Jasmine Mangat '23 Named Spring 2023 Rising Researcher
Studying the Evolution of Social Media Communities
Content
April 19, 2023
Jasmine Mangat ’23 is a computer science and economics major at UMass Amherst who has carried out original research examining how communities, known as subreddits, evolve on the popular social media platform Reddit.
What drew you to this field of study?
I took my first computer science class as a senior in high school and really enjoyed it. I’ve always been interested in economics and international relations, but my parents urged me to pick a more practical major. I decided on computer science because I thought it opened the door to many different career possibilities.
At UMass, I was interested in getting involved in research, so I asked my professor, Ethan Zuckerman, and he invited me to join a project examining the types of metrics used by different social media platforms to measure their success. This research will inform success metrics for a new social media platform in development to promote civic engagement. I really enjoyed working on that project, and asked Professor Zuckerman to be my advisor for my honors thesis.
How do you conduct your research?
For my honors thesis, I am studying how communities, known as subreddits, evolve on the popular social media platform Reddit. Reddit is a really useful platform to study this topic because it has many independent interest-based communities moderated by volunteers, and a lot of data on Reddit is publicly available through APIs. I worked with Virginia Patridge at UMass’s Center for Data Science on a project using machine learning algorithms to cluster these communities based on common user comments. For example, a user who comments on the subreddit r/baseball may also comment on r/sports. Our goal is to give a broad overview of what Reddit looks like as a whole.
I also worked, mostly independently, to develop an exploratory visualization tool that allows a user to visualize those clusters. So far, it has been released to a select group of people for user testing, and we hope to release it to the public very soon.
What do you see as the impact—or potential impact—of your work?
There is a lot we don’t know about the effects of social media on individuals and society. More tools are needed to allow researchers to study online communities, including understanding how they form, evolve over time, and interact with one another. I envision the tool we’ve developed as helping to increase knowledge of online communities, including extremist communities of concern.
The tool is also just really fun to use. I’m hoping non-academics will use it to learn more about the kinds of communities that are out there and to find their people. In our research, we found some really interesting and esoteric communities. For example, there’s a whole subreddit dedicated to mewing, or putting your tongue on the roof of your mouth to change how the underside of your chin looks. There are also many communities based on crafting, like crocheting or blacksmithing. While there certainly are extremist communities on the internet, one take-away from my research is the internet has a more diverse set of community interests than the ones we tend to hear about.
"I love how research allows for a lot of exploration. Often, you’re tackling a problem that no one else has solved before, even as you take inspiration from previous research in your field and others."
Jasmine Mangat ‘23
How does your faculty mentor support your research?
Professor Zuckerman is awesome. He is always very encouraging and gives a lot of great feedback and advice as I plan for my future. Working with him has opened a lot of doors for me in terms of learning about new interesting topics related to my area of research.
What do you find most exciting about conducting research?
I love how research allows for a lot of exploration. Often, you’re tackling a problem that no one else has solved before, even as you take inspiration from previous research in your field and others. Even if you’re studying a niche topic, you have to start by taking a broader view and asking open-ended questions before focusing in on an area that seems most promising.
What are you most proud of?
I’m really proud that the visualization tool I built will be public facing, and, I hope, will be useful to a lot of people. I’ve learned a lot about user experience through this research, which has made me think differently about designing projects that will be in the best public interest.
How has your research enhanced your overall educational experience at UMass?
Working on research has helped me expand my technical skills and explore new facets of computer science. For example, I’ve gained exposure to the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP), and learned about applying computer science to studying social media. Research is a great way to find a niche you’d like to explore outside the classroom.
What are your plans for the future?
After graduating, I hope to work as a data scientist before going to graduate school for a master’s in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) with a concentration on public-interest technology.
Why would you recommend UMass to a friend?
One of my favorite things about UMass is the wide breadth of opportunities available. It’s a large research university so there are a ton of faculty working on really cool research questions. In my experience, faculty are very open to speaking with students about their research or letting them contribute to projects. There are also many great student organizations at UMass. If you put yourself out there to find opportunities to get involved, it can be really rewarding.
Originally published by the UMass Amherst Office of News & Media Relations.