The Steven Chaffee Memorial Lecture
Friday, October 18, 2024 3:30-5:00pm in SSMS 1009
Reception to follow in the SSMS 4th floor foyer
Prof. Jeffrey Hall
University of Kansas
“Social Media: Irony, Context, and Digital Thriving”
Abstract
The contemporary debate about whether social media is bad for you is fraught with familiar
narratives about media harms. Debates about the nature of social media and its uses tend to
get lost when the debate is framed as a causal harm with dire impacts. Prof. Hall will offer an
ironic, contextual view of social media use while firmly grounding the debate about harms of
social media in the empirical literature. To understand social media better, we also must explore
the conditions of its use, particularly in personal relationships and well-being.
Bio
Jeffrey Hall (PhD, USC Annenberg School of Communication) is a professor of communication
studies at the University of Kansas and a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for
Internet and Society at Harvard Law. His book, Relating Through Technology (Cambridge
University Press), received several awards and was featured in the New York
Times, the Washington Post, and CNN. His upcoming new book with Andy Merolla, The
Social Biome (Yale University Press) explores the complex ways in which our social health and
well-being are intertwined. The former Chair of the Human Communication and Technology
Division of NCA, and the Interpersonal Communication Division at ICA, he is the director of
the Relationships and Technology Lab at the University of Kansas as well as the director of
graduate studies.