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In a world of misinformation, I’ve seen many otherwise rational people fall into completely irrational and arguably incorrect news sources, especially as they pertain to tech. And I get it: for a lot of people, tech is this big, scary AI capitalist overlord monster hellbent on censoring us and destroying the planet. While perhaps partly true, there’s a lot of good in tech. At the risk of sounding condescending, I think some people need to start taking personal accountability for some of the misinformation they choose to believe online. You largely create your algorithm, and that means you sometimes have to account for your own biases in the content you engage with.
Tech is such an expansive term and is integrated into our lives in very real ways, as well as in more distant, abstract ways. With that, I do feel it’s imperative people begin to better understand the complexity of tech and expand their news sources to include people working within the industry. I’m compiling a list of some of my favorite techies to follow across social media and other forms of media. I encourage you to build out your own list as well and continue to expand your knowledge sources. And don’t worry babe, I’ll update this list often!
*= political or activist leaning
**= great for folks without a tech background
Tech Skills Related
- Angie Jones**: Software engineer and automation architect, focuses on digital identity.
Platforms: Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube - Brooke Jamieson: Senior Developer Advocate at Amazon Web Services (AWS), focus on Data & Engineering.
Platforms: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram - Cassidy Williams: Meme, dream, and software maker. They’ve also done a lot of work in the open-source movement and talk a lot about developer experience.
Platforms: Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, GitHub, Newsletter, Blog - Charity Majors: Engineer and co-founder of Honeycomb.io
Platforms: Website, Twitter, LinkedIn - Holden Karau: Software development engineer and author active in the open-source movement.
Platforms: Twitter, GitHub, YouTube, LinkedIn - Jane Manchun Wong**: Engineer, Security, Instagram. Talks about all things developer and engineering-related; frequently reposts tech news with commentary. Great source for social media commentary.
Platforms: Threads, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn - Josh W. Comeau: Software Developer and author, very engineering resource-focused.
Platforms: Website, Twitter, - Julia Evans: Software Developer who likes to laugh and makes zines about programming.
Platforms: Website, Twitter, Mastodon, GitHub - Pariss Athena**: Software Engineer and founder & CEO of Black Tech Pipeline.
Platforms: Twitter - Reedhima Mandlik**: General techie with a focus on cybersecurity and innovative global development.
Platforms: LinkedIn, Instagram - Taylor Poindexter: Senior Backend Engineer turned Engineering Manager, Co-founder of Black Code Collective.
Platforms: Website, Twitter, LinkedIn - Ya Xu, PhD: VP of Engineering, Head of Data and AI at LinkedIn. Talks a lot about how engineering experimentation works.
Platforms: LinkedIn - Una Kravets: Web developer who leads the UI & Tooling Developer Relations Team at Google Chrome.
Platforms: Website, Twitter, Mastodon, LinkedIn
Tech Industry Related
- Angelica Ross**: Self-taught coder and founder of Trans Tech Social.
Platforms: Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram - Carol Lee, PhD: Principal Research Scientist at the Developer Success Lab, talks a lot about her research around developers.
Platforms: LinkedIn - Kara Swisher**: Tech journalist covering the business of the internet since 1994.
Platforms: Twitter, Instagram, Podcast - Joan Donovan**: Researcher studying disinformation and misinformation, author of one of my favorite books, Meme Wars.
Platforms: Website, Twitter, LinkedIn - Samantha Cole: Journalist covering all things tech, author of mone of my favorite books How Sex Changed the Internet, and the Internet Changed Sex.
Platforms: Website, Twitter, LinkedIn
Tech News Outlets
- TLDR Newsletter: Another personal favorite, delivering news to my inbox daily!
Platforms: Website, Twitter, Instagram - TechCrunch
Platforms: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Threads, LinkedIn - Wired
Platforms: Twitter, Instagram, TikTok
Tech Adjacent or Organizations
- AI Now Institute
Platforms: Twitter - Content Authenticity Initiative**
Platforms: Twitter, LinkedIn - Electronic Frontier Foundation *
Platforms: Twitter, Instagram, Mastadon - Hacking // Hustling *
Platforms: Twitter, Instagram
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