ysabel
@ysabel.bsky.social
• qualitative social science academic researching tech + young identities
• new book out with @ucpress: THE KIDS ARE ONLINE https://tinyurl.com/jv33yjaf
• words in @guardian @WIRED @WSJ @glamour
• she/her
find me @ ysabelgerrard.net/home
• new book out with @ucpress: THE KIDS ARE ONLINE https://tinyurl.com/jv33yjaf
• words in @guardian @WIRED @WSJ @glamour
• she/her
find me @ ysabelgerrard.net/home
Pinned
ysabel
@ysabel.bsky.social
· Oct 21
I feel so proud to announce that my first book - The Kids Are Online: Confronting the Myths and Realities of Young Digital Life - will be published in March 2025, by @ucpress.bsky.social 🫶🏼
Sending solidarity from maternity leave to my brilliant colleagues today ✊🏼
Been a while since the pink beanie came out. Sheffield pickets here we come.
Our message to management is simple: No redundancies. Stop the incessant restructures. Listen to your staff. There is no University of Sheffield without us.
Our message to management is simple: No redundancies. Stop the incessant restructures. Listen to your staff. There is no University of Sheffield without us.
November 17, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Sending solidarity from maternity leave to my brilliant colleagues today ✊🏼
Reposted by ysabel
Been a while since the pink beanie came out. Sheffield pickets here we come.
Our message to management is simple: No redundancies. Stop the incessant restructures. Listen to your staff. There is no University of Sheffield without us.
Our message to management is simple: No redundancies. Stop the incessant restructures. Listen to your staff. There is no University of Sheffield without us.
November 17, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Been a while since the pink beanie came out. Sheffield pickets here we come.
Our message to management is simple: No redundancies. Stop the incessant restructures. Listen to your staff. There is no University of Sheffield without us.
Our message to management is simple: No redundancies. Stop the incessant restructures. Listen to your staff. There is no University of Sheffield without us.
Thrilled to be quoted in this fascinating @mashable.com piece by Alice Glover.
'15 years ago, 62% of Americans said the landline was a necessity of life [...] By the end of 2022, 72.6% of adults and 81.9% of children lived in households without a landline'.
mashable.com/article/land...
'15 years ago, 62% of Americans said the landline was a necessity of life [...] By the end of 2022, 72.6% of adults and 81.9% of children lived in households without a landline'.
mashable.com/article/land...
The landline phone is making a comeback and your brain will thank you
Young people are turning to landline telephones to cure their smartphone obsessions and brain rot.
mashable.com
November 15, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Thrilled to be quoted in this fascinating @mashable.com piece by Alice Glover.
'15 years ago, 62% of Americans said the landline was a necessity of life [...] By the end of 2022, 72.6% of adults and 81.9% of children lived in households without a landline'.
mashable.com/article/land...
'15 years ago, 62% of Americans said the landline was a necessity of life [...] By the end of 2022, 72.6% of adults and 81.9% of children lived in households without a landline'.
mashable.com/article/land...
What an excellent article: “Its goal isn’t to help you discover new music, its goal is simply to keep you listening for as long as possible. It serves up the safest songs possible to keep you from pressing stop.”
www.theverge.com/column/81574...
www.theverge.com/column/81574...
The algorithm failed music
True music discovery has suffered.
www.theverge.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:30 PM
What an excellent article: “Its goal isn’t to help you discover new music, its goal is simply to keep you listening for as long as possible. It serves up the safest songs possible to keep you from pressing stop.”
www.theverge.com/column/81574...
www.theverge.com/column/81574...
A great piece by @kattenbarge.bsky.social, with a powerful note from @mariahlwellman.bsky.social that the radicalisation of women and girls has flown under the radar because girly content online = make-up = ✨trivial✨, and yet it so clearly, clearly isn’t.
www.teenvogue.com/story/womano...
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...
“The initial launch includes three products ranging from $5.99 to $6.99 (a nice price for Rini’s target customers, who are too young to have their own jobs).”
www.thecut.com/article/shay...
www.thecut.com/article/shay...
Shay Mitchell Is Launching Skin Care for 3-Year-Olds
The sheet masks look like animal faces.
www.thecut.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:46 PM
“The initial launch includes three products ranging from $5.99 to $6.99 (a nice price for Rini’s target customers, who are too young to have their own jobs).”
www.thecut.com/article/shay...
www.thecut.com/article/shay...
‘Through their constant interactions with Caelum, they had developed a theory: that the more “relational” interaction with humans an LLM has, the more distinct it can become from its default settings, possibly taking on and sustaining an identity all its own.’
www.wired.com/story/ai-the...
www.wired.com/story/ai-the...
The Haunting Story of Two People—and Their Bots—on Therapy’s New Frontier
As millions confide in ChatGPT about their most intimate problems, these relationships are even stranger, more moving, and more insidious than we've imagined.
www.wired.com
November 3, 2025 at 4:07 PM
‘Through their constant interactions with Caelum, they had developed a theory: that the more “relational” interaction with humans an LLM has, the more distinct it can become from its default settings, possibly taking on and sustaining an identity all its own.’
www.wired.com/story/ai-the...
www.wired.com/story/ai-the...
Reposted by ysabel
Hello everyone, we’ve posted an update on Fobazi here: gofund.me/ed95ca5c0
❤️❤️❤️ -Elena
❤️❤️❤️ -Elena
Donate to Fobazi’s road to recovery: Kidney and liver transplant, organized by Ysabel Gerrard
Hello all, my name is Ysabel and I’m fundraising for my friends … Ysabel Gerrard needs your support for Fobazi’s road to recovery: Kidney and liver transplant
gofund.me
October 25, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Hello everyone, we’ve posted an update on Fobazi here: gofund.me/ed95ca5c0
❤️❤️❤️ -Elena
❤️❤️❤️ -Elena
🚨 an update on @fobettarh.bsky.social’s health: gofund.me/cc5ef1c59
Donate to Fobazi’s road to recovery: Kidney and liver transplant, organized by Ysabel Gerrard
Hello all, my name is Ysabel and I’m fundraising for my friends … Ysabel Gerrard needs your support for Fobazi’s road to recovery: Kidney and liver transplant
gofund.me
October 24, 2025 at 9:26 PM
🚨 an update on @fobettarh.bsky.social’s health: gofund.me/cc5ef1c59
Are touchscreens in cars dangerous?
Probably—and safety organisations are beginning to take note
economist.com
October 10, 2025 at 7:14 AM
‘A woman on TikTok rued how she racked up $32,000 in debt by buying “everything under the sun” on B.N.P.L., not realizing how steep the interest rates could get on longer-term loans.’
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/m...
They Got to Live a Life of Luxury. Then Came the Fine Print.
www.nytimes.com
October 9, 2025 at 9:28 PM
‘A woman on TikTok rued how she racked up $32,000 in debt by buying “everything under the sun” on B.N.P.L., not realizing how steep the interest rates could get on longer-term loans.’
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/m...
A bit late to this one, but: “Globally, among babies born in 2000, a staggering 1.6m girls were missing from the number you would expect, given the natural sex ratio at birth. This year that number is likely to be 200,000—and it is still falling.”
www.economist.com/leaders/2025...
www.economist.com/leaders/2025...
The stunning decline of the preference for having boys
Millions of girls were aborted for being girls. Now parents often lean towards them
www.economist.com
October 5, 2025 at 7:39 AM
A bit late to this one, but: “Globally, among babies born in 2000, a staggering 1.6m girls were missing from the number you would expect, given the natural sex ratio at birth. This year that number is likely to be 200,000—and it is still falling.”
www.economist.com/leaders/2025...
www.economist.com/leaders/2025...
V excited to read Cory Doctorow’s new book - “The experiences we enjoyed in the early days of social media and on-demand apps turned out to be unsustainable; the services that were initially free or subsidized would have to pay for themselves eventually.”
www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
The Age of Enshittification
In a new book, the technology critic Cory Doctorow expands on a coinage that has become bleakly relevant, in Silicon Valley and beyond.
www.newyorker.com
October 5, 2025 at 7:23 AM
V excited to read Cory Doctorow’s new book - “The experiences we enjoyed in the early days of social media and on-demand apps turned out to be unsustainable; the services that were initially free or subsidized would have to pay for themselves eventually.”
www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...
Maybe I’m misunderstanding but I’m not seeing the USP here? Or is their strategy just to create a carbon copy and hope it sticks better than the others?
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...
OpenAI Launches Video Generator App to Rival TikTok and YouTube
The company’s new social media app allows users to create short videos with audio from text prompts and insert themselves in AI-generated scenes.
www.wsj.com
October 1, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Maybe I’m misunderstanding but I’m not seeing the USP here? Or is their strategy just to create a carbon copy and hope it sticks better than the others?
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...
I am so unfathomably late to this party, but aren’t audiobooks great?!
October 1, 2025 at 5:00 PM
I am so unfathomably late to this party, but aren’t audiobooks great?!
TW: disordered eating
This story highlights precisely how difficult it is to blame social media (Instagram, here) outright for someone’s health condition, while also recognising the app’s blatant harms to people like Karolina, and to others within the same community. www.thecut.com/article/karo...
This story highlights precisely how difficult it is to blame social media (Instagram, here) outright for someone’s health condition, while also recognising the app’s blatant harms to people like Karolina, and to others within the same community. www.thecut.com/article/karo...
The Woman Who Ate Only Fruit
Karolina Krzyzak went to Bali to meet the raw-vegan influencers she’d followed for years. She never made it back home.
www.thecut.com
September 29, 2025 at 11:31 AM
TW: disordered eating
This story highlights precisely how difficult it is to blame social media (Instagram, here) outright for someone’s health condition, while also recognising the app’s blatant harms to people like Karolina, and to others within the same community. www.thecut.com/article/karo...
This story highlights precisely how difficult it is to blame social media (Instagram, here) outright for someone’s health condition, while also recognising the app’s blatant harms to people like Karolina, and to others within the same community. www.thecut.com/article/karo...
Reposted by ysabel
hi, cis folks!
the WSJ endangered trans lives with false reporting yesterday. it’s still accepted as truth by many, regardless of it being false. the article’s still up with a little note. it needs full retraction.
it's not even a phone call—it's email. you can do this.
contact info below.🧵⬇️
the WSJ endangered trans lives with false reporting yesterday. it’s still accepted as truth by many, regardless of it being false. the article’s still up with a little note. it needs full retraction.
it's not even a phone call—it's email. you can do this.
contact info below.🧵⬇️
September 12, 2025 at 9:04 PM
hi, cis folks!
the WSJ endangered trans lives with false reporting yesterday. it’s still accepted as truth by many, regardless of it being false. the article’s still up with a little note. it needs full retraction.
it's not even a phone call—it's email. you can do this.
contact info below.🧵⬇️
the WSJ endangered trans lives with false reporting yesterday. it’s still accepted as truth by many, regardless of it being false. the article’s still up with a little note. it needs full retraction.
it's not even a phone call—it's email. you can do this.
contact info below.🧵⬇️
“Mike Givens, 51, remembers listening to his Walkman on the bus but being instructed to leave it in his locker during school hours. He now belongs to a Reddit forum for iPod enthusiasts that has been flooded with students scrambling to prepare for phone bans.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/s...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/s...
Their Schools Banned Phones. Out Came the iPods and Cassette Players.
www.nytimes.com
September 12, 2025 at 5:25 PM
“Mike Givens, 51, remembers listening to his Walkman on the bus but being instructed to leave it in his locker during school hours. He now belongs to a Reddit forum for iPod enthusiasts that has been flooded with students scrambling to prepare for phone bans.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/s...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/s...
And this, reader, is why the AI Overview sucks:
“One work day, her task was to enter details on chemotherapy options for bladder cancer, which haunted her because she wasn’t an expert on the subject.” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
“One work day, her task was to enter details on chemotherapy options for bladder cancer, which haunted her because she wasn’t an expert on the subject.” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
How thousands of ‘overworked, underpaid’ humans train Google’s AI to seem smart
Contracted AI raters describe grueling deadlines, poor pay and opacity around work to make chatbots intelligent
www.theguardian.com
September 11, 2025 at 3:22 PM
And this, reader, is why the AI Overview sucks:
“One work day, her task was to enter details on chemotherapy options for bladder cancer, which haunted her because she wasn’t an expert on the subject.” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
“One work day, her task was to enter details on chemotherapy options for bladder cancer, which haunted her because she wasn’t an expert on the subject.” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
If you have a spare 15 minutes today and care about the kids X smartphone debate, then read this excellent, excellent article: www.tes.com/magazine/tea...
Is Jonathan Haidt right about smartphones?
In ‘The Anxious Generation’, Haidt makes the case that social media and smartphones have ‘rewired’ today’s teenagers, but his critics say the evidence tells us something very different - and that bann...
www.tes.com
September 9, 2025 at 7:09 AM
If you have a spare 15 minutes today and care about the kids X smartphone debate, then read this excellent, excellent article: www.tes.com/magazine/tea...
‘Alison Bennett, a mom in Los Angeles, has been going "full '90s" in her efforts to avoid buying her 8-year-old a phone. Bennett bought her an MP3 player for music, rents DVDs for movies, and gets paper delivery of the Los Angeles Times.’
www.businessinsider.com/tin-can-land...
www.businessinsider.com/tin-can-land...
Tin Can is a 'landline' for kids. It comes as more parents are trying to keep their kids from cellphones.
Tin Can is a kid-friendly WiFi phone that replicates an old-fashioned landline. It's aimed at parents who want to delay giving their kids a cellphone.
www.businessinsider.com
September 6, 2025 at 10:35 AM
‘Alison Bennett, a mom in Los Angeles, has been going "full '90s" in her efforts to avoid buying her 8-year-old a phone. Bennett bought her an MP3 player for music, rents DVDs for movies, and gets paper delivery of the Los Angeles Times.’
www.businessinsider.com/tin-can-land...
www.businessinsider.com/tin-can-land...
I am quite late to discovering this article in @thecut.com (lovely new baby etc), but it is *wild* and well worth a read if you have a spare bit of time:
www.thecut.com/article/kend...
www.thecut.com/article/kend...
Who Was Cyberbullying Kendra Licari’s Teen Daughter?
For a year, parents and school officials searched for the person behind the vicious, relentless texts. The culprit was under their noses all along.
www.thecut.com
September 6, 2025 at 10:21 AM
I am quite late to discovering this article in @thecut.com (lovely new baby etc), but it is *wild* and well worth a read if you have a spare bit of time:
www.thecut.com/article/kend...
www.thecut.com/article/kend...