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vitae
Curriculum vitae of published works, editorial roles, teaching experience, conference presentations, recent keynotes and awards.
courses
Current and past course syllabi for graduate and undergraduate courses in communication technology and society, social network analysis, and research methods.
Keith N. Hampton, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Media and Information, and Director of Academic Research at the Quello Center for Telecommunication Management and Law at Michigan State University (MSU). Hampton studies community and the relationship between digital media, social networks, and inequality. His recent research has focused on the outcomes of persistent contact and pervasive awareness through social media, including stress, self-esteem, tolerance, belief in a just world, exposure to diverse points of view, and willingness to voice opinions.
What we got wrong about screen time and academic achievement.
It’s time to rethink the conventional moral panic surrounding screen time and academic achievement. The prevailing focus on displacement effects tells only half the story. In our new paper, Gabriel Hales and I demonstrate how adolescents’ casual engagement with social media, video games, and other digital leisure activities cultivates broader digital skills. These skills are […]
Is social media actually disrupting echo chambers?
This paper broadens the scope of research on echo chambers by examining social media use and attitudes within a real-world context that resembles an echo chamber: rural areas characterized by low racial/ethnic diversity and low social tolerance. Rural environments often lack conditions conducive to higher social tolerance due to limited cross-group interaction and lower formal […]
critical reflections on communication and sociology
I recently had the opportunity to reflect on the progress that sociology has made, as a disciple, in studying the Internet, social media, and related technologies. I see a general trend, away form multiple disciplinary voices engaged in the study of digital media, towards a dominant ‘communication perspective’ that does not adequately represent sociological perspectives […]