SNA All-Star: Dr. Keith Hampton

Dr. Keith Hampton is currently an Associate Professor at Rutgers University in the School of Communication and Information and an affiliate member of the graduate faculty in Sociology. He teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in digital media, communication & society, and social networks. His most notable and recent research focuses on the nature of social networks and how they influence or change urban environments.

Dr. Hampton’s contributions to the SNA field include combining heavy sociological analysis of how modern media and technology intersect with the established SNA paradigms. His work is highly collaborative and involves input from both faculty and graduate students. He has used data from a wide variety of sources – from telephone surveys, to field observations, to census numbers.

Through empirical and longitudinal studies of how technology affects social interactions and well-being, Dr. Hampton focuses on several different yet interconnected themes such as pervasive awareness, social interaction in public spaces, and social media & well-being. His research on Pervasive Awareness is particularly interesting, to me, as it studies “possible outcomes associated with the pervasive nature of social media”* The study aims to examine how “pervasive exposure to information from people’s personal network of friends and family, combined with the anywhere-anytime accessibility of social ties, is likely to affect outcomes”* related to psychological health and the formation of an individual’s opinion.  Perhaps, the larger one’s social network the more distracted or stressed this individual can become?

Another element to his research encompasses the urban environment and social life. Many of his projects examine intersections between public spaces, isolation, and new mobile technologies. One of Dr. Hampton’s projects is an update of American urbanist and organizational analyst William Whyte’s 1980 study titled “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces;” Hampton modernized the research model by observing seven wireless internet abled public parks in 4 cities across North America to identify “how mobile devices augment local interactions and people’s social networks.”*

In the course of his career thus far, Dr. Hampton has received numerous awards and recognitions for his contribution to the fields of sociology, international communication, and urban studies, among others.

    

*Quotes taken directly from Professor Hampton’s public webpage. Click here to visit Dr. Keith Hampton's Website.