Wednesday January 7, 2026
8:00am – 9:30am | Monarchy 5

The Digital and Social Media Track will again host a special session of short talks that identify opportunities for the future. The short talk will use the Ignite format, an approach that gets out of the traditional academic box. Ignite is formed around a formalism: you must create a “deck” of 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds (5 minutes total). This mode represents a radical departure from the traditional paper presentation, and is focused on telling an enlightening story, making an argument, and inciting an audience to come to your way of thinking and action. The presenters are encouraged to keep the logos, but add drama: pathos, humor, wit and rhetorical (and physical) stunts to the talk.

More information of the Ignite format can be found at
* http://www.ignitetalks.io/
* http://scottberkun.com/2009/how-to-give-a-great-ignite-talk/
* http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/ignite-presentations/

This year, selected short talks include:

  • The AI Attractiveness Paradox: Perceptions of Trust and Appeal in AI-Generated Dating App Profile Photos | Cassandra Alexopoulos, University of Massachusetts Boston
  • Social Media is Dead. Long Live Social Media: Designing Human-AI Collaborative Social Platforms | Pavel Andreev, University of Ottawa
  • Scroll, Post, Like, Repeat | Apoorva Chauhan, Utah State University
  • Passion, Positionality, and Reflexivity: Digital Research from the Inside Out | Liz Delia, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • From Tobacco to TikTok: Lessons for Online Gambling Advertising to Youth | Jennifer Graves, University of Washington
  • Why do we need to move from answering the “What?” and “How?” questions in IS to answering the “Why?” questions | Nik Hassan, University of Minnesota Duluth
  • Known, Knowable, Speculative: Constructing Future Phenomenon | Dirk Hovorka, University of Sydney
  • Portals for Ingressing Forms: Media as Agential Processes | Jeff Nickerson, Stevens Institute of Technology
  • AI-Generated Content Creates a New Attention Trap: Evidence from TikTok | Huiyan Chen & Babajide Osatuyi, Penn State Erie
  • Deinfluencing: When Saying ‘Don’t Buy It’ Becomes the New Influence | Valeria Penttinen, Northern Illinois University
  • When Data Costs Shape the Truth: Fighting For The Next Billion | Patricia Akello Perry, University of Montana
  • Folklore at Internet Speed: Understanding the Power and Fragility of Memes | Rosanna Saller, Graduate of Technical University Rosenheim
  • Help, I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up: When Social Isn’t Social | William D. Senn, Tarleton State University
  • Existence, Antecedents and Consequences of Non-Compliance in Mobile App Markets | Bernd Skiera, Goethe University Frankfurt
  • Abolish AI! | Kentaro Toyama, University of Michigan

Inquiries:
Please direct your inquiries to Kevin Crowston <crowston@syr.edu>