Community-engaged research was disrupted by COVID-19 restrictions, meaning researchers faced serious challenges when their results were most needed: during a public health crisis.
Generational faultlines are made visible by the way we use punctuation and text formatting in online communication. Tone of voice is a tricky thing to convey.
The digital public sphere is constantly evolving, so we need a regulatory framework that helps to structure public discussion, and in turn guide our own public contributions as citizens.
Discord was initially a service to let gamers voice and text chat while playing. Most of its current users build and maintain online communities, though not always very big ones.
As social distancing continues, we’ve increasingly incorporated online and digital communications into our social life. But these technologies can’t compensate for body language or touch.
There is heavy social media use among both the most lonely and least lonely people. So what exactly is the relationship between social media use and loneliness?
Apps and wearable devices promise greater participation and empowerment in health care. But what are we risking when we take part in this new era of participatory health?
Global media systems cannot effectively contribute to social progress until opportunities not just for access, but also for active participation, are more widely shared.
Peeple is getting called the Yelp of rating people. The cofounders say it will be a positive place that turns character into currency. But does it make sense to rate people as we rate restaurants?
Arts activism isn’t new, but online activist movements are changing the way it gets done. In this anonymous virtual landscape, does activism democratise social relations, or nurture inequality?
This year saw the 43rd anniversary of email. Compared to a human working life, email has after more than four decades on the job now reached retirement age. Is it time for email to step aside to allow…
We all know the feeling, you’re chatting with your friend or even your boss over the internet and you interrupt them awkwardly. A silence ensues as you both try to let each other talk. Then you interrupt…
For the past year I’ve been experimenting with meditating live online with people around the world. Their chosen spot is not a temple or a church hall or a sitting room, but cyberspace. Meditation is fast…
Most office workers send dozens of electronic communications to colleagues in any given working day, through email, instant messaging and intranet systems. So many in fact that you might not notice subtle…
Language is about much more than just about talking to each other; it’s one of the bases of identity and culture. But as the world becomes increasingly globalised and reliant on technology, English has…
Professor Digital Culture, Business and Computing at Durham University Business School and Advanced Research Computing (ARC), Durham University, Durham University