Welcome!

I’m Agata, and I’m a PhD Candidate who is, well, over 40.

I never thought I would be in this position. I graduated with a Bachelor of Education in Adult Education from the University of Technology Sydney in 2008, more than a decade after finishing high school. I lived in Spain for a while, then came back home to complete a Master of Digital Communication and Culture from the University of Sydney. I enjoyed the research component of this enough to try for a PhD. It worked out well for me.

I’ve had this domain, and some form of blog on here since, oohhh…. 2006 – but like my life, it keeps changing -It had no real direction or presence so it got neglected, resurrected, neglected, resurrected… it’s in a resurrection phase as of 2020.

This iteration is a place for me to start documenting my journey as a PhD Candidate in Media and Communications at Sydney Uni. I do have social media accounts, but mostly I use them for actually being social. I guess this is an open journal for anyone else who, like me, found themselves committing to postgraduate research later in life and needs a place to brain dump. Not so much the questions of “why the hell am I doing this?”, but more the “what am I struggling with?” and “where is my thinking at?” sort.

As my research becomes clearer I’ll start adding more details in here about specifically what I am covering and why. The high level primer is a combination of critical algorithm studies, human-machine communication, and a look at user agency on social platforms.

I’d love to have you comment on my journey, or even your own while you are here.