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Saturday, July 13, 2024

View from an Old-Timer

The American Economic Association (AEA) is running a survey on the use of "social media" and whether such use is a Good Thing or a Bad Thing for the profession. As blog readers will know, economics in particular - but also other social sciences - has been concerned with an anonymous posting service called EJMR (economic job market rumors), which has included sexist, racist, and other objectionable content.*

Yours truly took the survey. At the end there was an opportunity for making comments about the survey itself, to which he responded. 

Is there anything else you'd like to share with the Committee about the role of social media in our profession?

As noted in a prior answer, it is unclear if you are including email as "social media"? Much discussion occurs using email. I am old enough to remember when there was no such thing as email (or even Internet). It made a much bigger difference to academia than what you are probably calling "social media." Indeed, the switch to word processing from typewriters had a much bigger impact. Basically, these innovations led to an increase in productivity and faster communication. What you are probably calling "social media" - although they may seem dramatic - have had a much more marginal impact.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/09/toxic-poli-sci-toxic-sociology.html.

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