Kayla D. Hales, visiting assistant professor in communication technology in
the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media

Hales' interdisciplinary research is informed by social, behavioral, and
technical perspectives that seek to explain social interaction and
technology usage. Her ultimate goal is to determine how technologies can be
utilized to improve social welfare and quality of life with a focus on
non-platonic relationships. Previous research methodologies used for her
work include surveys, semi-structured interviews, and content analysis. She
is interested in digital ethnography, experiments, and longitudinal studies
for future studies. Hales earned her doctorate degree from the College of
Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State. Her dissertation titled
"YOU, ME, and IT: Multimedia Relationship Maintenance in the 21st Century,"
focused on behaviors individuals enact during computer-mediated
communication to maintain their non-platonic relationships. Other research
interests include ethnic differences, the digital divide, human-computer
interaction, human behavior, identity in electronic environments, individual
differences, relational development, social computing, and socio-technical
systems.