Alex Turvy

Hi, I'm Alex Turvy

I'm a PhD candidate studying social media culture.

I'm interested in understanding the everyday socializing that happens on TikTok and Instagram. Despite what you might have heard, social media very much is real life.

My Work

Research Interests and Methodologies

My work centers around how people sort through their identity and perceptions of authenticity on social media. More specifically, I’m interested in the new forms of sociality that are emerging on these platforms and how offline social dynamics are being reshaped and recreated online.

My work is informed by Science and Technology Studies (STS) as a framework - I see social media platforms as sociotechnical assemblages that both shape us and are shaped by us. Most of my research concerns Instagram and/or TikTok.

Plus, lots of fun stuff: memes, online humor, and niche Instagram pages.

I’m a mixed-methods researcher with experience in a wide range of advanced quantitative methods. I primarily work in R and use Python for some of my data wrangling and API interactions. Qualitatively, I primarily use (multimodal) critical discourse analysis, case studies, and interviews.

Ongoing Work

(Last updated 12/19/2024)

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Commentary and Other Analysis

Presentations

Media

Experience

All of the nitty-gritty is documented on my LinkedIn page, but prior to my academic career I worked in K-12 education and operations. I have lots of experience with community-engaged work and with large-scale operations, financial and facilities management, project management, and event planning and execution.