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Undisciplined: Social Disorder

Kyle Garrity, creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

  

If you are a frequent participant in a social media community, you know what it’s like when someone new comes along and just doesn’t seem to understand or care about the established rules. But our guest this week wanted to know what happens when newcomers join spaces where the rules aren’t just very well established, but also really toxic.

Ashwin Rajadesingan is a third year PhD student at the University of Michigan’s School of Information, where his research is focused on computational social science and aimed at building better online communities. His new study explores how toxic cultures are maintained in specific social media groups.

Matthew LaPlante has reported on ritual infanticide in Northern Africa, insurgent warfare in the Middle East, the legacy of genocide in Southeast Asia, and gang violence in Central America. But a few years back, something occurred to him: Maybe the news doesn't have to be so brutally depressing all the time. These days, he balances his continuing work on more heartbreaking subjects with his work on UnDisciplined — Utah Public Radio's weekly program on science and discovery.