The a16z Show · Sunday, August 2, 2026
Ruby Turlough defines cyber-ethnography as the study of online groups and their behaviors, ranging from furries to Instagram users. She explains her research methodology, which involves qualitative interviews to create lexicons for understanding digital interactions like Instagram stories, categorizing their meaning as content appreciation, romantic affiliation, or friendship continuation.
“So a cyber ethnographer is someone who studies groups of people online and how they behave and what they do.”
“My research ranges from studying furries all the way to now studying how people are using Instagram.”
“And so around 500 people, uh, two and, uh, 20 sort of close interviews to build, uh, a lexicon, a glossary of what does this digital interaction mean to people.”