“We鈥檙e trying to understand loss and trauma within a social media context and develop interventions that provide young people with support as they鈥檙e leveraging these tools to get help. ”
Patton鈥檚 research on Internet banging has appeared in numerous media outlets, including , , and . It was cited in an amici curiae brief submitted to the United States Supreme Court in , which examined how threats are interpreted on social media.
Patton has published dozens of articles in peer-reviewed publications, among them the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, New Media and Society, and The Journal of Men鈥檚 Studies. One recent paper, in Children and Youth Services Review, found that adolescents are acutely aware that social media features, such as comments and live video, have the power to turn online conflict into offline fights.
鈥淥ur findings underscore that adolescents engaged in social media threats often do not go online with the intention to fight,鈥 Patton and his coauthors wrote. 鈥淩ather, adolescents expressed keen awareness that social media intensifies interpersonal slights, and specifically identified video streaming and comments as social media features that intensify social media threats, increasing the likelihood of offline violence.鈥
Patton has received more than a dozen prestigious honors and fellowships during his career, including the 2018 from the Society for Social Work and Research. He won the award, according to SSWR, 鈥渋n recognition of his notable influence on understanding the links between traditional forms of gang violence and threatening social media communication and his noteworthy contributions to advance the social work profession.鈥
In addition to his professorship at Columbia, Patton serves as senior associate dean for academic affairs and curriculum innovation at the university鈥檚 School of Social Work. He is the associate director of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the university鈥檚 and a faculty affiliate of its . Before joining the faculty at Columbia in 2015, he served as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and School of Information.
Patton holds a bachelor鈥檚 degree in anthropology and political science from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, a master鈥檚 in social work from the University of Michigan, and a doctorate in social service administration from the University of Chicago.
The diploma ceremony for the School of Social Work will start at approximately noon. Several soon-to-be-graduates will be involved in the festivities. Mai Kim Pham, MSW鈥22, will deliver the invocation and Samira Al-Ghuiyy Bell, MSW鈥22, will give the student address. Jason Lawrence Madden, MSW鈥22, and Kimberly Hokanson, PhD鈥22, will serve as the degree representatives. Seating for guests on the Lower Campus Lawn is first come, first served. People who are unable to attend the event can livestream the ceremony on the University鈥檚 Commencement page.