Me back in my Radio Shack days working on my dissertation. This article formed part of my proposal. The reason that I want to use a triangulation method is that I believe that the convergence of different methods can lead to a better understanding of the research and the "gaps...
The purpose of my dissertation will be to observe incoming "traditional freshmen" (e.g. 18- to-20 year old students coming to college for the first time) at three Midwestern universities whose hometowns are small towns, where the population is less than 5,000 residents, and see how those freshmen use Facebook as...
A majority of the analysis will come under the theoretical framework already laid out by Jenkins and Rheingold. Henry Jenkins has been a tremendous influence on my work for the past couple of years. "Convergence Culture" is a strong theoretical work and an exemplar of praxis in the field. Jenkins...
Berger adds several concepts to the discussion, including how filters used by individual users of a community can impact the methods of communication used by their community. His work also helped begin the debate on approaching this research for a multi-disciplinary framework, as Berger's work used elements from history, sociology,...
As for the breakdown of the rest of the dissertation, the paper will break into the thematic and methodological issues present during the course of the research process. I believe the discussion will focus on how each method helps add to the breadth of the overall research project. The first...
After reviewing the literature associated with this field of study, it suggested to me to look at online social networks from the online-offline dynamic. The online-offline dynamic is defined as the ability of an online social network to develop and maintain relationships and transfer those relationships to the real world...
The strength of Facebook really comes from the applications present on Facebook. Applications represent a level of customization that the user can present on their Facebook profile and really represents the only real changes that a user can make on their Facebook page. Facebook maintains the same color scheme (white background...
Facebook is an online social network created in 2004 as a method of connecting Harvard students to each other. A social networking website is defined for the purpose of this research as an online service that allows users to profile for themselves, has a method of organizing individual users into...
I decided to look beyond the fanastic events that can cause users of Facebook to create at deeper level of connection. After finishing my simple analysis of the Virginia Tech shooting, I decided to look at another event that would cause a great deal of stress to students, their first...
The theory was enhanced through the work of Robin Dunbar with the Dunbar number, which defines the "cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships." The number in humans is estimated to be around 150 (Dunbar, 1993). Dunbar's research also deals with...
