Genetics & Social Media Data
Myself and colleagues are thinking of ways in which geneticists could and should be using social media data. This effort is being translated into a manuscript being drafted for submission to Nature Genetics. Social media phenotypes provide rich longitudinal traces of social information and come with numerous advantages over offline measures. This contemporary approach to 'deep social phenotyping' needs to be urgently incorporated into genetics studies and existing cohorts as this will very rapidly add another layer of social insights for genetic discoveries.