Email: (my full name) @gmail.com

about me I'm a computational social scientist on the Social Impact team at Meta. I do a combination of large scale data science, international surveys, and qualitative work to understand how technology affects social support, happiness, loneliness, and social capital. This work has influenced the design of Facebook's News Feed, suicide prevention tools and privacy settings. I have a Ph.D. from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. The "i" in my name is silent. I like Brussels sprouts.

research expertise

• Social media and well-being: social support, loneliness, suicide prevention
• Social comparison, body image
• Job-seeking and social capital
• Online privacy and context collapse

education

Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction, December 2011
Carnegie Mellon University

B.A. summa cum laude in Computer and Information Science, June 2001
Donald Clark Honors College, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR

selected press coverage

• (Atlantic) The Elegant Way Online Social Networks 'Heal' After a Death
• (Science) Death can strengthen social networks for years after the event, Facebook study reveals
• (NY Times) Facebook Could Be Associated With a Longer Life, Study Finds
• (WSJ) Why Watching Silly Cat Videos Is Good for You
• (Atlantic) Sad People Aren't Ignored on Facebook
• (The Walrus) No One Is Watching You
• (NY Times) Six Degrees of Separation? Facebook Finds a Smaller Number
• (Fast Company) Why Certain Facebook Friends Can Boost Your Chance Of Landing A New Job
• (NY Times) Some Privacy, Please? Facebook, Under Pressure, Gets the Message

honors and awards

• Best Paper Awards (CHI 2014, CSCW 2013, CHI 2010, CSCW 2010, C&T 2007, Small Group Research 2010)
• Best Paper Honorable Mentions (CHI 2020, 2013)
• Program Committees and Chairs: CSCW 2013-2016, CHI 2016-2017, ICWSM 2016
• Google PhD Fellowship in Human-Computer Interaction (2010)
• Yahoo! Key Scientific Challenges Program (2010)
• Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship (2010)
• Facebook Ph.D. Fellowship Finalist (2010)
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2005)
• AT&T Labs Graduate Research Fellowship (2005)

peer-reviewed publications

• Ernala, S., Burke, M., Leavitt, A., and Ellison, N.B. (2022). Mindsets Matter: How Beliefs About Facebook Moderate the Association Between Time Spent and Well-Being. ACM CHI 2022: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1-13.
• Sumner, S., Burke, M., and Kooti, F. (2020). Adherence to suicide reporting guidelines by news shared on a social networking platform. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 117 (28) 16267-16272.
• Cheng, J., Burke, M., and de Gant, B. (2020). Country Differences in Social Comparison on Social Media. ACM CSCW 2020: Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing.
• Burke, M., Cheng, J., and de Gant, B. (2020). Social Comparison and Facebook: Feedback, Positivity, and Opportunities for Comparison. ACM CHI 2020: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (Best paper honorable mention)
• Ernala, S., Burke, M., Leavitt, A., and Ellison, N. (2020). How Well Do People Report Time Spent on Facebook? An Evaluation of Established Survey Questions with Recommendations. ACM CHI 2020: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
• Litt, E., Zhao, S., Kraut, R., and Burke, M. (2020). What Are Meaningful Social Interactions in Today's Media Landscape? A Cross-Cultural Survey. Social Media + Society.
• Cheng, J., Burke, M., and Davis, E. (2019). Understanding Perceptions of Problematic Facebook Use: When People Experience Negative Life Impact and a Lack of Control. ACM CHI 2019: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1-13.
• Kizilcec, R., Bakshy, E., Eckles, D., and Burke, M. (2018). Social Influence and Reciprocity in Online Gift Giving. ACM CHI 2018: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1-11.
• Hobbs, W., and Burke, M. (2017). Connective recovery in social networks after the death of a friend. Nature Human Behaviour. 1, 0092.
• Ford, B., Burke, M., Lassman, W., Pfister, G., and Pierce, J. R. (2017). Status Update: Is smoke on your mind? Using social media to determine smoke exposure. Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss.
• Birnholtz, J., Burke, M., and Steele, A. (2017). Untagging on social media: Who untags, what do they untag, and why? Computers in Human Behavior. 69: 166-173.
• Gee, L., Jones, J., Fariss, C., Burke, M., and Fowler, J. (2016). The Paradox of Weak Ties in 55 Countries. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 133: 362-372.
• Hobbs, W., Burke, M., Christakis, N., and Fowler, J. (2016). Online social integration is associated with reduced mortality risk. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113(46), 12980-12984.
• Burke, M. and Kraut, R. (2016). The Relationship Between Facebook Use and Well-Being Depends on Communication Type and Tie Strength. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 21:265-281.
• Burke, M. and Develin, M. (2016). Once more with feeling: Supportive responses to social sharing on Facebook. ACM CSCW 2016: Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, 1460-1472.
• Scissors, L., Burke, M., Wengrovitz, S. (2016). What's in a Like? Attitudes and behaviors around receiving Likes on Facebook. ACM CSCW 2016: Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, 1499-1508.
• Wang, Y., Burke, M., Kraut, R. (2016). Modeling self-disclosure in social networking sites. ACM CSCW 2016: Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, 74-85.
• Gee, L., Jones, J., and Burke, M. (2016). Social networks and labor markets: How strong ties relate to job finding on Facebook's social network. Journal of Labor Economics. 35(2): 485-518.
• Kraut, R. and Burke, M. (2015). Internet Use and Psychological Well-Being: Effects of Activity and Audience. Communications of the ACM. 58(12), 94-100.
• Burke, M. and Kraut, R. (2014). Growing closer on Facebook: Changes in tie strength through site use. ACM CHI 2014: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 4187-4196. (Best paper award)
• Burke, M., Kraut, R., and Marlow, C. (2013). Using Facebook after Losing a Job: Differential Benefits of Strong and Weak Ties. ACM CSCW 2013: Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, 1419-1430. (Best paper award)
• Bernstein, M., Bakshy, E., Burke, M., and Karrer, B. (2013). Quantifying the Invisible Audience in Social Networks. ACM CHI 2013: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (Best paper honorable mention).
• Burke, M., Adamic, Lada A., Marciniak, K. (2013). Families on Facebook. ICWSM 2013: AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media.
• Wang, Y., Burke, M., and Kraut, R. (2013). Gender, Topic, and Audience Response: An Analysis of User-Generated Content on Facebook. ACM CHI 2013: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 31-34.
• Burke, M., Kraut, R., and Marlow, C. (2011). "Social capital on Facebook: Differentiating uses and users. ACM CHI 2011: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
• Burke, M., and Settles, B. (2011). Plugged in to the community: Social motivators in online goal-setting groups. CT 2011: Fifth International Conference on Communities and Technologies.
• Burke, M., Marlow, C., and Lento, T. (2010). Social network activity and social well-being. ACM CHI 2010: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1909-1912. (Best paper award)
• Burke, M., Kraut, R., and Williams, D. (2010). Social use of computer-mediated communication by adults on the autism spectrum. ACM CSCW 2010: Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, 425-434. (Best paper award)
• Burke, M., Kraut, R., and Joyce, E. (2010). Membership claims and requests: Conversation-level newcomer socialization strategies in online groups. Small Group Research 41(1), 4-40. (Best paper award)
• Shklovski, I., Burke, M., Kiesler, S., and Kraut, R. (2010). Technology Adoption and Use in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. American Behavioral Scientist.
• Collier, B., Burke, M., Kittur, N., and Kraut, R. (2010). Promoting good management: Governance, promotion, and leadership in open collaboration communities. International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS).
• Burke, M., Marlow, C., and Lento, T. (2009). Feed me: Motivating newcomer contribution in social network sites. ACM CHI 2009: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 945-954.
• Burke, M., and Kraut, R. (2008). Mopping up: Modeling Wikipedia promotion decisions. ACM CSCW 2008: Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. 27-36.
• Burke, M., and Kraut R. (2008) Mind your Ps and Qs: The impact of politeness and rudeness in online communities. ACM CSCW 2008: Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. 281-284.
• Burke, M., Joyce, E., Kim, T., Anand, V., and Kraut, R. (2007). Introductions and Requests: Rhetorical Strategies That Elicit Response in Online Communities. Third International Conference on Communities & Technologies 2007. (Best paper award)
• Torrey, C., Lee, M., Burke, M. Dey, A., Fussell, S., and Kiesler, S., (2007). Connected Giving: Ordinary People Coordinating Disaster Relief on the Internet. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) 2007.
• Burke M., Amento, B., Isengard, P. (2006). Error Correction of Voicemail Transcripts in SCANMail. ACM CHI 2006: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New York: ACM.
• Burke, M., Hornof, A., Nilsen, E., and Gorman, N (2005). High Cost Banner Blindness: Ads Increase Perceived Workload, Hinder Visual Search, and Are Forgotten. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 12(4), 423-445.
• Burke, M., Gorman, N., Hornof, A., and E. Nilsen (2004). Banner Advertisements Hinder Visual Search and Are Ignored. ACM CHI 2004: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1139-1142.

teaching experience

• Data Analysis in R (free online course on Udacity)
• Computer-Supported Cooperative Work: Designing Online Communities (Teaching Assistant)
• Human-Computer Interaction Methods (Teaching Assistant)

research experience

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY (2005 to 2012)
Graduate Research Assistant
Advisor: Robert Kraut
Modeled successful interactions in online communities (Wikipedia, discussion groups).

FACEBOOK (Summer 2008 and 2009)
Research Intern
Advisor: Cameron Marlow
Modeled newcomer socialization strategies associated with future content contribution to Facebook. Modeled communication patterns associated with perceived social capital and loneliness.

AT&T RESEARCH (Summer 2005)
Research Intern
Advisor: Brian Amento
Evaluated multimodal interfaces for error correction of automatically generated voicemail transcripts.

UNIVERSITY OF OREGON (2000 to 2005)
Research Intern
Advisor: Anthony Hornof, with Erik Nilsen
Investigated human attentional capacity for animation concurrent with visual search tasks.

GRAPHICS, VISUALIZATION, USABILITY CENTER: GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (Summer 2000)
Research Intern
Advisor: Jessica Hodgins
Analyzed play-balancing techniques in massively multi-player games.

COMPUTER GRAPHICS LAB, BROWN UNIVERSITY (Summer 1999)
Research Intern
Advisor: Nancy Pollard
Developed tools to visualize aspects of motion, such as center-of-mass position and trajectory.

UNIVERSITY OF OREGON (Summer 1998)
Programmer
Advisor: Steve Fickas
Designed and implemented Java bots in an online "office hours" environment.

professional experience

RESEARCH SCIENTIST, FACEBOOK (2012 - Present)
Core Data Science Team

DIGITAL SERVICES COORDINATOR, PORTLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE LIBRARY (2002 to 2005)
Designed and maintained award-winning library website and catalog based on usability testing
Maintained Solaris 8 servers running Apache, SSL, ColdFusion, PHP
Trained technical and non-technical staff in MARC cataloging, web publishing, accessibility standards
Led workshops at national library conferences

WEB AND MULTIMEDIA DESIGNER (1997 to 2002)
http://www.thoughtcrumbs.com/portfolio
Designed websites for non-profit organizations
Conducted usability testing, card sorting, heuristic evaluation
Composed creative standalone applications and Shockwave movies in Director
Programmed dynamic content with PHP, ColdFusion, MySQL