TLDR; I would like to study the Fediverse and I am looking for recommendations and connections with like minded people/researchers.
I have a CS degree and I have aspirations for an academic career. In the past, I was interested in programming languages and the theory of computation. The past year I have been more interested in social issues like isolation, freedom of press, misinformation, and access to information. I have been following the fediverse closely and I truly believe in its potential.
My goal is to study social media as a computational system, how a bunch of people interacting with each other can generate reliable information. Topics I have been thinking about include: How neurodivergency awareness has been booming through social media, how scientific research can be done in a global collaborative environment instead of an institution focused, and how misinformation could be combatted with small interconnected social circles like mastodon.
I have been considering getting a master's degree in a related field like social computing. The Human Technology Interaction program of Eindhoven University seems interesting, especially the Behavioural and Social Computing track. Also, there is the option of diving into a PhD right away.
Either way I am broke right now, so I should probably start studying on my own while I try to create a safety net that would allow me to make my next step in 2025.
So, if you made it through my autistic info dump, I thank you and I was hoping to get your feedback. While any feedback is appreciated, I have the following questions in my mind:
- Are there any other terms like social computing that would help me understand the field?
- Are there any researchers you would I suggest I follow?
- Any books or papers recommendations?
- If you are a researcher/student with similar concerns, would like to have a chat? You can find my matrix handle on my profile.
- Any other universities I should look into?
Last but not least, let me know if you are interested for me to make a follow-up post with any information I gather.
I would be interested in any findings. If you just post here again in the future, that'll probably be good enough.
This particular intersection of such a sweeping range of "hard" and "soft" sciences has always fascinated me, I feel like really wrapping your head around it requires proficiency in such a wide range of skillsets that it's almost prohibitively difficult to pursue.
But if we're going to understand it, we don't have much of a choice.
To be honest, setting such a goal is scary to me, I have been working on my self-confidence, and I wouldn't have been able to do it a few years ago. I try to remind myself that I am an autistic with ADHD: if I had food, meds, a bed, a place to study, and the frequent affirmation of a similarly interested peer group I would be happily studying 12 hours a day.
Super Crunchers seems like a good place to start, it's a book about how quantitiative analysis can be used for social sciences.
Fear is appropriate, being aware of it indicates a healthy amount of EQ. I think this will be an asset during your path.