THEME 4

Forgot to upload the text from my google docs but here it is!!

I´ve chosen the text “Social Networking Sites: Their Users and Social Implications — A Longitudinal Study” which also was a big topic during previous seminar.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01580.x/asset/jcc41580.pdf?v=1&t=hofs4gbc&s=353814cbf8da9a0b2c7fa3d2a5e40190a9ece0b7

The paper is looking into the rapid adoption of social networking sites (SNSs) which raises important questions about the social implications of such usage. In the paper they also try to answer the questions about whether or not greater use of SNSs leads to greater social capital, and also how social capital develops over time. By investigating the behavior around the usage of SNS and how they reflect the interaction offline they draw conclusions about the how the interaction between people in “real life” affects their participating in SNS.

Which quantitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods?

In this study they´ve used a survey to be able to reach a wide range of people (N=2000). The survey has been emailed to people in the span of 15-75 years old and as wide as possible regarding demographic.

Some problems with the chosen method are mentioned in the text. Some of them being that It´s not everyone that´s answering the survey and that it´s also a rather small amount of nonusers answering the research. It was also hard to foreseeing which group that beforehand will be the best to target with the survey and they also start with a wide hypothesis where they make a guess on the contribution of the whole group and then forming the questions around that guess.

What did you learn about quantitative methods from reading the paper?

The importance of selectively choosing your examination group so it includes a wide range of participants. Its important to collect the data properly and be sure of which results that are interesting for the research and that help the forming of a conclusion regarding the subject.

By using quantitative methods its possible to test a hypothesis with statistic data. That way it makes it possible for researchers to prove a theory. The reason for the study in the paper was to investigate whether upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) could be related to physical activity and perceived stress, or not. They sent web questionnaires to the participants and conducted regular follow-ups on the participants.

Which are the main methodological problems of the study? How could the use of the quantitative method or methods have been improved?

Quantitative methods can at the same show that the hypothesis don't really correspond with the data collected and its also faster and less time consuming than doing more specific qualitative research. In this case the amount of different people from different demographics and with different social background, gender and age is important which makes quantitative a good choice. Regarding the subject of the research its difficult to measure the previous experience with the health care and to know exactly the grade of stress experienced by the people getting the survey.

Which are the benefits and limitations of using quantitative methods?Its good for accessing a big amount of data that answer the why, how, when and what with samples from a big group of people. It is also good for investigating the impact over time and make it easy to reach the participants. Because you have to keep the answers short you do not get a very deep insight into the experience of every participant and you have to come up with the specific questions before which may affect how you look at the problem and how you set up your hypothes.

Which are the benefits and limitations of using qualitative methods?Its a good way to gain deeper answers and better more extensive answers to the questions Why, How, When. This form of methods demands more time and also demands a better in-deep answer to be beneficial over the quantitative method.

On the other hand It is making it hard to generalize the results due to the few participants. Limitations is for example that the analyse of the data is time consuming and takes a lot more effort than the quantitative. The qualitative methods results in longer and more extensive answers which is good to get a more broad perspective of the issue.