I did a little bit of a variation on this
assignment. I took some of the questions
that other students in our class posted in the Questions for Adolescent Interview discussion space (in Moodle) and made up two short surveys and distributed them
to a few of the students in my school. I
was tempted to make up my own questions, but thought that by using others' questions, I would control for my own biases (by not biasing the survey from my
own point of view). I gave out two different
surveys (to reduce bias even more) and collected 10 responses. I could have collected more but then it would have moved far away from the personal to an impersonal research study. The
students I gave the surveys to enjoyed doing the survey, as they were
interested in the topic of social media.
My unscientific findings based on these 10 responses are:
Most of the students said they use Facebook, but most
said they really liked Instagram. Many
used an iPhone or a cell phone, but a number wrote that they also used a
computer. Most liked to post photos and
liked to share photos. Many liked to
watch videos and listen to music. I
could see from the answers that a number of students spend a lot of time online
on social media. Some students admitted
spending from 3-6 hours per day on social media. Some of the students said they like to chat with
or text-message their friends. Some
students said they made friends through social media.
Most of the students said they spend a lot of
time on their cell phones. I could see
that most preferred Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. A number of students expressed concerns with
privacy issues, such as sending a message to one person, and it would end up
with someone else, especially from group chats.
One student said “You don’t know who is watching.” This same student
also said: “Interpersonal relationships can go good or bad because of the
things you post.” One student said that they like that they “could find a
person’s information” but did not like too much information on war and hunger. Another student said that they “dislike the
risk of privacy issues.” A different
student said that they had problems with some friends because if the friend “didn’t
like their picture, they would start fighting by text.” As far as school work is concerned, one
student wrote: “Once I can find all the answers, I don’t use my brain to think. So I don’t have enough critical thinking.” The same student also wrote: “I always use
Google to research what I want. It’s
really useful.” This same student also
said (about communicating through social media): “I like it. Because everyone can ask any question and
discuss together.”
What surprised me is: that a number of the students
said they did not make new friends with anyone online, and some did not want to
meet new people online. Most of the students
wanted to know what was going on socially online, but were not always happy to
take so much time to socialize online. Most
of the students said they just wanted to interact with their friends, but some
of the students said that they might friend people they did not know (“it
depends”). One student said that they “received
many requests [for becoming friends with someone far away geographically] but I
didn’t take the chance.” Only one of
the students said they used Twitter.
Another thing that surprised me is that some of the students said that
social media was very distracting and could take up too much time. None of these students said that they had been
bullied online but that they were aware of this issue and were against bullying. Only about half of the students said they
played games (such as MMORPG and Clash of Clans). One student said they played educational
games.
What I learned is: that most of the students
approached social media somewhat differently.
While most of the students were on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram
through their phones, each student had his/her own opinion about social media
and how they wanted to use it. Some students
were willing to friend new people while others would not risk it. All the students spent different amounts of
time on social media, but photo sharing appears to be the biggest
commonality. Some of the students were
less taken up with (or distracted by) social media while others spent many
hours per day online.
Based on this experience, I am really tempted to do a research study on this topic and try to publish a journal article in my area of practice. I think it would be a very interesting experience.
Robert,
ReplyDeleteThis is very promising. I am always curious if students realize that searching for information on the Internet can affect their critical thinking skills. Now we need to educate our educators on how to help people become better consumers of content.
They need to realize that they can still be critical thinkers when viewing other people's work whether it's opinion or factual materials from reliable sources. Of course, there is the need to teach that there are many unreliable sources out there, so buyer beware.
The details of the wariness on the part of the students is encouraging. I love that they are curious about social media, but cautious. It makes me so happy to hear that the students are being educated on this if they are not realizing is for themselves.
Bill