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Tom Divon
Media & Culture Researcher




Let’s scroll  ︎︎︎

ABOUT



I'm Tom Divon, a researcher, teacher, activiset, and proud father to my Corgi, Alex. My home is the Internet. I explore digital cultures and platformed life, asking critical questions about content creators, political identities, affordances, content moderation, memetic practices, activism, and Palestinian resistance. My work spans the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, using a qualitative toolkit that includes multimodal analysis, interviews, observations, ethnography, and more.

In my ongoing work, I study the never-ending cultural frictions between the online world and humanity as I inquire into the two sides: how people use the internet, including creators, lurkers, influencers, and any other agents with interest, as well as how the internet designs, shapes and affects users' behaviors.

Among my publications, you'll find my ongoing passion in platforms and the frequent misinterpretations of both Palestinian and Jewish activists and their cultural content moderation. My attention is also given to platformized modes of resistance and witnessing, as well as the interplay of trauma and playfulness in creators' lives, expressed through audiovisual memes and generative AI.

Please journey through my world as you scroll ︎

PUBLICATIONS

WORK IN PROGRESS



#VladdyDaddy On TikTok:
Users Imagined Imtimacy and Online Memetic Participation 🇷🇺
Authenticity-by-Demand:
Bullying Influencers Into Activism Labor In Times of War


Playful Platforms:
The Memeification of Participatory Violence Acts on TikTok


The Harm of AirDrop:
Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence in Everyday Lives of Young Women