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sarareinis.bsky.social
researching internet culture, algorithms, self-help, spirituality, and assorted rabbit holes that strike my fancy | currently: PhD student at Penn Annenberg
42 posts 1,040 followers 324 following
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My latest academic publication is out! After watching 3,000+ manifestation videos on TikTok, I dive into the ways platform features are shaping modern spirituality. 🔮🙏🏻 share this post to claim your blessing ✨🪽 Open access here: ijoc.org/index.php/ij...

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

Dozens more pregnant and postpartum women have died in Texas hospitals since the state banned abortion, our analysis shows. As the maternal mortality rate dropped nationally, it rose in Texas by 33%.

submitted 50 days ago • 420 comments

My latest: Generative AI is enabling a brute force attack against the algorithms that control reality. AI slop is taking over every algorithmically controlled social media platform and search platform, and the tech platforms are helping: www.404media.co/ai-slop-is-a...

submitted 57 days ago • 41 comments

the creator presidency can promise only two things for certain: engagement and pain

submitted 68 days ago • 9 comments

Maya Man's digital piece on "day in the life" vlogs at @whitney.org prompted me to think about the internet content that renders the ordinary uncanny. (also, the AI slop historic pov videos and the humans-imitating-AI-imitating-humans videos that made me spiral 😵‍💫) defector.com/taking-the-l...

submitted 71 days ago • 1 comment

Are you seeing this post? It might be because of divine intervention. A new study by @sarareinis.bsky.social and @corrinalaughlin.bsky.social shows the many ways the #ChristianTikTok community conceptualizes and makes use of the TikTok algorithm:

submitted 75 days ago • 0 comments

Wrote some thoughts about memes of data nihilism and Meta takeover conspiracies in the wake of the temporary (but still vaguely looming) ban of TikTok.

submitted 84 days ago • 0 comments

Despite people's impressions of the tech world and religion being quite separate spheres, this has been brewing for a long time. We will only see more of this as tech leaders seek some sort of cosmic moral framework to justify their actions and deflect criticism. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/b...

submitted 90 days ago • 1 comment

New article on spirituality & social media by Steering Committee member @sarareinis.bsky.social and co-author @corrinalaughlin.bsky.social “GOD IS MY SPONSORED AD!! MY ALGORITHM!” Read it here: bit.ly/4hPLUMY @asc.upenn.edu @bzelizer.bsky.social

submitted 91 days ago • 0 comments

If I just read one million more posts tonight, I will have complete control over what comes next

submitted 186 days ago • 56 comments

i think it is important to say that the open and explicit racism of the president and the vice president isn’t just uncouth or “controversial” but a direct attack on tens of millions of americans and a dereliction of their duty to represent the entire country

submitted 103 days ago • 2278 comments

Fascinating paper on how religious belief shapes how TikTok users understand the algorithm—and vice versa. Introduces the framework of the "spiritual algorithmic imaginary" which should prove incredibly useful in the age of online Christian nationalism. A+ title too.

submitted 103 days ago • 3 comments

now that’s a title journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

submitted 103 days ago • 4 comments

Excited to share my (first!) academic publication exploring Christian TikTok and attempts to spiritualize the unpredictability of algorithmic recommendation. Thank you to @corrinalaughlin.bsky.social for an amazing collaborative process. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

submitted 104 days ago • 7 comments

It's easy to read this as a return to the McCarthy era. But I'd argue--this is so much more dangerous. Because this time around, the Witch Hunt will be automated.

submitted 105 days ago • 6 comments

Fantastic reporting on the YouTube/podcast manosphere. Really great distillation and visualization of the emerging network and key figures and topics in the space. www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

submitted 111 days ago • 0 comments

Meta may want to flood Facebook with AI, but FB Marketplace still remains very deeply human

submitted 119 days ago • 0 comments

Totally. The use of AI imagery in right-wing spaces is both a strange confession that it's all an imagined fantasy and an attempt to build up a mythology worth defending, idolizing, etc

submitted 161 days ago • 1 comment

I appreciate this ad for making the aspirational face filter -> cosmetic intervention desire explicit. We shall not rest until we all look like girlies generated by midjourney

submitted 172 days ago • 0 comments

my latest with @jessmaddox.bsky.social is out this morning in @femmediastudies.bsky.social! We propose influencer snark as a feminist media practice to address concerns of credibility, authenticity, and representation in the influencer industry. please share!!! www.tandfonline.com/eprint/XZSZD...

submitted 175 days ago • 6 comments