Aarushi Bhandari

Book tour dates! DM for interest! 😁

I know there is like nobody on this app but ftr being a Nepali in the US feels like mild schizophrenia. Separate group chats blowing up over Nepali revolution 2.0 and Charlie Kirk. The human mind is not designed to respond to so many group chats about separate world historical events simultaneously.

Nepali millennials living through: revolution at 15, fascism at 25, pandemic at 30, genocide at 33, more extreme fascism at 34, a second revolution at 35.

Therapy will never be enough, we need utopia.

I am looking for outlets to write about the Nepal protests, please send any leads my way.

My local bookstore is so cute. 🥺

Now Available: Attention and Alienation: The International Political Economy of Information and Communication Technologies, by Aarushi Bhandari. Includes the book's cover and a blurb by Erik Schneierhan. Save 20% with code CUP20SM at cup.columbia.edu.

Now available! A bold and incisive critical analysis, ATTENTION AND ALIENATION considers how to reclaim the potential of the internet and design new systems that prioritize collective well-being. buff.ly/l0Jo65N #SocialMedia #AttentionEconomy #Nepal #Marx

Oh it’s terrible. Institutions and research programs are severely defunded. Students all use AI and there are no strong guard rails. Degrees don’t get jobs anyway so few care. Only last year many universities were armed military at student protestors. Barely any tenure-track jobs this year. Bleak.

Tomorrow, I turn 35. I have spent 34 years — in my academic work and my personal goals — dedicated to unlocking the keys to collective flourishing. Want to know only two things I have found to be True?

1. Noone has “the” answer.

2. Flourshing and capitalism cannot coexist.

“No more floating hot takes” she said, and then went on to post several floating hot takes.

NC professor explores how to make internet a more caring place The internet can be a lonely and mentally harmful place, but one North Carolina professor is imagining how to change that.In her new book,

app.publicnewsservice.org/story/nc-pro...

It’s me, hi! I am NC professor! 🤓

Is there any hope for the internet? The author of the new book ‘Attention and Alienation’ wonders if the online world can ever become a place where kindness and human flourishing are the prevailing ethos.

Is there hope for the internet? ASA member Aarushi Bhandari @sushiaarushi.bsky.social‬ ‪@davidsoncollege.bsky.social‬ questions whether compassion, cooperation, and collective flourishing are still possible.

Is there any hope for the internet? The author of the new book ‘Attention and Alienation’ wonders if the online world can ever become a place where kindness and human flourishing are the prevailing ethos.

The ability to meet and interact with others online as fully realized, three-dimensional human beings would go a long way toward creating a more empathetic, cooperative internet, according to sociologist @sushiaarushi.bsky.social

Zohran Mamdani won in a rare W for us utopians. Maybe the only day of I told you so in our life times, but we got one and we better parade it fast.

Having an out of body experience seeing my book at the local bookstore. And they wrote a little blurb for it! 🥹

From totes to Birkins, handbags hold the keys to the world (along with your wallet and phone) Podcast Episode · The Colin McEnroe Show · 06/04/2025 · 49m

I appeared on The Colin McEnroe show to discuss the political economy of meme culture vis-a-vis Handbag dupes. For more great takes on trauma, rage, class consciousness and collective behavior, you can read by book Attention and Alienation! :)

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f...

Feeling sad about Twitter takeover. My book would have generated much buzz there; here on Bluesky, I am talking to myself. Academic Twitter used to be funny, quirky and relatable while boosting visibility for us junior scholars. It should have been a public good. Damn you, Telecom Act of 1996. 😭

🚨‼️🔔 Just received this @columbiaup.bsky.social my book is now a REAL! I can’t believe I did it — a daughter of child brides from Nepal. Breaking generational constraints, I share all my wisdom with the annals of history.

I hope it’s moving and healing. 💕

Preorder cup.columbia.edu/book/attenti...

ASA members in the news are exploring subjects ranging from attacks on higher ed to grandparenting to Birkin bags.

Really amazing slide from students in my Sociology of the Good Place class.

How are elite handbags, DIY lawyering, & dishwasher debates all sociological? From the Walmart “Birkin” to grandparents parenting, Sociologists in the news weigh in: @musaalgharbi.bsky.social, @sushiaarushi.bsky.social, Michelle Janning, Madonna Harrington Meyer, & more!

🔗 bit.ly/4iokhdJ 🔗

Also I was at the Doha airport recently and walked into their Hermes store out of curiosity. My first time at one. There was an SA. I asked him so many questions he was happily willing to answer. Lowkey wanted to pitch an IRB right there. Apparently airport SAs don’t have access to quota bags. 👀

💯!! I mentioned this exact sentiment to Gemma after our interview. It would be such a cool study… for someone else to do while I manage my other never-ending list of research projects completely unrelated to elite commodity fetishism. 🤣

Thanks so much! I am definitely available for online interviews! Would love to connect!

Good morning academic and sociology friends. My first book Attention and Alienation is coming out on July 1 with @columbiaup.bsky.social. I am looking for speaking opportunities for Fall 2025, and would really appreciate a wide share. Please DM me if you are interested!

I am really thrilled, humbled and awed to share that I have received an NSF: CAREER award for my Sociology project synthesizing social psychology and political economy around digital mindfulness apps. This work feels like my life’s purpose, and I am so grateful to have the support to complete it.

YouTube video by Oscars 'No Other Land' Wins Best Documentary Feature Film | 97th Oscars Speech (2025)

Never thought I would say these next words but I wish I had seen the Oscars last night. From the standing ovation to the acceptance speeches, I have chills. 😭

youtu.be/3gzo7PiFiaM?...

The library representative helping my advanced quant class with lit reviews just said “JSTOR is the TJMaxx of academic research.” Genius framing.

*into the void once agian* free to use means you are the product. This app will almost certainly teach you anxiety it’s not even a joke. 💯

The theoretical premise is that online engagement is a form of labor that generates capital (data) so I focus on how 1) we can consider what kind of collective power we have as “workers” in the attention economy, and 2) what can alternative structures that promote collective flourishing look like?

The final chapter engages possibilities through examples, like Ruha Benjamin’s analysis of Black Tiktok creators organizing a successful “labor strike”, or all the way back Erik Olin Wright’s analysis of Wikipedia (which has miraculous remained unchanged in the transition from web1.0 to web2.0).