We all have moments in which someone’s use of new media baffles us, and we have to ask a friend how to respond. It often isn’t just the content of the message, it is also using that particular medium in that way which leaves us scratching our heads.

 

 

In this talk, Ilana Gershon discuss what anthropological concepts can help us understand our confusion. Ilana turns to LinkedIn as a case study and analyzes the dilemmas people face when using LinkedIn as they look for a job. This is the starting point to discuss how the newness of new media generates social dilemmas, especially for the people these days who are looking for a job.

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Ilana Gershon is interested in how new media affects highly charged social tasks, such as breaking up or hiring in the United States. She has written about how people use new media to end romantic relationships in her book The Breakup 2.0: Disconnecting over New Media. Her current research addresses how new media affects hiring in the contemporary US workplace.

About Databites
Data & Society’s “Databites” speaker series presents timely conversations about the purpose and power of technology, bridging our interdisciplinary research with broader public conversations about the societal implications of data and automation.