Mimi Ito
Professor in Residence Informatics | UC Irvine
Irvine, CA, UNITED STATES
Mizuko Ito is a cultural anthropologist of technology use, focusing on children and youth's changing relationships to media.
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Biography
Mizuko Ito is a cultural anthropologist of technology use, focusing on children and youth's changing relationships to media and communications. She recently completed a research project supported by the MacArthur Foundation a three year ethnographic study of kid-initiated and peer-based forms of engagement with new media. In 2008, she was awarded the Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies from the American Educational Research Association.
Areas of Expertise (4)
Media and Communications
Anthropology
Children/Video Games
Technology
Accomplishments (1)
Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research (professional)
2008
Education (3)
Stanford University: PhD, Anthropology 2003
Stanford University: PhD, Education 1998
Stanford University: MA, Anthropology 1991
Links (8)
Media Appearances (8)
LABS: Denzel Curry and Dr. Mimi Ito on Anime Culture
Talkhouse (Sing for Science) radio
2024-07-13
Recorded Live at the Anime Station store in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles on July 13, 2024, rapper Denzel Curry talks with UC Irvine cultural anthropologist Dr. Mimi Ito about his relationship to anime and anime culture in Japan and abroad. We discuss Mimi’s research that tracked how manga and anime grew from just a Japanese export to a global phenomenon.
Can You Hide a Child’s Face From A.I.?
The New York Times online
2023-10-14
Mimi Ito, [professor in residence], a cultural anthropologist and director of the Connected Learning Lab at the University of California, Irvine, said facial recognition technology makes the otherwise joyful sharing of children’s photos online more challenging. “There’s a growing awareness that with A.I., we don’t really have control of all the data that we’re spewing into the social media ecosystem,” she said.
The underdiscussed upsides of screen time for kids
Desert News online
2022-03-24
When they get involved in online communities or learn to run Youtube channels and blogs and make content, adolescents learn skills that will help them survive in the digital world later on, says Mimi Ito, a cultural anthropologist of technology use at the University of California, Irvine. These activities have a “real-worldness to it that they never get to experience through school safe assignments,” she says. “They’re getting real authentic feedback from communities.”
Meet the teens making the digital world a kinder and gentler place
CNN online
2021-11-12
Families can encourage a better human experience for kids by moving away from the quantity conversation and toward establishing quality, said Mimi Ito, director of the Connected Learning Lab at University of California Irvine and cofounder of Connected Camps who is also part of HX. There are a number of questions parents can ask themselves to determine if their kid — and each kid is different — is experiencing quality.
How Has Social Media Impacted Our Mental Health?
Gizmodo online
2021-08-16
“It is safe to say that social media can contribute to both healthy and unhealthy behaviors when it comes to mental health, and just as with offline social life, we need to be mindful of what kinds of relationships and content contributes or detracts from our wellbeing," [says Mizuko Ito].
Instagram For Kids Could Work If Done Right, Experts Say
Lifewire online
2021-03-24
"The way online platforms and regulations are designed right now, it assumes there’s this cliff at 13 where kids are thrown into the wild open internet," Dr. Mimi Ito, director at the Connected Learning Lab at the University of California, Irvine, and CEO of Connected Camps, told Lifewire over the phone.
How Three Nonprofits Are Connecting Kids With Diverse Mentors During the Pandemic
EdSurge online
2021-03-10
It isn’t always easy, especially during a global pandemic. But in the past year, a handful of education organizations have expanded and adapted their capacity to connect students with diverse mentors and interest areas. Together, we’re leveraging technology in unique ways to forge connections that will last well beyond the pandemic.
It's A Smartphone Life: More Than Half Of U.S. Children Now Have One
NPR online
2019-10-31
Teens report spending only 3 percent of their screen time on creative pursuits like writing, or making art, or music — outside of homework or school projects. But some researchers, like Emily Weinstein at Harvard, and Mimi Ito at the University of California, Irvine, note that social media platforms like TikTok, Snapchat or Instagram can be platforms for creative expression in ways that aren't necessarily captured by a survey like this. It also may be that teens use their consumption to inform and inspire their creative expression, like Mingo, an aspiring animator, does.
Articles (5)
Observational evidence of supercooling and frazil ice formation throughout the water column in a coastal polynya in the Sea of Okhotsk
Continental Shelf Research2020 This paper examines underwater frazil ice formation in a coastal polynya. In a coastal polynya, the seawater near the ocean surface can become supercooled due to intense atmospheric cooling. Supercooled water sinks deeper under turbulent conditions, resulting in frazil ice formation in the water column.
Environmentally Friendly Syntheses of Imines Applying the Pressure Reduction Technique: Reaction Cases of Less Reactive Amines and Studies by Computational Chemistry
Green and Sustainable Chemistry2020 Recently, the development of environmentally friendly syntheses of imine derivatives, which were attracting great attention for their reactivity and structure in various fields, progressed rapidly because the concept of green chemistry had deeply penetrated into society. In our previous work, we had reported new synthetic methods of imine derivatives using some active amines under solvent- and catalyst-free reaction conditions.
Online article for Non-subscribers
Heterocycles2020 Nosyl annulation of a bithiophene derivative with nosylamide (NsNH 2) gives a 5-7-5 fused N, S-heterocyclic compound. The detailed molecular structure of the obtained nosylamide was analyzed by single-crystal X-ray crystallography.
Diffuse alveolar haemorrhage in a case with anti-RNA polymerase III antibody-positive systemic sclerosis successfully treated with plasma exchange and corticosteroid therapy
Modern Rheumatology Case Reports2020 A 63-year-old woman was admitted because of diffuse alveolar haemorrhage complicated with systemic sclerosis. High anti-RNA polymerase III (RNAP III) antibody titre was detected despite normal blood pressure and renal function. Antibodies other than anti-RNAP III antibody were negative.
Favorable conditions for suspension freezing in an Arctic coastal polynya
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans2019 Arctic sea ice incorporates and transports sediment, releasing it back into the water column during the melting season. This process constitutes an important aspect of marine sediment transport and biogeochemical cycling. Sediment incorporation into sea ice is considered to occur mainly through underwater interaction between frazil ice and resuspended sediment, referred to as suspension freezing.
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