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Ben Lyall 💾

@benlyall.bsky.social

340 followers 260 following 61 posts

👨‍💻 Digital sociologist 🔴 RMIT / Lecturer, Digital Communication 💬 Digital civic lives / wearables / data cultures 👣 On unceded Bunurong & Wurundjeri lands ➖ Em dash enthusiast / Nintendo apologist

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Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Apr 14

just thinking about USB-B

Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Sep 1

Didn't think I'd encounter this again in the wild, but here we are. An example of how to use AI to summarise existing materials, with an AI figure as the example. It's giving "the call is coming from inside the house"...

Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Aug 20

'Generative AI and Broken Futures' in Qualitative Inquiry details an AI-method approach that takes the fieldwork and generates broken visions of futures which participants then 'fix' with their realistic, ground-truth-led understandings of the realities of their industry.

Generative AI and Broken Futures - Sarah Pink, Hannah Korsmeyer, Ben Lyall, 2025

In this article we consider and demonstrate the use of Generative AI (GenAI) in the design of qualitative futures research materials. We discuss how GenAI, and ...

journals.sagepub.com

Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Aug 20

'Quiet Sustainability' is an in-depth sample of our qualitative fieldwork, ft. two participants and their work in the context of uncertain climate futures. The book is *chef's kiss* 👨‍🍳 if you have any interest in wildly deep fieldwork, storytelling, the climate crisis, and skills/labour.

Quiet Sustainability | 6 | Tacit Knowledge and Emic Capacities in Buil

Notions of “digital transformation” capture an imagined future in which day-to-day work, in many industries, undergoes sweeping digitalisation and automation.

www.taylorfrancis.com

Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Aug 20

📚 Double publication plug! I have some new works to share, conveniently related to the same project: AUTOWORK, led by Sarah Pink + co-authored w/ Hannah Korsmeyer.

Although the research began some years ago, the focus of each still feels salient. Summaries and links in the next two replies ⤵️

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Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Jul 12

i sure hope they do

Sign reading "trains stop here" at a train platform

Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Jul 9

weather modelling remodelling the weather; bill murray put on blast by a gramophone; tiktok demanding your baby has more tummy time; all of Shrek in one gif - and that's just the morning keynote session! #AusSTS25 #signalsandnoises 📶

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Reposted by Ben Lyall 💾

Kathy Reid (she/her) @kathyreid.au · Jun 23

Are you heading to @aussts.bsky.social #AusSTS25 #SignalsAndNoises in July in Melbourne? #STS

If so I hand-curated a Bluesky list of people I could find from the conference program:

bsky.app/profile/did:...

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Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Jun 25

@vezziet.bsky.social

Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Jun 25

watch out for BFHCs at the local

Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Jun 25

the Myers-Briggs for dads

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Reposted by Ben Lyall 💾

CAMERON WILSON @cameronwilson.bsky.social · Jun 25

do you respect or fear the mount rushmore of australian forums?

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Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Jun 25

In our new paper 'Qualified Hope' we counter concern for a 'COVID generation' of young people with upended work and study plans.

Despite hardship, hope is a psychosocial resource for sense-making and reflects young people’s resourcefulness and adaptability. 👀📃⤵️

Qualified Hope: Young People’s Education and Employment Pathways in Times of Disruption - Journal of Applied Youth Studies

The pandemic and its aftermath have prompted an extended public and academic conversation about young people, with concerns about the increasing uncertainty of youth employment and education trajector...

link.springer.com

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Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Jun 25

probably the least of our worries, but not keen for wearables under Kennedy, who doesn't say anything about privacy and who thinks telehealth is an "AI nurse"

youtu.be/X_fqH8rGtlE

RFK Jr. Tells Lawmakers That 'Wearables Are A Key To The MAHA Agenda'

YouTube video by Forbes Breaking News

youtu.be

Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Jun 18

glad to learn I'm not the only one 😅

Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Jun 7

it's been widely reported that this game was in development for a long time... you can tell because DK's main animation is dabbing

Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Jun 5

i guess they finally made a mario kart where you need to use the brake

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Reposted by Ben Lyall 💾

Sarah Gilbert @sarahagilbert.bsky.social · Apr 26

The mods of r/ChangeMyView shared the sub was the subject of a study to test the persuasiveness of LLMs & that they didn't consent. There’s a lot that went wrong, so here’s a 🧵 unpacking it, along with some ideas for how to do research with online communities ethically. tinyurl.com/59tpt988

From the changemyview community on Reddit

Explore this post and more from the changemyview community

tinyurl.com

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Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Apr 17

The discussions we look at here highlight the enduring role of localised communities and peers in crisis contexts like the pandemic.

Very different lives and worlds since the original work and now... Great team effort on the original project as well as this analysis 👏

Verity Trott @vezziet.bsky.social · Apr 15

Happy to share our latest article from data we collected back in 2020 for a government project that has recently been published. We examine how public services are discussed on Australian location-based subreddits and Whirlpool forums at the start of the pandemic journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Public service sentiment in Australian digital communities on Reddit and Whirlpool during the COVID-19 pandemic - Verity Trott, Ben Lyall, Callum Jones, Brady Robards, Steven Roberts, 2025

This paper explores the role of digitally networked local communities on the platforms Reddit and Whirlpool in helping citizens navigate and understand Australi...

journals.sagepub.com

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Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Apr 15

youtuber misuse of "with that being said" is my activation phrase

Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Apr 14

just thinking about USB-B

Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Apr 2

die on Skype or live long enough to see yourself become a Teams guy 🥲

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Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Mar 19

Obviously no shade on the services or assistance that somebody might have in their day-to-day. It's just a context (who/how) thing.

I'd love to plot these interviews on some a matrix between the mundanity of the task and how extreme the glossed-over context is.

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Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Mar 19

I fit basic tech-bro algo markers. So on my less-used socials, I get recommended this genre of "ask somebody wealthy and powerful about mundane tasks and how we can all do them."

By 35 seconds: throw paper on floor, cleaner deals with it, you keep doing ideas.

Classic.

youtu.be/tDmjz6HB-yw?...

Sam Altman Reveals His Note-taking System

YouTube video by David Perell

youtu.be

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Reposted by Ben Lyall 💾

Axel Bruns @snurb.info · Mar 7

JFC. 😱

Any time anyone tells you they are in favour of 'small government', this unfettered, unregulated gambling with people's lives is what they're actually promoting.

Keith Edwards @keithedwards.bsky.social · Mar 7

BREAKING: Elon Musk's rocket explosion nearly hit a commercial flight.

This kind of content is being downranked on X. Please share it here. This is so dangerous.

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Ben Lyall 💾 @benlyall.bsky.social · Mar 7

everyday I thank Teams for keeping me grounded 🙏