Eszter's List
Links to research on the social aspects of digital media plus discussions of books, art, travel, and whatever else I find worthwhile to mention.
Welcome to Eszter’s List by me, Eszter Hargittai.
Back in 2001, I started Eszter’s List with links to interesting material I was finding online. It was another time in the life of the Internet although in some ways not that different from today: too many interesting things for any one person to find and process, but also too many distractions that weren’t necessarily worth the time. My goal was to point people to worthwhile content about the social aspects of the Internet, but also discuss other things that came to mind. I stopped posting to the list around 2005 as email seemed increasingly quaint for content sharing.
Recently, I’ve been missing that form of communication more and more. I may post interesting pointers on Facebook and Twitter, but it’s completely up to their hidden algorithms to decide what of it they’ll show anyone. I’d like people to have a better chance at seeing my recommendations. If you’re interested, I welcome your subscription (no associated fees). I plan on sending 1-2 messages each month at most.
Brief background on me: I am professor of Internet Use & Society in the Department of Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich. I grew up in Budapest, Hungary with short stints in various parts of the United States. I have a Sociology BA from Smith College, I spent my junior college year in Geneva, Switzerland. I received a PhD in Sociology from Princeton University. I then spent 13 years on the faculty of Northwestern University in the end as the Delaney Family Professor of Communication Studies. During that time, I spent a year as Fellow at the Stanford Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (2006-07) and as Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society (2008-09). In 2006, I moved to Zurich, Switzerland to take on my current position.
I have published just under 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters are the social aspects of digital media. You can find most of these here: bit.ly/wuppubs
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