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Samuel Merrill

@socmerrill.bsky.social
584 followers 778 following 66 posts

Associate Professor at Umeå University’s Department of Sociology & Centre for Digital Social Research (DIGSUM). Memory, Commemoration and Heritage; AI, Digital Tech, Media, and Data; Social Movements, Activism, Protest and Politics.

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Samuel Merrill @socmerrill.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Tis all fucked.
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 10/06/2026
Nostalgia Content xkcd.com/3256/
Comic. [Person in front of images of pogs, a Tamagotchi, and huge fungal tower over mossy ground.] PERSON: Who else remembers pogs? Tamagotchis? Vast forests of prototaxites towering over the mossy landscape as armored fish stir in the deep? [caption] Due to a database error, millennial nostalgia now includes a portion of the Early Devonian.
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Jakob Ohme @dscheykopp.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Hi #ica26. We have an open 4.5 yr Postdoc position @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social Berlin in PolComm/Comp Social Scienes on opinion dynamics in climate topics. Hit me up if you want a to talk about it in CT or send to colleagues who might be interested. www.weizenbaum-institut.de/news/detail/...
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Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 03/06/2026
Record-keeping laws are but suggestions now. "Donald Trump’s newly launched presidential library says it cannot find a single direct message sent by the president from his Twitter account despite the prolific poster firing off thousands of tweets during his first administration."
the-independent.com
Trump’s presidential library can’t find a single Twitter DM by the president
Court records show Twitter identified at least 32 Twitter DMs sent or received by the president before January 6
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Lorna Richardson @lornarichardson.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Facebook AI nostalgia-slop seems to be doing a number on the elderly. Really interesting read
theguardian.com
‘I feel like I’m losing her’: the families torn apart by older relatives going far right
It starts with a ‘back in my day’ nostalgic meme – then suddenly your elders are sharing AI-generated ‘boomerslop’ and repeating conspiracy theories …
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Claes de Vreese @claesdevreese.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Meddling in elections? Or safeguarding democracy? The EU is pretty clear on what “European bureaucrats” do. And do not do. #elections #hungary
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Samuel Merrill @socmerrill.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
🚨New publication alert🚨 With @dfarrellbanks.bsky.social The nostalgic (de)legitimation of sportswashing: Social media and legacy media reactions to the Saudi Arabian state takeover of Newcastle United. Nordic Journal of Media Studies. Available OA here: reference-global.com/article/10.2...
reference-global.com
The nostalgic (de)legitimation of sportswashing: Social...
On 7 October 2021, a consortium led by the Saudi Public Investment Fund completed a takeover of Newcastle United Football Club. The takeover was...
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Samuel Merrill @socmerrill.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Great to see this article published after a really fun and interesting collaboration with @dfarrellbanks.bsky.social !
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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
The. Rise. Of. Cognitive. Surrender. Study finds that people who use GenAI chatbots rely on them 80% of the time, and develop almost no capacity to recognize when a chatbot is feeding them faulty information. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
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Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
This is interesting, not least because it shows the ridiculous sensitivity of over-valued tech stocks giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
Memory chip stocks shed $100bn as AI-driven shortage trade unwinds
New research suggests AI data centres will need much less memory than investors had bargained for
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Claes de Vreese @claesdevreese.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
“For Orbán in Hungary, it took about four years, …for Erdoğan in Turkey and Modi in India, it took about 10 years to accomplish the suppression of democratic institutions that Trump has achieved in only one year” Based on new @vdeminstitute.bsky.social data www.theguardian.com/world/commen...
theguardian.com
‘Trump is aiming for dictatorship’. That’s the verdict of the world’s most credible democracy watchdog | Martin Gelin
Sweden’s V-Dem Institute warns that the US is no longer a liberal democracy. And autocracy is creeping across Europe too, says writer Martin Gelin
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Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
“AI can never be AI without humans. It is not artificial intelligence. It’s African intelligence,” says Michael Geoffrey Asia, a former data labeler in Kenya who is now secretary general of the Data Labelers Association. "We train ChatGPT and it’s killing us slowly.” www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...
404media.co
'AI Is African Intelligence': The Workers Who Train AI Are Fighting Back
Kenyan workers are still the underpaid labor behind AI training, moderation, and sex chatbots. The Data Labelers Association is fighting back.
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Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
I have eight browser tabs about Anthropic and Dario Amodei open right now. Madness status: incoming.
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Samuel Merrill @socmerrill.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
This is the kind of use of Automated FRT and Ai I had in mind when writing this: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
journals.sagepub.com
Remembering like a state: Surveillance databases, digital activist traces and the repressive potential of mediated prospective memory - Samuel Merrill, 2024
Departing from personal memories of protests in London and Berlin, in this article I make space within the memory-activism nexus to consider how contemporary ac...
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Samuel Merrill @socmerrill.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
🚨 New publication alert! 🚨 I’m proud of this interdisciplinary, co-authored piece on how memory studies might handle the AI hype. www.cambridge.org/core/journal... It has just been added, open access, to Memory, Mind and Media’s special collection on AI and Memory.
cambridge.org
Handling the hype: Demystifying artificial intelligence for memory studies | Memory, Mind & Media | Cambridge Core
Handling the hype: Demystifying artificial intelligence for memory studies - Volume 4
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The Sociological Review Foundation @thesociologicalreview.org · 18/06/2025
The sociological imagination is not just about observing society; it’s about understanding how people challenge systems of power and create change. In the magazine’s June issue, @carinrunciman.bsky.social‬ and fellow scholars reflect on what it means to think sociologically. buff.ly/R9DWhvA
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John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives and Library @waygayarchives.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
So we did a thing… 🧵 You’ve heard about the erasing of LGBTQ history on National Park Service websites. Egregious changes made to the Stonewall National Monument site (erasing all instances of trans and queer) & the disappearance of resources like the monumental “LGBTQ America” theme study.
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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
One of the smartest sociologists of this generation. @tressiemcphd.bsky.social delivers knowledge.
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Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
“So yes, we've experienced a coup, not the old fashioned kind, no tanks or mobs, but an undemocratic and hostile takeover of government. It is cruel, it is petty. It can be brutal. It is at once chaotic and surgical…The question is, will the rule of law hold?”
The words “ITS A COUP” in red bold letters atop the front page of New York Times featuring a photo of Elon Musk.
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Samuel Merrill @socmerrill.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Looking forward to participating in this tomorrow!
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Ned Richardson-Little @historyned.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
NIUS and others on the far right are trying to roll back the expansion of German memory culture of Nazi victim groups over the past thirty years as it has expanded beyond the Holocaust of European Jews to include recognition of Roma, disabled, homosexual, trans and Afro-German victims.
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Ned Richardson-Little @historyned.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Someone has adapted East German singer Ernst Busch's song Ami - go Home! for the present day conflict between the Trump administration and Canada.
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Jens Notroff @jensnotroff.com · 05/02/2025
Generative #AI is already having an impact on how we perceive #archaeology🏺. In her @us.theconversation.com essay @clmorgan.bsky.social urges for critical yet constructive engagement with digital technologies in our investigation of the past. theconversation.com/how-ai-image...
theconversation.com
How AI imagery could be used to develop fake archaeology
Even before the use of AI, it was widely accepted within archaeology that visualisations of the past are highly fraught and should be treated with caution.
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Sasha Costanza-Chock @schock.cc · 17/01/2025
Whoever could have imagined the AI headline generator would make shit up amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/01/...
amp.cnn.com
Apple is pulling its AI-generated notifications for news after generating fake headlines | CNN Business
Apple is temporarily pulling its newly introduced artificial intelligence feature that summarizes news notifications after it repeatedly sent users error-filled headlines, sparking backlash from a new...
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Chad Loder @chadloder.dev · 11/01/2025
Throwing tomato soup on a painting seems like an under-reaction, to be honest
A person walks in front of a burning church in Pasadena, California, on Jan. 8, 2025. Huge fountains of flame are shooting out of the windows AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)Firefighters stand silhouetted in front of a massive fire engulfing several homes
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Ned Richardson-Little @historyned.bsky.social · 25/12/2024
Since Die Hard is a Christmas film, a brief thread on my own head canon of how the Gruber brothers disparate bios are tied up in postwar German history.
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Samuel Merrill @socmerrill.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
My 2024 in review on LinkedIn: eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A... Have a great break everyone! See you in 2025
eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
Samuel Merrill on LinkedIn: Den artificiella bibliotekarien: En etnografisk studie om hur ChatGPT kan…
A lot happened in 2024 even with a couple of months out on parental leave. Just before I turn on my out-of-office and go on leave until the start of 2025 I…
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Samuel Merrill @socmerrill.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
Fun to have contributed to this with a chapter called ‘Splintering’ the Memory-Activism Nexus: State and Market Forces in the Vortex of Civic Memory. Thanks to the eds Astrid Erll, Susanne Knittel & Jenny Wüstenberg & to Ann Rigney whose work inspired the book. www.degruyter.com/document/doi...
degruyter.com
Dynamics, Mediation, Mobilization
Dynamics, Mediation, Mobilization provides an accessible overview of cultural memory studies, a field substantially shaped by Ann Rigney. In more than sixty short chapters, leading and emerging schola...
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Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Basically think of the o3 results as validating Douglas Adams as the science fiction author most right about AI. When given longer to think, the AI can generate answers to very hard questions, but the cost is very high, it is hard to verify, & you have to make sure you ask the right question first.
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Samuel Merrill @socmerrill.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Promote or perish
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Samuel Merrill @socmerrill.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
The full open access special issue of Memory Studies Review dedicated to #AI and Collective #Memory is now out. It was edited by Sarah Gensberger and Frédéric Clavert and represents the collective efforts of the @artificialmemory.bsky.social network. It is available here: brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com
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Cynthia Miller-Idriss @milleridriss.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
The history books will tell the story of this era of erasure with the derision it deserves, but until then, the only thing I know to do it to show that it is happening & help families & communities be as safe as possible. Document, share, and ensure this can be told. It’s such a shameful moment.
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Andy McGlashen @amcglashen.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
“Writing a single email with ChatGPT can use as much energy as driving a two-ton electric vehicle half a mile,” @laurenleffer.bsky.social reports. www.audubon.org/magazine/how...
audubon.org
How the AI Boom Threatens to Short-Circuit Climate Action
The energy-devouring technology is giving new life to fossil fuels.
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Mirko Tobias Schäfer 🇪🇺 @mtschaefer.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Unsurprisingly, the far-right needs AI to generate images of both the nostalgic past & the alleged invasion of migrants. For these myths real footage seems hard to come by. Here's an inquiry into the use of AI generated propaganda by Dutch nationalists. www.groene.nl/artikel/het-...
groene.nl
Bedreigende nepbeelden van asielzoekers– ze worden in meerderheid verspreid door één PVV-Kamerlid
Teleurgesteld door het gebrek aan echt migrantengeweld fabriceren PVV’ers met behulp van AI dan maar hun eigen hordes allochtone bloedhonden. Uit onderzoek blijkt: die ophitsende beelden komen uit Wil...
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Tama Leaver @tamaleaver.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Strong recommend! This will no doubt cut through the AI hype with a bullshit-proof knife! (And while we wait for May, listen to the podcast, it's great! Unless you've written AI fluff, of course, in which case I'm sure it'd be terrifying!)
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
THE AI CON: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want (by yours truly & @alexhanna.bsky.social) is now available for pre-order! All the details here: thecon.ai
thecon.ai
THE AI CON
How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want
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Lion Cassens @lion-c.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
Bsky is being flooded with German speaking AI powered bots. A thread on why this is important, ultimately making all social media is unusable. #deutschland #trolls #AI #election 1/ What happened? All these responses to a @zeit.de post have something in common (spoiler: they are not real):
Likely AI generated responses to a german news article.
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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Two years into the AI boom, it's imperative we understand the true power of "AGI"—as a narrative tool useful for winning investment, talent and headlines. My report for AI Now details how OpenAI used the story of a rising AI that will replace humans to replace the need for an actual business model.
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Samuel Merrill @socmerrill.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
30 Years Ago
The Original Sony PlayStation’s Memory Card.
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Samuel Merrill @socmerrill.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
A starter pack for interdisciplinary #memory studies accounts. Let me know if you want to be added to it (or removed!). #memorystudies #rememberance #commemoration #memories go.bsky.app/4SnXbJU
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Samuel Merrill @socmerrill.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
The importance of ensuring critique keeps up with technological development and further evidence of the need for terminological specificity and clarity. What is really open about open source LLMa and what isn’t?
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Samuel Merrill @socmerrill.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Posted the first photo on LinkedIn got the second back from a friend. Posting here while reflecting on the different cultures of LinkedIn and Bluesky. The first is self-promotion on steroids the second is driven by a nostalgic longing for the Twitter of old and the simple times of the humble brag.
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Samuel Merrill @socmerrill.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
I am trying to find more memory studies accounts to follow and to add to this starter pack: go.bsky.app/4SnXbJU Please share and join!
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Landecker Digital Memory Lab @ldml.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Today, our Director is speaking about AI, Holocaust memory and education at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance conference: AI in the Holocaust Education, Research and Remembrance Sector.
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Landecker Digital Memory Lab @ldml.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Robert Williams from USC Shoah Foundation shares some answers about what the #Holocaust #Memory and #Education sector needs to do to move forward productively with #AI.
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Landecker Digital Memory Lab @ldml.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Great panel on #Tech #Memory and #Ethics with Rik Smith, Samuel Merrill, Yael Richler Friedman. Moderated by Martin Winstone
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Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
The thing that is hard to get about LLMs is that we expected AI to be awesome at math & be all cool logic. Instead, AI is best at human-like tasks (eg writing) & is all hot, weird simulated emotion. For example, if you make GPT-3.5 “anxious,” it changes its behavior! arxiv.org/abs/2304.11111
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