Assignment 5 A: Planning for the future

Research Proposal

Do social networks connect or isolate people?

Introduction

This question is often asked as people nowadays are not sure whether social networks bring them closer to other people or keep them away from everybody. In fact it could do both but by this research being carried out the results that are expected are of what social networks do most. Do they help people with their social skills or do they make people stick on their computers (Laptops etc.) and ignore the people around them in most cases?

Taking into consideration that people have got very contradictory opinions on this subject a result on what is thought the most is needed in order to come to a conclusion. In the book E-topia William Mitchell talks about how technology improvements have affected peoples’ way of socializing and he compares social networks with ways of socializing in areas before the internet and in fact before water distribution systems were even invented. He mentions that people used to have to gather around the well and socialize while also getting some water to take back to their homes but when water pipes were fitted in their homes they didn’t have a reason to go to the well therefore they didn’t socialize as much. According to him something similar is going on since the invention of social networks and the need of going out to socialize with people is minimized.

 On the other hand we have an article about how elderly people felt using social networks to socialize in a pilot project which was carried out in Australia. After strategies and researches it was proven that social networks were most needed in evenings and weekends when there was nothing else for the elderly people to do and it was most likely for them to feel lonely. The researches came to the conclusion that social networks were the most effective tools to prevent isolation.

Research method

In previous assignments we have tried out a lot of different methods of research some of which are interviews, visual analysis of images, experiments, observation, brainstorming etc. and all have been useful for certain subjects.

In this case though, I strongly believe that the most appropriate method for this research to be carried out is by interviews. One to one informal talks with people would help cover all areas and broaden the subject by long conversations. The need for a big range of people with different backgrounds is understandable, therefore there will be a list of people with different disciplines, ages and ‘class’ in order to have as accurate results as possible.

Before interviewing people, a brainstorm and a mind map are needed in order to come up with good questions that will help the interview be a lot easier by keeping the subject interested and willing to express themselves freely about what they think of social networks.

The limitation of this method is that there are only a certain number of people you can interview in a short period of time so a small selection of people has to be carefully chosen in order to achieve accurate results. The observation method is something I wouldn’t choose to use as it is really time consuming although of course some observation is always necessary and especially for this subject, as social networks are used by most people.  Observing people close to me and seeing how they use the internet will just be something that will help myself understand peoples needs and will not have any impact on the research results.

Plan

Considering there are no complications, this research is only expected to last a month and that is the aim. Preparation will be done at the start of semester 1 of third year, and soon as I’m going to carry it out alone I aim to have results by November.

After the interviews and the gathering and studying of the results, in case of any data lack, a back-up plan is necessary as the research is planned to be carried out in a short period of time. The aim is to have good results in four weeks, if that isn’t achieved, another method that will boost the results up is believed to be the Visual Analysis of images.

 Plan B is rather easy and quick. All that has to be done is find an appropriate image that will be neutral and will be best interpreted by subjects. For example, an image of a person alone on a laptop might make some people think that the person in the image feels lonely so tries to connect with people through social networks, and some will think that the person is isolated because he/she has been driven into being obsessed by the web and spends a lot of time alone in a room on the computer rather than using their socializing skills. After a while if you don’t socialize with people around you, you become lonely and forget the importance of face to face contact with people.

Is he lonely because of social networks or is he connecting with friends back home?

 It will be different from the experiment in Assignment 1 as the subjects will not have to be manipulated into thinking of a specific scenario, it’s clearly up to them whether they think it shows an isolated person or a person that is connecting with people. This plan is pretty straight forward and does not need any prior preparation for it to be carried out although also for this, the people have to be from different backgrounds and age. With their answers, it will be possible to know what they think about technology improvement and social networks.