Brainstorming research topics - Erina

I begin the second week of this course with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. During college I did not have the luxury of time to take a research methods class nor was I was mentally prepared for such an endeavor during those years. So, as I undertook the brainstorming exercise in the first chapter of Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences: Research in an Age of Info-Glut (Luker, 2008, p. 21), I found my thoughts were (unsurprisingly) disjointed, confused, and generic.

Nevertheless, I have identified a few keywords that are of interest: data, privacy, social presence and, self-identity. In less than a decade, the notion of having an online presence whether it be through social media platforms or LinkedIn has been become accepted and encouraged. What then becomes of our right to privacy and does this change how we judge ourselves? When we are encouraged to share curated information about ourselves to the masses, two things can occur. First, the information provider provides fodder for the information reader to compare the provided information with themselves. Second, the information provider is affected in some way by having to provide information to the unknown masses of the virtual sphere and is again affected by the feedback from readers or lack thereof. While the information we share online does not have to be the whole truth or have any truth, it will create various ripples for both the sharer and the reader. This interaction is a heightened form of daily human interaction in a physical setting but can have greater consequences due to the sheer number of participants online.

These thoughts I mention above are currently too vague and broad. I hope to delve into relevant articles and books in the coming weeks to find existing literature on these topics, find people who may be knowledgeable in these topics - a “nodal point” (Luker, 2008, p. 84) as Luker calls them in her book, and begin to formulate a research question. For now, I know too little to talk intelligibly on these areas of interest but I expect new knowledge gained from classes and reading various sources will help me get a step closer to a more concrete research question. Once I have narrowed down my research question, I hope to formulate an appropriate research method and make use of the readings this week about the different types of mixed methods research.

 

Luker, K. (2008). Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences: Research in an Age of Info-Glut. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Comments

  1. MujganSeptember 27, 2020 at 3:19 PM

    I feel the same way about learning new research methods and developing a more systematic way to conduct my research, it's an exciting process! Your research topic sounds really interesting, especially with COVID-19, where online presence and digital connections became so central to our everyday lives. I think it would be interesting to explore anonymity online and its impact on people's behaviour with heightened freedom, which can have both positive and negative outcomes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ErinaSeptember 30, 2020 at 12:51 PM

    You bring up a really important point. Anonymity certainly plays a significant role in user's online behavior. I should be looking into this as I narrow down my research focus.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ErinaNovember 3, 2020 at 9:27 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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