Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Conrad Hackett

Elizabeth J. Bond @elizabethjbond.bsky.social · 12h

Yes. I once saw a post from someone wishing he'd had the chance to know his father's (mostly deceased) family better. As a #genealogy enthusiast, I immediately offered to research his #familytree.

Little did I know where it would lead.

Here's me meeting his Mom, #BelindaCarlisle a few weeks ago.

Me meeting the singer, Belinda Carlisle backstage at one of her concerts in August this year.

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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 22h

What do you think everyone ought to be able to do that you definitely cannot?

Chart showing Most Americans say they can do certain tasks related to health and food:

94% of U.S. adults say they definitely or probably would be able to clean and care for a wound.
88% say they would be able to make sense of nutrition labels.
83% say they could explain what yeast does in baking bread.
83% say they could grow a vegetable garden.
Most Americans also are confident in their ability to do certain household tasks:

95% of adults say they definitely or probably would be able to remove a stain from their clothes.
76% say they would understand which chemicals not to mix in household cleaning.
69% say they would be able to weatherproof doors and windows.

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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 22h

40% of Republicans & 85% of Democrats say Trump has improperly encouraged federal investigations of political opponents.

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Reposted by Conrad Hackett

W.L. Swarts @wlswarts.bsky.social · 1d

There was an obscure social network for artists about twenty years ago.
I posted a picture of a painting/mixed media work I made after my divorce.
A woman popped into my messages to say she liked it; that it was really powerful.
We've been married for almost 17 years now.

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Moniquevs @moniquevs.bsky.social · 1d

I never liked social media before I joined old Twitter back in the day. That's when I started to really enjoy wonderful interesting people, who I still am connected with till this day here on Bluesky now. I'm too private for Facebook and Instagram.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 3d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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ChristosK @christos-k17.bsky.social · 1d

First that comes to mind is being stuck alone in Heathrow for 24hrs on Christmas eve and someone from Twitter messaged to say they know another (cypriot) person in the same situation and got us connected. That was nice.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 3d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Reposted by Conrad Hackett

Lana H, Regional Director of Deck Chair Rearrangement @named4wool.bsky.social · 1d

See that fluffy cat face in my profile pic? That's Pan. He was in a kill center in Utah. Social media alerted me to his situation. Social media peeps from a different platform drove a relay across multiple states to get him to me in Indiana.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 3d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Cheesu 🍰 @cheesucake.bsky.social · 1d

I struggle a lot with communication and eye contact cos of autism, making friends on social media makes it easy for me through common interests and art.

I have made a lot of lifelong friends this way!

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 3d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Reposted by Conrad Hackett

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 1d

Social media has made me a better writer, a better teacher, and a better ally.

It’s given me countless professional opportunities including traveling the world, and countless friends.

(It has also absolutely broken my brain)

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 3d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Reposted by Conrad Hackett

the 👻🎃HallowEvie🎃👻 🏳️‍⚧️🎮 @sinebadger.bsky.social · 1d

I met some of my closest friends in the computer

In 2010 i had an argument with someone in the YouTube comment section of a Sonic rant, and then when I moved to London a decade later we ended up living together ☺️

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 3d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Reposted by Conrad Hackett

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 5d

International student arrivals to the US dropped 19% this year, the biggest drop on record aside from the 2020 pandemic low.

The Upshot @upshot.nytimes.com · 5d

The decline is occurring as the Trump administration has delayed visa processing, instituted travel bans or restrictions for 19 countries, threatened to deport international students for pro-Palestinian speech, and heightened the vetting of student visa applicants.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August

The data shows the steepest decline in August international student arrivals since the pandemic.

www.nytimes.com

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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 1d

See also bsky.app/profile/ashl...

Ashley Kirzinger @ashleykirzinger.bsky.social · 1d

Feeling pretty justified as at the time many political scientists used these sources, repeated some our questions, and kept getting different estimates. My response was simply- I think our samples are more representative of the public we claim to represent.

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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 1d

3. In my own field, I’ve seen a lot of implausible results lately from opt-in surveys.

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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 1d

Good question. I haven’t had chance to dig into this study but my very preliminary thoughts are
1. It’s based on old data and things may be worse now.
2. Work by @awmercer.bsky.social & colleagues shows that opt-in survey data has a bogus respondent issue producing misleading results.
And …

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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 1d

Surveys that allow opt-in participation attract “survey professionals,” who may attempt to take the same survey multiple times using different personas (bogus respondents).

By contrast, you cannot volunteer for a @pewresearch.org survey. We invite randomly sampled people to be surveyed.

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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 1d

Here’s a thread and research about people who take a lot of surveys (“survey professionals”) and their impact on survey quality.

Kevin Collins @kwcollins.bsky.social · 1d

More than a third of Lucid (now Cint) respondents in 2019 were "professional" respondents according to a new article in @polanalysis.bsky.social , and that's the conservative estimate

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

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Reposted by Conrad Hackett

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 2d

Most Americans say Trump has improperly used his office to:
💠Punish those who say things he does not like (66%)
💠Encourage federal investigations of his political opponents (62%)
💠Enrich himself or his friends and family (61%)

new @pewresearch.org findings

Most Americans think Trump is trying to exercise more power than previous presidents

49% of U.S. adults say Trump is trying to exercise more presidential power than previous presidents and that this is bad for the country.

www.pewresearch.org

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Reposted by Conrad Hackett

Carolfaebeith @robsoncarol.bsky.social · 1d

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The twitter gays had a whip round and sent me a care package. @triscoe.bsky.social organised it. Anyone I've met through social media, liked them straightaway.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 3d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Reposted by Conrad Hackett

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 4d

Bluesky vs. X engagement comparisons tell familiar story.

Example: My colleague @johngramlich.bsky.social has similar # of followers on each site. Last week, he had a popular post about sports gambling, a topic of interest across political ideology.

X: 59 retweets
B: 1,234 total reposts

Image of a post about sports gambling from John Gramlich that received 59 retweets on X.

Image of a post about sports gambling from John Gramlich that received 1,234 reposts on Bluesky (815 regular reposts & 419 quote-reposts.

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Reposted by Conrad Hackett

Eddie Cochrane @cobrabay.bsky.social · 2d

I asked on Facebook if anyone was interested in joining me to see a play in London. An old friend I had not seen in nearly a decade said she was interested. Reader, I married her.

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Kayak @motorcycleyeen.bsky.social · 1d

sounds sad but I've made a lot of my coolest friends through social media. honestly most of the good trips I've had in the last 5 years involved folks I've met through my phone. need to visit more, their presence improves my life greatly.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 3d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Reposted by Conrad Hackett

Uncommon Ephemera @uncommonephemera.org · 1d

I was recognized by @archive.org for my work preserving filmstrips, an early educational/industrial multimedia format that's been completely ignored by fully-funded archivists and peservations and featured in 2024's Vanishing Culture Report:

blog.archive.org/2024/10/30/v...

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Reposted by Conrad Hackett

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 2d

Among Republicans, many express concern:
42% say Trump has improperly used his office to punish those who say things he doesn’t like
40% say he has improperly encouraged federal investigations of political opponents
31% say Trump has improperly used the office to enrich himself, his family/friends.

Chart showing partisan differences in views of Trump's actions. While Republicans have more positive evaluations, sizeable shares of Republicans express concern that some Trump actions are improper.

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Reposted by Conrad Hackett

Viva @vivalibrarian.bsky.social · 2d

Lifelong friends, colleagues. Twitter was my dating service for a bit which looking back on it is whoa. Oh, and I married one.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 3d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Reposted by Conrad Hackett

Calvin Thigpen @calvinthigpen.com · 2d

Twitter is where I first heard concerns about how the media cover traffic crashes, which ultimately led to two of my most impactful studies with some great colleagues!

"Does news coverage of traffic crashes affect perceived blame and preferred solutions?"
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Does news coverage of traffic crashes affect perceived blame and preferred solutions? Evidence from an experiment

Traffic crashes are one of the leading causes of preventable death in the United States. Nearly 20% of these roadway fatalities are people who were hi…

www.sciencedirect.com

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