One Book 2025-26: Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age

NOTE: This research guide is under construction. We will continue to add content during fall quarter.

Social Media, Connection, and Isolation

"[Y]our knowledge of my selfhood doesn't really concern the corporations behind these services, any more than my knowledge of my selfhood concerns them. What concerns them is their knowledge of how my performance of my selfhood through my posts, as well as through posts I consume, can be converted into financial gain."

-From "We Can All Connect and Share," p. 70 
Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age 

Social Media, Connection, and Isolation

Sample Topics and Keywords

Consider the topics and keywords below when searching for resources. Click on the "Dig Deeper into Your Research" tab in this guide to find relevant databases to your topic or try them in the One Search catalog on the library's homepage.

Social Media AND

  • Facebook OR Instagram OR TikTok
  • smart phones
  • social media 
  • social networks/networking
  • online communities
  • isolation
  • Subgroups
  • Parasocial relationships
  • Cyberbullying
  • Whiteness 
  • Beauty Standards
  • Race
  • Racism
  • Virtue Signaling
  • Cancel Culture
  • Gender
  • LGBTQ
  • Health Support 
  • mental health 
  • psychological impact
  • Algorithms
  • Marketing
  • Digital Activism
  • Fandoms
  • Gaming Communities
  • Online Friends
  • Chatrooms
  • Virtual communities
  • Influencers
  • phubbing phenomenon
  • Loneliness AND robots OR AI

Sample Resources

Reference Articles

News Articles

Scholarship

Multimedia

Source: " How AI is learning what it means to be human " by Walter De Brouwer, TED Talks is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Closed Captioning and transcript available at website

Featured Print and eBooks to Consider