Danah boyd
| danah boyd | |
|---|---|
boyd in 2008
|
|
| Born |
November 24, 1977 Altoona, Pennsylvania |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Social media |
| Institutions |
Microsoft Research Harvard University New York University |
| Alma mater |
University of California, Berkeley, MIT Media Lab, Brown University |
| Thesis | Taken out of context: American teen sociality in networked publics (2008) |
| Doctoral advisor |
Peter Lyman Mizuko Ito |
| Known for | Commentary on sociality, identity, and culture among youth on social networks |
| Notable awards | Technology Review TR35 Young Innovators 2010 |
|
Website www |
|
danah boyd (styled lowercase, born November 24, 1977 as Danah Michele Mattas) is a social media scholar, youth researcher, and advocate working at Microsoft Research, New York University Media Culture & Communication and the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
Boyd grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Altoona, Pennsylvania, and attended Manheim Township High School from 1992–1996. According to her website, she was born Danah Michele Mattas. Once she reached college, she chose to take her maternal grandfather's name, Boyd, as her own last name. She settled decided to spell her name in lowercase so as "to reflect my mother's original balancing and to satisfy my own political irritation at the importance of capitalization." After her parents' divorce, in 1982, she moved to York, Pennsylvania, with her mother and her brother. Her mother married again during danah's third grade and the family moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She used online discussions forums to escape from high school. She called Lancaster a "religious and conservative" city. Thanks to some online discussions, she decided to identify as queer.
A few years later, her brother taught her how to use IRC and Usenet. Even though she thought computers were "lame", the possibilities for connecting with others intrigued her. She became an avid participant on Usenet and IRC in her junior year in high school, spending a lot of time browsing, creating content, and conversing with strangers.
Though active in many extra-curricular activities and excelling academically, boyd had a difficult time socially in high school. She assigns her survival to her mother, the Internet, and a classmate whose misogynistic comments inspired her to excel.
Her initial ambition was to become an astronaut but after an injury, she became more interested in the Internet.
...
Wikipedia