PJ Rey is a sociology graduate student at the University of Maryland. He is a managing editor of the Cyborgology blog and a lead organizer of the Theorizing the Web conferences. His work is, primarly, focused on the social and political implications of the Internet, particularly user-generated content or social media. His current research examines the “culture of hyper-visibility” that has developed in tandem with online social media. He argues that visibility may produce serious negative consequences for certain groups (e.g., LGBT persons, high school students, small towns, etc.), while simply augmenting the social capital of other technologically literate and high-status groups.
PJ Rey is a sociology graduate student at the University of Maryland. His work is, primarly, focused on the social and political implications of the Internet, particularly user-generated content or social media. His work is mainly theoretical, drawing inspiration from the Frankfurt School and French post-Structuralism, but he has collected survey and qualitative interview data for several projects. His current research examines the “culture of hyper-visibility” that has developed in tandem with online social media. He argues that visibility may produce serious negative consequences for certain groups (e.g., LGBT persons, high school students, small towns, etc.), while simply augmenting the social capital of other technologically literate and high-status groups. Visibility has broad implications for the operation of power in society, becoming a mechanism responsible for new forms of social inequality. He also studies a variety of related topics such as labor on social media, online dating, and Internet use and well-being.
His MA paper, "Alienation, Exploitation, and Social Media" has recently be reworked into an article for the American Behavioral Scientist. PJ was also a lead organizer of the recent Theorizing the Web 2011 conference.
PJ grew up in the Pittsburgh area. In 2006, he complete a BA with a double major in Political Science and Humanities at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. As an undergraduate, he was one of the few students each year to be inducted into the Da Vinci Society and was selected as the 2006 class representative/comencement speaker. He then began an MA in Continental philosophy at Duquesne University, which he completed in the Spring of 2008. PJ accepted a C.W. Mills Fellowship to study sociology at the University of Maryland beginning in the Fall of 2008. In 2010, PJ was awarded his MA in sociology and continues to work toward his Ph.D. under the advisement of George Ritzer.
PJ started the Cyborgology blog, one of the disciplines most well-trafficked technology and society blogs, along with his regular co-author and officemate Nathan Jurgenson.