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   pettter (pettter@mastodon.acc.umu.se)'s status on Friday, 19-Apr-2024 17:22:31 JST pettter

   Is there any #sociologist around who can have a look at the account that passes around massive amounts of 'short primers' on 'easy sociology' to the @academicchatter group? Is it just AI-generated garbage or is it actually something useful?

   • Embed this notice
     pettter (pettter@mastodon.acc.umu.se)'s status on Friday, 19-Apr-2024 18:14:18 JST pettter

     in reply to

     • Janet Vertesi

     @cyberlyra The account is Easy Sociology on mastodon.social and they seem to crosspost everything to Twitter as well: https://twitter.com/EasySociology

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     Janet Vertesi (cyberlyra@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 19-Apr-2024 18:14:19 JST Janet Vertesi

     in reply to

     @pettter @academicchatter I am totally unfamiliar with this phenomenon but I am happy to look it over. What is the account or is there a way to look at their toots?

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     pettter (pettter@mastodon.acc.umu.se)'s status on Friday, 19-Apr-2024 18:18:52 JST pettter

     in reply to

     • Janet Vertesi

     @cyberlyra I'm fairly sure that it _is_ AI-generated garbage, to be honest. In particular, their 'Mr Edwards' who's supposedly posting the stuff is not a real person, or at least not the person in the photo, but I'm not a subject expert, so I really can't tell whether the text is also useless.

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     pettter (pettter@mastodon.acc.umu.se)'s status on Friday, 19-Apr-2024 18:29:09 JST pettter

     in reply to

     • Janet Vertesi

     @cyberlyra @academicchatter Thanks! Yeah that sort of mostly-almost-but-not-exactly-right-and-occasionally-catastrophically-wrong is very much an LLM characteristic. Really great of you to have a look!

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     Janet Vertesi (cyberlyra@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 19-Apr-2024 18:29:10 JST Janet Vertesi

     in reply to

     @pettter @academicchatter

     “Symbolic interaction, a key concept within social constructionism, emphasizes the importance of symbols and gestures in social interactions. Through these symbolic exchanges, individuals negotiate shared meanings and construct their understanding of reality. For example, the meaning of a handshake may vary across different cultures, highlighting the subjective nature of cultural practices.”

     Nope. Nope nope nope.

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     pettter (pettter@mastodon.acc.umu.se)'s status on Friday, 19-Apr-2024 18:34:01 JST pettter

     in reply to

     • Janet Vertesi

     @cyberlyra @academicchatter I've reported them to mastodon.social, and one could do the same at Facebook/Twitter if there was any chance of it having an impact...

     As for getting them off the internet entirely, I think that might be a tricky one...

   • Embed this notice
     Janet Vertesi (cyberlyra@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 19-Apr-2024 18:34:02 JST Janet Vertesi

     in reply to

     @pettter @academicchatter not sure what to do about it now, though. I mean, other than tell everyone to mute? I’m sure my students will read this site and think they know what feminism is etc. Hm.