Making Sense of Techno-Society

• Department of Political and Social Sciences

PhD thesis defence by Tae Kyeong Meixner-Yun

Digitalisation, while offering new opportunities for connectivity, also introduces new challenges and unintended consequences for social relationships. My thesis broadly investigates the following question: How does the digitalisation of social relations affect social cohesion? I draw on Durkheim’s definition of social cohesion, which emphasises the presence of strong social bonds and the absence of latent conflicts along the salient social categories. In the first chapter, I examine how the predominant shift to online interaction during the pandemic affected social networks and loneliness during and after the pandemic. It uses longitudinal data with a nationally representative sample. In the second chapter, I investigate whether gender status bias observed in in-person settings carries over to video conferencing by conducting laboratory and online experiments. In the third chapter, I explore individuals’ experiences and narratives regarding the use of video conferencing. Drawing on 21 semi-structured interviews, I examine how individuals experience different features of video conferencing in relation to gender differences in interpersonal behaviours. The findings from the first and second chapters suggest that the digitalisation of social relations may have adverse effects on social cohesion. Increased reliance on online interaction without sufficient offline interaction may undermine weak ties, potentially hindering interconnectedness across social groups and increase loneliness (Chapter 1). Additionally, gender status bias may persist in video conferencing, reflecting underlying social divisions within digital spaces (Chapter 2). The third chapter, however, found that gender status bias might not necessarily translate into gender differences in interpersonal behaviours in video conferencing, which may promote gender equity. Overall, this thesis highlights both the opportunities and challenges that the digital transformation of social relations poses to social cohesion. 

Tae Kyeong Meixner-Yun is a PhD researcher at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute. Since May 2025, he has been working a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB). His PhD research examine how digitalised forms of social relations affect social cohesion, particularly focusing on social networks and social status bias. He is currently researching how spatial dynamics influence the integration of refugees in Germany. He uses both quantitative and qualitative methods, including experiments and interviews. He holds Master’s degrees from the London School of Economics (LSE) and Freie Universität Berlin.