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As with the previous two editions, there are simply far more people to thank than space allows.

First of all, a thousand thanks and more to my students and colleagues at the Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo, beginning with Department Heads Espen Ytreberg and then Tanja Storsul. They, along with numerous colleagues, administrative staff, and students, made for a very soft landing in Oslo in 2012: and in the subsequent seven years, all of these people cultivated a collegial environment par excellence. I am particularly grateful to Knut Lundby for his support and mentorship, especially in the domains of mediatization and Digital Religion.

Insofar as this book is good for students, this is due precisely to innumerable students over the past four decades of my teaching career. I remain deeply grateful for their contributions, beginning with their forcing me to be as clear as possible about often complex matters. Many have specifically commented on and critiqued early versions of the pedagogical elements of the book. Especially my Master’s students in our Department have been rich discussion partners and sources of insight.

Many wise and insightful colleagues have likewise helped shape and fill this volume. I’m especially grateful to Shannon Vallor, whose extensive work in virtue ethics now stands as primary source and reference. As discussed here, virtue ethics has enjoyed a remarkable renaissance over the past decade or so – so much so as to become central (along with deontology) to EU-level and global efforts by the IEEE to set the ethical standards for the design of AI and the Internet of Things. It is impossible to overstate the significance of this – for all of us. But it has not always been so: from my perspective, no one has done more to articulate, develop, defend, and extend virtue ethics in these ways than Shannon. All of us owe her very great thanks indeed.

Many other colleagues, too numerous to name, have contributed via the conferences where many of these ideas and arguments were first introduced and worked through. These include AoIR (the Association of Internet Researchers), IACAP (the International Association for Computing and Philosophy), ETHICOMP (Ethics and Computing), CEPE (Computer Ethics: Professional Enquiries), and the Robo-philosophy conferences. The some 400+ researchers and scholars who constituted the CaTaC (Cultural Attitudes towards Technology and Communication) conference series (1998–2016) have been centrally helpful for better understanding how our ethical sensibilities interact with culturally variable factors, beginning with our conception of self. For this volume, Soraj Hongladarom’s work (Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok) has been especially significant: our now 20+ years of philosophical and intercultural dialogues continue to be most enjoyable and fruitful. Maja van der Velden (Institute for Informatics, University of Oslo) is likewise due very great thanks indeed for her multiple contributions, several of which are incorporated here.

The list goes on. Rich Ling (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) offered invaluable insight into the profound and multiple impacts of mobile devices, and thereby their ethical dimensions. Mia Consalvo (Concordia University, Montréal, Canada) remains most helpful concerning games and gaming. Susanna Paasonen and Kai Kimppa (University of Turku, Finland) and J. Tuomas Harviainen (University of Tampere, Finland) were especially generous sources of insight and resources regarding pornography. Several AoIR list members provided cross-cultural help on contemporary usages of CDs and DVDs as media: Dan Burk, Danielle Couch, Aram Sinnreich, Deen Freelon, Michael Glassman, Sam Phiri, David Banks, and Jakob Jünger.

I am equally grateful to my Polity editors Ellen MacDonald-Kramer and Mary Savigar, whose encouragement, support, and discipline were essential. Two anonymous reviewers were helpfully critical in turn, for which I am most grateful indeed.

My family continues to play the most important roles. Brother Robert provided most helpful technical insight as well as fundamental corporate perspectives. Sister Dianne Kaufmann remains constantly supportive and encouraging. My wife, the Reverend Conni Ess, wisely and consistently calls me out to the beneficent worlds of art, music, food, and hiking: both I and this book are less nerdy as a result. Our son Joshua has provided vital insight into both arcane technical details and the contemporary digital and post-digital practices among younger folk. Our daughter Kathleen, pursuing classics and religious studies scholarship and translation, provided invaluable assistance with both Greek philosophy and English style.

The deepest gratitude remains with my parents, Bob and Betty Ess. They have now passed on beyond us. Like any mother, she was always pleased with and proud of her children’s accomplishments – especially those that sought to be of use to others. She was especially happy to see me working on the first edition of this volume. In many ways, she was also the person primarily responsible for my pursuing philosophy: she loved discussing ideas and current events from a variety of perspectives – a practice hence deeply interwoven in our lives. My father provided unfailing care and encouragement, including the most exemplary kind – namely, supporting my ethical and political choices even when they differed sharply from his own. My parents’ examples and practices thus remain the foundations of the core values motivating this book – beginning with keen interest in different approaches and views, and the spirit of enacting deep care for others.

Insofar as this volume reflects and helps foster such virtues – Mom, Dad: this is for you.