Metasocial Social Sciences

The recursive discipline of applying social scientific methods to the community of social scientists themselves. It's the study of the academic tribes, their rituals (conferences), their status symbols (citations, tenure), and their origin myths (the "founding fathers"). It examines why certain theories become fashionable and others are forgotten, why some departments are feuding and others are allied, and why the phrase "paradigm shift" is used so often it has lost all meaning. It's sociology for sociologists, and it requires a high tolerance for inside jokes.

Example: "A metasocial social sciences study observed that papers with longer titles and more complex jargon were cited more frequently, regardless of their actual content. This confirmed what every grad student suspected: in academia, sounding smart is often more important than being smart."

by Abzugal February 14, 2026

Metasocial Sociology

The specific analysis of group dynamics within the community of people who study group dynamics. It's the study of cliques among sociologists, the unspoken hierarchy between quantitative and qualitative researchers, and the peculiar tribal behavior exhibited at academic conferences when the free coffee runs out. Metasocial sociology notes that the very people who study in-group/out-group dynamics are themselves part of the most exclusionary in-group of all: people with PhDs who study in-group/out-group dynamics.

Metasocial Sociology Example: "At the sociology department holiday party, a metasocial sociologist couldn't help but observe the seating arrangements. The symbolic interactionists were huddled together near the snacks, the Marxists were arguing in a corner about who should pay for the snacks, and the functionalists were explaining why the snacks' placement was essential for the party's overall stability."

by Abzugal February 14, 2026

Metasocial Philosophy

The branch of thought that questions the very foundations of social thought. It asks: Is society real, or is it just a concept we made up to feel less alone? Can we ever truly understand a social system, or are we just projecting our own biases onto it? And if all social interactions are performances, what happens when we perform the act of analyzing those performances? Metasocial philosophy is the art of overthinking social situations to the point where you can no longer participate in them, because you're too busy deconstructing the concept of participation.

Example: "After a three-hour conversation about the nature of conversation, he reached a state of pure metasocial philosophy. He realized that his entire identity was just a performance for an audience of one—himself—and that the self he was performing for was also a performance. He then decided to stop thinking and just go to the grocery store, where he had a perfectly normal, unanalyzed interaction with the cashier and felt profoundly relieved."

by Abzugal February 14, 2026