Theme #3 - Post-reflections

Today I got the chance to elaborate on my chosen paper from the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. We came to the conclusion that my paper was the most interesting and I still believe the subject of internet and social media use among youth is both modern and interesting to talk about. The study was done in 2009 and a lot have happened on both these plattforms in just three years, I imagine that the results of a possible research done now would yield quite interesting figures and it would be nice to compare them both.

During my seminar session we continued on trying to be critical about the research that had been done. We (me and the two people discussing my paper) believed that, for this research to be more accurate, it had to be done in a different way. In the paper they stated that 194 people voluntarily participated in the study and each and everyone of these people were interviewed in order for them to gather all the answers they needed. The also said that these sessions took roughly about an hour, that is a lot of time. Disregarding the amount of time needed to carry out this study we contemplated about different ways of gathering the data. One way which the paper stated would be a lot more effective is if each participant would get a notebook/diary of some sort to actually jot down when they are using social media and/or use internet in some way. This would, in our opinion, dramatically increase the accuracy of the data since one could argue that trying to remember when, how, and for how long you're using these mediums is quite hard to estimate time-wise.

To further analyze the need for a different way of gathering data for the study we found quite interesting numbers when it comes to different habits online. These were some of the data gathered (note: more than one answer could be given, hence the percentage):

• ~ 64% checked their e-mail
• ~ 57% Checked Facebook
• ~ 27% Youtube-watching etc
• ~ 27% Checked for jobs
• ~ 13% Looked for housing

One thing that we did note was that it seemed quite rare to actually look for a job and find a house to live in. Instead you use these medium to either communicate with others or to amuse yourself. These could, in fact be the case amongst this group people. But keep in mind that it can also be the result of poorly remembered habits of said group. Maybe the only remembered checking their email and using Facebook since that could be considered a more pleasing experience than looking for a job. This could affect the data gathered in the end. 

That being said, these were just some of the concerns we raised about the article, but then again, this particular study is fairly new (if we are to believe the authors) so further studies on the subject has to continue on the work. There is room for improvement.

All in all I think the seminar helped me to further develop my critical thinking when reading academic papers, which is nice!