danah boyd
danah boyd is an internationally recognized authority on the ways people use social media, artificial intelligence, and other networked technologies. Dr. boyd is a researcher who investigates the interplay between technology, society, and policy. Her research spans from how teenagers and parents navigate the digital world to the statistical work of government agencies, from how organizations incorporate AI into their practices to how privacy attitudes shape public policy. She is a Partner Researcher at Microsoft Research and an incoming Professor of Communication at Cornell University.
Dr. boyd has written three books that focus specifically on different facets of how young people interact with technology. It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens is an eye-opening book in which danah examines some of the major myths regarding teens’ use of social media. Building on this work, danah co-authored Participatory Culture in a Networked Era: A Conversation on Youth, Learning, Commerce, and Politics, which examines the ways in which our personal and professional lives are shaped by experiences interacting with and around emerging media. danah was also one of the researchers in a multi-year study of digital youth funded by the MacArthur Foundation, resulting in the publication of Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with NewMedia.
In founding Data & Society, danah helped support dozens of researchers to examine the social implications of using AI and other technologies in areas such as education, criminal justice, labor, and public life, as well as how individuals navigate privacy and publicity concerns. Other projects she oversaw included large studies about media manipulation, the future of work, accountability in machine learning, combating bias in data, and the cultural dynamics surrounding artificial intelligence.
Since 2018, danah has been conducting an ethnographic study of the US census in order to examine how data quality is entangled with the legitimacy of data. This work showcases the challenges involved in making high-stakes data - and the political tensions that shape the making of data. Her book on the topic is expected to be published in 2026.
In addition to her work with Microsoft, danah has worked as an ethnographer and social media researcher for various corporations, including Intel, Tribe.net, Google and Yahoo! She has advised and consulted for dozens of other companies. She also spent five years creating and managing a large-scale online community for V-Day, anon-profit organization working to end the violence against women and girls worldwide.
danah is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is also on the board of the Computer History Museum and an advisor of the Electronic Privacy Information. She was previously a founding director of Crisis Text Line - an organization that provides counseling services to struggling youth through text messaging - and a Trustee of Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.
She also regularly writes academic publications and mainstream essays, published in a range of venues, including The Guardian, New York Times, and TIME. danah is one of Foreign Policy’s 2012 Top 100 Global Thinkers. She was named to Fast Company’s list of the Most Influential Women in Technology and named the smartest academic in tech by Fortune Magazine. She won CITASA’s Public Sociology Award and the Pioneer Award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. She is also a 2011 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Topics
Youth Engagement with Social Media: Challenges and Opportunities
Why do young people spend so much time using social media? How can they value privacy when they share so much online? How do we help them navigate the challenges of drama and bullying? How does their social media use give us hints about where the future is heading? And what does all of this mean for forward-looking educators and schools? These are some of the questions that danah boyd will address in her talk. She will discuss young people's practices and attitudes, provide insight into how social media is affecting their lives, and describe new opportunities for leveraging technology to empower youth.
Youth Culture and Social Media
How youth use social media is of great interest and concern to many, including parents, teachers, government, and industry. Over the last decade, danah has studied a wide range of topics related to young people's use of social media. She has examined why they adopt the tools they do and what they do with them. Curious about the widespread belief that "kids don't care about privacy," danah has developed work that shows how teens seek to achieve privacy in light of very public tools. Likewise, her work has addressed a wide variety of issues under the umbrella of "online safety," including sexual crimes against children, bullying, sexting, eating disorder communities, and other concerns.
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