Dr. Tali Gazit
My primary research focus is Internet Psychology, specifically the study of social media communities such as WhatsApp groups, Facebook communities, and their respective leaders. My research investigates engagement on social media and its correlation with various well-being factors, personality traits, and other psychological aspects.
I am particularly interested in studying how older adults interact with technology, leadership in the digital era, and phenomena like FoMO (Fear of Missing Out) and JoMO (Joy of Missing Out).
As an educator, I am passionate about teaching and enjoy integrating digital tools and social activities into my classes. As a researcher, I love collaborating with researchers from a variety of disciplines worldwide.
CV
EDUCATION:
Ph.D. – Information Science - a recipient of the scholarship for honor doctoral students, Bar-Ilan University, 2017.
Thesis: Participation and Lurking in Social Discussions in Facebook Groups. Supervisors: Prof. Bar-Ilan and Prof. Amichai-Hamburger.
M.A – Bibliotherapy (Magna cum laude), Faculty of Education, Haifa University, 2006.
Thesis: Self-disclosure in Personal Profiles in Online Dating Sites. Supervisor: Prof. Azi Barak.
B.A – Psychology and Philosophy, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2001.
HISTORY OF ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS:
2015 – Present, Senior faculty member, the Department of Information Science, Bar-Ilan University.
2017 – 2018, External teacher, School of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.
2008 – 2018, Teaching and Research Assistant, School of Communication, Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.
2013 – 2015, Research Assistant in a project about E-democracy, Bar-Ilan University, the Department of Information Science
1995 – 2005, Teacher, "Sivan" and "John Bryce" colleges, Jerusalem/Tel-Aviv.
1993 - 1995, Teacher at "Mamram", IDF.
Courses
Course no. 35-894: Psychological aspects in the digital age.
Course no. 35-713: Organizational behavior.
Course no. 35-915: The digital man.
Course no. 35-903: Bibliotherapy.
Course no. 35-975: Advanced Statistics and Research Methods.
Course no. 35-994: An Introduction to Statistics and Research Methods.
Publications
Gazit, T., Bergman, Y., Hoffman, Y., Weissberger, G. & Shrira, A. (in press). The effect of positive and negative daily social media experiences on older adults’ subjective age: Unveiling the negativity bias in Whatsapp groups. New Media and Society.
Gazit, T. (2024). “For students shall not live by Zoom alone”: psychological factors explaining the engagement of students during the COVID-19. Information and Learning Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-02-2023-0019
Eitan, T. & Gazit, T. (2024). Explaining transformational leadership styles of digital leaders through the example of Facebook group admins. Technology in Society, 78, 102637. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2024.102637.
Levine, D. & Gazit, T. (2024). Unorthodox information sources of coping with the COVID-19 crisis in the ultra-Orthodox society. Social Science Computer Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393241246282
Eitan, T. & Gazit, T. (2024). The “here and now” effect: JoMO, FoMO and the well-being of social media users. Online Information Review. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-03-2023-0111
Gal, L., Bronstein, J. & Gazit, T. (2024). Whispering to parents: The personal and demographic uniqueness of Facebook parent community leaders. Media Frames (Hebrew). https://doi.org/10.57583/MF.2024.25.10042
Eitan, T. & Gazit, T. (2023). No social media for six hours? The emotional experience of Meta’s global outage according to FoMO, JoMO and Internet intensity. Computers in Human Behavior, 138, 107474. See here
Gazit, T., Nisim, S. & Ayalon, L. (2023). Intergenerational family WhatsApp groups and older adults' overall wellbeing. Online Information Review, 47 (2), 221-237. See here
Gazit, T., Mass, H. & Bronstein, J. (2023). Examining Facebook groups engaging in reading experiences: The Interactive Therapeutic Process perspective. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 41(1), 259–283. See here
Gazit, T. & Aharon, G. (2023). Does dark mode matter? The influence of the background color on users’ perception. iConference 2023 Proceedings. See here
Gazit, T. & Eden, S. (2023). Personality characteristics and students’ engagement in a forced distance learning. Proceedings of the 18th Chais Conference for the Study of Innovation and Learning Technologies: Learning in the Digital Era, 3E-9E. See here
Levine, D. & Gazit, T. (2023). Ways of dealing with the Coronavirus crisis through traditional and digital sources of information among the Haredi public. Meida'at: Journal of Information Science and Librarianship (Hebrew), 20. See here
Rehman, U., Shah, M. U., Danzinger, F., Gazit, T., Hung, P. C., & Gurkas Aydin, G. Z. (2023). Guest editorial: Human factors in business technology management. EuroMed Journal of Business, 18(3), 313-320. See here
Avizohar, C., Gazit, T. & Aharony, N. (2023). Facebook medical support groups: The Communication Privacy Management perspective. Aslib Journal of Information Management. See here
Gal, L., Gazit, T. & Bronstein, J. (2023). The motivations of leaders to lead Facebook online groups: A case study of parenting groups. Behaviour & Information Technology, 1-13. See here
Gazit, T. (2022). "For students shall not live by Zoom alone": Psychological factors explaining the engagement of students in academic studies during the COVID-19. Meida'at: Journal of Information Science and Librarianship (Hebrew). See here
Gazit. T. (2021). Key motivations for leading Facebook communities: A Uses and Gratifications approach. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 73 (3), 454-472. See here.
Gazit. T. (2021). Exploring leadership in Facebook communities: Personality traits and activities. Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences HICSS (Jan, 2021), See paper here and a short video here
Eitan, T. & Gazit, T. (2021). Leader behaviors in Facebook support groups: An exploratory study. Current Psychology. See here
Gazit, T. & Bronstein, J. (2020). An exploration of the leadership strategies of Facebook community leaders. Online Information Review, 45(1), 99-117. See here
Gazit, T. & Amichai-Hamburger, Y. (2020). Factors underlying engagement in Facebook support groups of female infertility patients, Psychological Reports, 124(3), 1150-1173. See here
Bar-Ilan, J., Gazit, T. & Amichai-Hamburger, Y. (2020). Leading factors that explain engagement in closed Facebook groups. Information Research, 25(3), paper 866. See here
Gazit, T., Aharony, N. & Amichai-Hamburger, Y. (2019). Tell me who you are and I will tell you which SNS you use: SNSs Participation frequency. Online Information Review, 44(1), 139-161. See here
Gazit, T. (2019, April). Engagement in Facebook learning groups. iConference 2019, University of Maryland, Washington, DC, USA. See here
Gazit, T., Amichai-Hamburger, A., & Bar-Ilan, J. (2019, February). Student engagement in a Facebook group supporting a university course, A paper presented at Chais2019 conference, Open University, Ra'anana: Israel. See here
Aharony, N., & Gazit, T. (2019). Factors affecting students' information literacy self-efficacy. Library Hi-Tech, 37(2), 183-196. See here
Gazit, T. & Aharony, N. (2018, October). WhatsApp Groups Managers Characteristics. ISIC conference 2018, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
Gazit, T. & Aharony, N. (2018). Factors Explaining Participation in WhatsApp Groups: An Exploratory Study. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 70 (4), 390-413. See here
Gazit, T., Bronstein, J., Amichai-Hamburger, Y., Aharony, N., Bar-Ilan, J., & Perez, O. (2018). Active participants and lurkers in online discussion groups: a qualitative analysis of focus groups. Information Research, 23 (2) paper 791. Retrieved from http://www.informationr.net/ir/23-2/paper791.html
Aharony, N., & Gazit, T. (2018). Students' information literacy self-efficacy: An exploratory study. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 52(1), 224-236. See here
Perez, O., Bar-Ilan, J., Gazit, T., Amichai-Hamburger, Y., Aharony, N., & Bronstein, J. (2018). The Prospects of E-Democracy: An experimental study of collaborative E- Rulemaking. Journal of Information Technology & Politics. See here
Gazit, T. (2017). Participation and Lurking in Social Discussions in Facebook Groups. (Doctoral Dissertation). Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel. See here
Aharony, N., & Gazit, T. (2016). The Importance of the WhatsApp Family Group: An Exploratory Analysis. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 68 (2), 174 – 192. See here
Amichai-Hamburger, Y., Gazit, T., Bar-Ilan, J., Perez, O., Aharony, N., Bronstein, J., & Dyne, T. S. (2016). Psychological factors behind the lack of participation. Computers in Human Behavior, 55(1), 268-277. See here
Bronstein, J., Gazit, T., Perez, O., Bar-Ilan, J., Aharony, N., & Amichai-Hamburger, Y. (2016). An examination of the factors contributing to participation in online social platforms. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 36 (6), 793-818. See here
Lectures and conferences
2022
Virtual leadership in social media. Chair of a seminar in INFO 2022 - The 36 Annual Conference & Exhibition, Tel-Aviv, May 2022. See program and opening lecture (in Hebrew)
Mass, H., Gazit, T. & Bronstein, J. (2022, May). Examining participation in Facebook groups engaging in reading experiences. Poster presented at: Conceptions of Library and Information Science - CoLIS11, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
2021
Exploring leadership in Facebook communities: Personality traits and activities. Paper presented at the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences HICSS (Jan, 2021), See paper here and a short video here
Online leadership in social media sites. Paper presented at Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) conference, Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia, April, 2021.
2019
Leading Factors That Enhance Engagement in Closed Facebook Groups. Paper presented at: Communication & Media Studies: The Future of Democracy in The Digital Age, University of Bonn, Germany, September 2019. See here
Engagement in Facebook learning groups. A poster presented at: iConference2019, University of Maryland, Washington, DC, USA, April 2019. See here
Student engagement in a Facebook group supporting a university course. Paper presented at: Chaise 2019 conference, Open University, Ra'anana, Israel, February 2019. See here
קבוצות פייסבוק כמלוות קורסים אקדמיים: כיצד יוצרים בהן מעורבות? מאמר שהוצג בכנס מיט"ל ה-17, מרכז יצחק רבין, ת"א (מושב א'2: דגמי הוראה ייחודיים), יולי 2019. כאן
מ'נשמע משפחה שלי? על חשיבותן של קבוצות הוואטסאפ המשפחתיות. הרצאה שניתנה במסגרת ליל המדענים והמדעניות באוניברסיטת בר-אילן. כאן
2018
Virtual leadership: WhatsApp groups managers. A poster presented in ISIC2018, Krakow, October 2018. See here
Searching for love on the Internet. A lecture in a Conference on Technologies and Information in the Internet Age, Bar-Ilan University, April 2018
2017
Ask us a question: Who and what enhance discussions in Facebook groups? A lecture presented in INFO 2017 - The 32 Annual Conference & Exhibition, Tel-Aviv, May 2017.
2016
Participation and Lurking in Virtual Groups. Participating in a doctoral colloquium in iConference2016, Philadelphia, USA, March 2016.
Media
My website (in Hebrew)
An interview with Prof. Yoram Yovel about heart break at the digital age (Hebrew)
Facebook community leaders (English)
Does Dark Mode Matter? (English)
A short video clip about my PhD dissertation (English)
Student engagement in a Facebook group supporting a university course (Hebrew)
Love online (in Hebrew)
Online addiction (in Hebrew)
Last Updated Date : 06/10/2024
