communications like email and video c...
www.cnbc.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:19 AM
$13 Billion projected investment in new undersea cables from 2025-2027
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
Life is extremely kiki right now and I would really like it to be just a little more bouba
November 10, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Life is extremely kiki right now and I would really like it to be just a little more bouba
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
A great piece by @kattenbarge.bsky.social, with a powerful note from @mariahlwellman.bsky.social that the radicalisation of women and girls has flown under the radar because girly content online = make-up = ✨trivial✨, and yet it so clearly, clearly isn’t.
www.teenvogue.com/story/womano...
www.teenvogue.com/story/womano...
The 'Womanosphere' Is Coming for Teen Girls
How beauty and wellness influencers are part of a misinformation ecosystem pushing traditional values on girls.
www.teenvogue.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:26 PM
A great piece by @kattenbarge.bsky.social, with a powerful note from @mariahlwellman.bsky.social that the radicalisation of women and girls has flown under the radar because girly content online = make-up = ✨trivial✨, and yet it so clearly, clearly isn’t.
www.teenvogue.com/story/womano...
www.teenvogue.com/story/womano...
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
A link to my new book cover and table of contents. www.upress.umn.edu/978081669906...
The Inattention Economy
Revealing the unheralded contributions of women of color to the foundation and development of the digital economyThe Inattention Economy challenges the wides...
www.upress.umn.edu
November 7, 2025 at 1:22 AM
A link to my new book cover and table of contents. www.upress.umn.edu/978081669906...
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
From player pianos to ChatGPT, every generation fears its machines will colonize human experience. Yet we always find ways to reclaim them. I talked with Andrew Keen about why our bodies have always been technological—and who gets to design that change.
🎧 keenon.substack.com/p/why-our-fe...
🎧 keenon.substack.com/p/why-our-fe...
Why Our Fear of Technology Is Nothing New—And Why That Should Give Us Hope: From Cuckoo Clocks to ChatGPT
Episode 2606: Vanessa Chang on the promise of The Body Digital
keenon.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 12:32 AM
From player pianos to ChatGPT, every generation fears its machines will colonize human experience. Yet we always find ways to reclaim them. I talked with Andrew Keen about why our bodies have always been technological—and who gets to design that change.
🎧 keenon.substack.com/p/why-our-fe...
🎧 keenon.substack.com/p/why-our-fe...
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
BusinessDesk has a fantastic (and rare) for a data journalist in New Zealand. The Herald and BusinessDesk are separate publications, but whoever is in this role will work with me on projects like Budget day visualisations 1/2
careers.nzme.co.nz/jobs/6697721...
careers.nzme.co.nz/jobs/6697721...
Data Journalist - BusinessDesk - NZME
Join BusinessDesk as a Data Journalist—break market-moving stories, visualise insights, and set the global benchmark for data-driven reporting.
careers.nzme.co.nz
November 5, 2025 at 8:41 PM
BusinessDesk has a fantastic (and rare) for a data journalist in New Zealand. The Herald and BusinessDesk are separate publications, but whoever is in this role will work with me on projects like Budget day visualisations 1/2
careers.nzme.co.nz/jobs/6697721...
careers.nzme.co.nz/jobs/6697721...
Tāmaki cops breathalysing morning commuters 👀
November 5, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Tāmaki cops breathalysing morning commuters 👀
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
Explore the intersections of #literarytheory, #linguistics and #artificialintelligence in Cambridge’s new collection of chapters and articles: 🤖📚 https://cup.org/42HqvR8
Free to read (where not already #openaccess) until 30 Nov. @modernlanguage.bsky.social
Free to read (where not already #openaccess) until 30 Nov. @modernlanguage.bsky.social
November 3, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Explore the intersections of #literarytheory, #linguistics and #artificialintelligence in Cambridge’s new collection of chapters and articles: 🤖📚 https://cup.org/42HqvR8
Free to read (where not already #openaccess) until 30 Nov. @modernlanguage.bsky.social
Free to read (where not already #openaccess) until 30 Nov. @modernlanguage.bsky.social
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
All headlines, even @mcsweeneys.net headlines, are 2017 headlines again. www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/hi-...
Hi, It’s Me, Wikipedia, and I Am Ready for Your Apology
“Wikipedia, the constantly changing knowledge base created by a global free-for-all of anonymous users, now stands as the leading force for the dum...
www.mcsweeneys.net
November 2, 2025 at 4:30 PM
All headlines, even @mcsweeneys.net headlines, are 2017 headlines again. www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/hi-...
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
Kiki Bryant, who wrote about "labor diggers" on her blog Uppity Negress this summer.
Rather than contributing equally to the relationship, Bryant wrote, "a labor digger expects their partner to act as a maid, manager, therapist, or caregiver, while they provide minimal labor themselves."
Rather than contributing equally to the relationship, Bryant wrote, "a labor digger expects their partner to act as a maid, manager, therapist, or caregiver, while they provide minimal labor themselves."
The Internet Is Calling This Type Of Men Worse Than Gold Diggers
Labor diggers, women are onto you.
www.huffpost.com
November 2, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Kiki Bryant, who wrote about "labor diggers" on her blog Uppity Negress this summer.
Rather than contributing equally to the relationship, Bryant wrote, "a labor digger expects their partner to act as a maid, manager, therapist, or caregiver, while they provide minimal labor themselves."
Rather than contributing equally to the relationship, Bryant wrote, "a labor digger expects their partner to act as a maid, manager, therapist, or caregiver, while they provide minimal labor themselves."
2pacalyptic
Rap shut out from Billboard's Top 40 for the first time in 35 years
Rap shut out from Billboard's Top 40 for the first time in 35 years
www.avclub.com
November 2, 2025 at 2:21 AM
2pacalyptic
Reposted by Ethan Plaut
Happy to report that The Baffler has released my new essay "The Texas Ideology" just in time to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its inspiration, Barbrook and Cameron’s “The Californian Ideology.” Link below. Enjoy!
The Texan Ideology | Fred Turner
The Texan Ideology reflects a century-old fusion of the oil industry and millenarian Christianity.
thebaffler.com
November 1, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Happy to report that The Baffler has released my new essay "The Texas Ideology" just in time to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its inspiration, Barbrook and Cameron’s “The Californian Ideology.” Link below. Enjoy!
typescript ascending to #1 because AI does better with typed languages is… something
TypeScript rises to the top on GitHub
The strongly-typed language recently overtook both JavaScript and Python as the most used language on GitHub, with the rise is attributed to demand for AI-assisted development.
www.infoworld.com
November 1, 2025 at 9:43 AM
typescript ascending to #1 because AI does better with typed languages is… something
“said in an interview conducted Wednesday evening through his Ring doorbell” not even the most cursed element here
October 30, 2025 at 4:09 AM
“said in an interview conducted Wednesday evening through his Ring doorbell” not even the most cursed element here