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.

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[–] wiki_me@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

My advice if you want to study this, is to first spend at least one year working a tech job with that CS degree, and sock away as much cash as you can.

Also learning about financial Independence (FIRE) a vanguard (investment bank owned by customers) index fund will probably double your money every about ten years, maybe faster because there is evidence the stock market is becoming more efficient, 5 years will give you about 40 percent.