Speaker

,

Author

Tony D. Sampson

Follow

Tony D. Sampson is Reader in Digital Communication at the University of Essex Business School and co-founder of the Cultural Engine Research Group. Author of several books including Virality, A Sleepwalker’s Guide to Social Media, and The Assemblage Brain, his work examines how networked media environments and platform business models shape behaviour, attention, and political life.

He is currently working on a new book, The Struggle for [User] Experience: Birth, School, Work, Death, with the University of Minnesota Press. The project extends his analysis of digital influence by examining how the logic of user experience design and marketing increasingly structures institutions and everyday practices across the life course.

https://www.essex.ac.uk/people/SAMPS41407/Tony-Sampson

Tony D. Sampson is Reader in Digital Communication at the University of Essex Business School and co-founder of the Cultural Engine Research Group. Author of several books including Virality, A Sleepwalker’s Guide to Social Media, and The Assemblage Brain, his work examines how networked media environments and platform business models shape behaviour, attention, and political life.

He is currently working on a new book, The Struggle for [User] Experience: Birth, School, Work, Death, with the University of Minnesota Press. The project extends his analysis of digital influence by examining how the logic of user experience design and marketing increasingly structures institutions and everyday practices across the life course.

More Videos

Margaret Boden, George Ellis, Warren Ellis, Joanna Kavenna

Minds, Machines and Magic

Mark Salter, Helen Croydon, Richard K. Morgan, John Cottingham

The Story of I

Galen Strawson, Bruce Hood, Marya Schechtman

Life story

Hilary Lawson, John Lloyd, Stephen Hull, Jonathan Calvert

Story Time

Stephen Frears, Hermione Lee, Katie Derham, Ray Monk

The Art of Life

The Art of Imagination

Joanna Kavenna, Shahidha Bari, Andrew Motion, Lowkey

The Key to Creativity

Julian Baggini, Dylan Evans, Jasper Fforde, Eliane Glaser

Imagining Reality

Steve Fuller, Janne Teller, Naomi Goulder

Authenticity, Reality and Being

Terry Eagleton, Terry Pratchett, Antonia Byatt

At the world's edge

The Doubleness of Oscar Wilde

Suzannah Lipscomb

The King's Will

Jonathan Derbyshire, Terry Eagleton, Joanne Harris, Paul Boghossian

Strange new worlds

Iain McGilchrist

A Spider in the Eye

Authenticity is a Con

Rana Mitter, Heather Peto, Miles Berry, Julia Long

Mirror, Mirror

Peter Curran, Anders Sandberg, Jenny Boyd, Allen Jones

Conditions for creativity

Justina Robson, Nicholas Royle, Jim Crace

Myths for Modernity

How to Rediscover Your Creativity

Mark Haddon, Jim Crace, Michael Symmons Roberts, Ted Hodgkinson

Dark Satanic Mills

Taking Humour Seriously

Mike Figgis, Jasper Fforde, Lyse Doucet, Adam Roberts

Imagining the Truth

Stanley Fish, Renata Salecl, Sophie Fiennes, Linda Woodhead

Killer Stories

Michael Morpurgo, Stephanie Merritt

The Arc of Life: Michael Morpurgo

Godfrey Barker, Timothy Secret, Sokari Douglas Camp, Colin Grant

In the Moment

Kevin Warwick, Quentin Cooper, Angela Saini, Luciano Floridi, Eva Aldea

The Fantasy of Technology

Andrew Copson, Frank Furedi, Gwyneth Jones, Philip Pullman

The Great Escape

A Field Guide to Reality

Angie Hobbs, Peter York, Polly Morland, Ian Blair

Death of the Hero

Hilary Lawson, Sean Curran, Imogen Stubbs, Anthony Neilson

The Mirror to Nature

Writing the End Times

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Tales of an Extravagant Stranger

Peter Curran, Doon Mackichan, Malcolm Guite, Frances Spalding

Austen vs Woolf

Poetry and the Transmission of Errors

Jonathan Derbyshire, Ziauddin Sardar, Giles Fraser, Hilary Rose, Bjorn Lomborg

Uncharted Territory

Lust, Love and the Late Madame Picasso

Hilary Lawson, Marcel Theroux, Sophie Fiennes, Peter Watson

Irony, Truth and Reality

Our Hopeless Future & Other Comedy

Roger Graef, Jerry Rothwell, Hilary Lawson, Susan Richards

Shooting Truth

The Mara Crossing

Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On

Rhyme and Punishment

Dangerous Virtues

Tim McInerny, Nell Leyshon

Order out of Chaos

Michael Morpurgo

Stories Worth Telling

A writer's voice

Poetry Live

Standing up to sexism

Why do we laugh?

Mark Salter, Sophie Fiennes, Betty Sue Flowers, Noël Carroll

Fantasy and reality

More Articles

An open book with intricately cut pages, showcasing detailed patterns and textures created by the cutouts in the paper.

Poetry and the Transmission of Errors

A surreal landscape featuring a floating island with lush greenery and waterfalls cascading into darkness, set against a dramatic sky filled with storm clouds.

Myth and Modernity

Two hands forming a frame against a blue sky and grassy field, creating a visual focal point in nature.

Truth and Imagination

A surreal landscape featuring a large, gnarled tree amidst a vibrant, swirling yellow and orange background, with two figures standing nearby.

In Praise of Sci-Fi

A white cat perched on a tree branch amidst bare branches, with a cloudy sky in the background.

High Irony

A diptych of two monochrome images of houses, showcasing contrasting shadows and lighting on their facades.

We are the Disaster

A long, dimly lit tunnel with curved metal walls, featuring concrete flooring and a single figure walking down the corridor.

Language at the End of the World

A man with a bald head and glasses stands against a blue sky, wearing a dark coat and a turtleneck.

Off Peak Dreams

A historical black-and-white photo of a woman wearing a military-style outfit and glasses, with a rifle slung over her shoulder, suggesting involvement in a conflict.

Against History: A Lesson from Simone Weil

A stylized animated family portrait featuring a man in traditional attire, a woman in a toga, and two children, set in an ancient-themed background.

Massimo Pigliucci

Beard vs Taleb: Scientism and Historical Inquiry

A woman with long braided hair and a luxurious fur coat poses in the window of a classic car, showcasing an elegant style.

Jeanette Bicknell

Sincerity and Superstars

A bouquet of dried flowers, including yellow roses and small white blooms, placed against a weathered gravestone with inscriptions.

Kierkegaard's Existential Lover

A woman in a red gown stands on a snowy train platform, with a vintage train in the background and two men observing her.

Catherine Brown

Why Do We Fall in Love With Fictional Characters?

A large crowd marches in a parade, holding portraits of historical figures, with flags in the background, near the Kremlin in Moscow.

Catherine Brown

Laughing and Crying About the Second World War

A young girl with short brown hair in a green and white striped shirt stands next to a large, ethereal dragon against a night sky.

Edward McDougall

Spirited Away with Heidegger

Close-up of a red fox with a thick, orange fur coat and subtle facial features, set against a snowy background.

Jeremy Lefkowitz

Listening to Aesop’s Animals

A person in a flowing red skirt walks past a large, colorful abstract painting featuring vibrant greens, yellows, and blue brushstrokes.

Life As a Work of Art

A surreal image featuring three overlapping silhouettes of a person standing in a park, with vibrant green and pink hues dominating the scene.

Lisa Bortolotti

What's Your Story?

A man in sunglasses sits confidently in a red leather chair, surrounded by a backdrop of cascading green digital code reminiscent of

What is Afrofuturism?

Close-up portrait of an elderly man with weathered skin and silver hair, showcasing deep facial lines and an intense gaze. The image has a reddish tint.

Beckett's Political Imagination

A contemplative young woman gazes through horizontal wooden blinds, resting her chin on her hand with a thoughtful expression.

How We Think of Our Lives

A person in a hat bends down to feed birds, with several birds gathered around them pecking at the ground.

On Rationality and Nonsense

A person using a typewriter in a room decorated with photos, focused on a colorful pop-up scene displayed in front of them.

Styling the self

A hand holding a crystal ball reflecting a sunset landscape, featuring a road and fields under a colorful sky.

Coleridge and the unconscious

A surreal painting depicting a man in a bowler hat walking towards a mirrored corridor, creating an infinite reflection effect.

Simon Critchley

We are all tyrants

A robotic hand gently holds a small green plant, symbolizing the intersection of technology and nature against a bright blue background.

Nature is a jazz band, not a machine

A close-up of two hands: one giving a thumbs up on a green background and the other giving a thumbs down on a red background.

Beauty is not just subjective

An abstract painting featuring dynamic blue and turquoise waves, with angular shapes and pops of red, evoking a sense of movement and emotion.

The new world of metamodernism

Three pieces of round, golden dough with different shapes imprinted on them: a triangle, a star, and a crescent, arranged on a wooden surface.

Edward Castronova

Life is a squid game

Golden, round and star-shaped pancake batter on a griddle, showcasing a textured surface with bubbles and a rustic cooking environment.

Life is not a squid game