Portrait of Douglas Rushkoff

Birthday profile

Douglas Rushkoff

Douglas Rushkoff, American media and cultural theorist, author, and documentarian

Born
February 18, 1961
Age in 2026
65
Zodiac sign
Aquarius
Birth year
1961

About Douglas Rushkoff

Douglas Mark Rushkoff (born February 18, 1961) is an American media theorist, writer, professor, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, documentarian and podcaster. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture, his advocacy of open source solutions to social problems, his critique of technocapitalism, and his call to retrieve our humanity in a digital age. Rushkoff is most frequently regarded as a media theorist and is known for coining terms and concepts including viral media (or media virus), digital native, and social currency. He has written fourteen books on media, technology and culture, as well as several novels and graphic novels. He wrote the first syndicated column on cyberculture for The New York Times Syndicate, as well as regular columns for The Guardian, Arthur, Discover, and the online magazines Daily Beast, and TheFeature. Rushkoff is currently Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics at the City University of New York, Queens College. He has previously lectured at The New School university in Manhattan and the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he created the Narrative Lab. He also has taught online for the Maybe Logic Academy. In 2012, Rushkoff was declared the sixth most influential thinker in the world by MIT Technology Review and the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, following Steven Pinker, David Graeber, Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman, Thilo Sarrazin, and Richard Florida. On March 9, 2026, Rushkoff announced that he had been confirmed as a permanent member of the Club of Rome.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Douglas Rushkoff was born

Douglas Rushkoff was born in 1961. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1961

  • #1 song"Tossin' and Turnin'" – Bobby Lewis
  • Top movieWest Side Story
  • Top TV showGunsmoke
  • Best-selling bookCatch-22 – Joseph Heller

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentRoger Maris hits 61 home runs, breaking Babe Ruth's record
  • Top headlineYuri Gagarin becomes the first person in space
  • Technology milestoneYuri Gagarin becomes first human in space
  • Defining fadSurfing culture
  • Notable inventionValium
  • World population3.08 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderJohn F. Kennedy
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • Also wonBoston Celtics (NBA)
  • U.S. population183.7M

1961 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Douglas Rushkoff's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19612026
Gas$0.31$3.45/gal
Average home$12,500$435,000
Average income$7,600$67,500
Minimum wage$1.15$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.69$11.95
Postage stamp$0.04$0.73
Population183.7M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.