Status Report: Impacts Of Social Networking Site

Finish the Michelle part.
(ella and emma are done already)
Status Report 1
Team Coordinator for the Week: Emma
Group Update:
For this week, our group decided to focus on researching our topic as well as brainstorming ideas for possible probes. We as a group strongly believe implementing a probe will be a beneficial research method for our project due to the fact that it allows individuals to think introspectively and self report. For our topic, we want to know more about people's thoughts and emotions behind their behaviors on social media platforms. Through this method, we believe we can extract some useful information that will lead us into exploring other components of our topic for further methods.
Up until Tuesday, each individual is responsible for doing their own research on the topics of social media communication and its effects on individuals. Articles and sources we find interesting are copied and pasted into a group document, along with a short summary about the source. In addition to this research, we are brainstorming ideas for possible probes. Below the summary for each source, we are writing an idea or two for how the ideas presented in the found articles could relate to a probe. On Tuesday, 4/10 at 5:30, we are meeting as a group before class to discuss our findings and our probe ideas. In this meeting, it is our hope that we can either pick an idea, or combine a few ideas into a successful probe for our topic. We understand that a first iteration of this will have to be tested, which is why we are meeting to come to a consensus as one of the first steps of our project.
Ella:
This week we decided to all individually find some secondary sources which can help back up our research topic as well as create a good starting point for the assignment. We wanted to use the secondary sources as point for inspiration to create a probe. We each did some brainstorming so when we see each other we can collaborate our ideas and research. Most of the articles I found discussed the negative side effects social media has to its users. One article really discussed how social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media. This lead me to a possible probe idea: have the user create an honest profile for themselves that they have to hand write. Almost like a diary and make it fun by having it presented on paper similar to a facebook profile which they would fill out. Then maybe have them create an imaginary profile for the ideal significant other. The last article I found explained the frequently asked question “what does the order of who views your instagram story mean?,” by describing the algorithm instagram uses. I personally have questioned this all the time and I know all my friends have as well. Why? Because it usually has some sort of crush or ex-boyfriend on it, so it makes us girls go crazy and over analyze the order and question “what does it mean?” This lead me to another probe idea: have the users story at least one thing a day and by the end of the day screenshot the viewers list and compare it daily. Once the probe is done, end with some follow up questions to the users through text asking questions about the people on the top of their list. From what I have seen on the drive I think we have a bunch of great ideas for probes and hopefully create a good probe which help us for the final presentation.
Emma:
There were many articles that I found in my research that sparked possible ideas to turn into a probe. One article from The Atlantic, entitled “Social Media's Small, Positive Role in Human Relationships” offered an interesting perspective to social media's affect on society as a whole. The positive viewpoint focused mainly on the fact that social platforms have brought so many people of different cultures all around the world together, which is something we were not able to do as easily prior. It also talked about how social media traditionally has this negative viewpoint due to the fact that individuals are too focused on the numbers social media reflects. For a possible probe, I thought it would be interesting to have individuals predict how many likes they think their post would get before they posted it. After a few days have passed, they reflect on whether they got as many as they anticipated and how did the interactions on that post make them feel. I found a couple more articles, but the one I thought was most interesting was “Social Media and Interpersonal Communication” from Social Work Today. It discussed the fact that although we are communicating more today than in generations past, it is a different type of communication because it is all online and rarely in person. Therefore, although we may have more relationships, none of them are deep enough to establish a pure connection. For a probe, I thought it would be interesting to have people analyze the likes on their most recent post. Out of the people who liked it, how many of those individuals have they interacted with on a deeper level? For example, text, meet in person, facetime, never spoken at all, etc. Overall, this week was enlightening in that I learned a lot more about our topic and brainstormed some creative ideas for possible probes. I am eager to see what the other girls come up with and to actually begin implementing some of these ideas.
Michelle:
Each member writes and pastes in their specific individual goals/accomplishments and activities in one brief summary paragraph.
What have you been doing since April 3rd?
Which tasks have you taken on in support of the group work. Please be specific.
Have you made appointments for interviews, observations or meetings?