Merja Mahrt is a communication researcher who completed her „habilitation“ at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf in 2017 with a thesis on digital fragmentation, echo chambers, and filter bubbles. She received her PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 2010, after studying at Freie Universität Berlin and Université Michel de Montaigne – Bordeaux III. Since 2020, she is speaker of the division Digital Communication within the German Communication Association (DGPuK). Her research focuses on social contexts and effects of digital media use.