The Effect of Social Media on the Lives of People - Essay Example

The Effect of Social Media on the Lives of People The Effect of Social Media on the Lives of People Introduction This section elucidates the method that has been selected to carry and conclude the research. It lays special emphasis on the approach that is being followed and how the information has been attained. Other than this, special ethical consideration has been given to conduct the study keeping in mind how limited the scope is. A qualitative research simply looks to analyze and evaluate the information attained through qualitative aspects. Interviews are commonly used as a tool for collecting primary data for accumulating qualitative data. Rather than conducting a structured survey interview and questionnaire that are mainly used in medical institutes, this study follows a semi-structured strategy in which the interviewee is more participative with his response and is encouraged to give a broader perspective rather than just answering in yes or no. Overview of Qualitative Interviews Qualitative interviews have been defined and categorized in many ways. The three most common types of such interviews are structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews (Merriam, 2009). Structured interviews more often results in penetrating quantitative data and so the focus of this study would be on either semi-structured or unstructured interview. Unstructured interviews are concerned with collecting observational data leaving semi-structured interviews as the only reliable source for qualitative research. Semi-structured interviews are focused around already constructed open-ended questions (Tracy, 2013). More questions could follow relating o the previous one, and the whole perspective could be brought into light. Semi structured interview would suit the type of research that is being conducted in this study. As the topic is ‘The effect of social media on the lives of people,’ it would always be a better idea to gain a deep insight into how people have changed the way they communicate and live in the present generation. Semi structured interview would give the interviewee a chance to know just the right and detailed response instead of just a yes or no for an answer. It would help to know the ‘why this and why that’ factor in all the aspects relating to social media (Tracy, 2013). Selecting Interviewee The interviewee selected must be a student who finds ample time to surf over the Internet. He must be a socially accepted and friendly person who spends 3 hours or more over social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. Only a person who spends more time on social media website would be familiar with its usage and would be able to explain how it is changing his life and the lives of people around him. The interviewee to be selected would not be a direct friend of the interviewer but a friend of a friend. A direct friend could take the interview lightly and might exaggerate on certain occasions. A friend of a friend would be reliable and serious towards the questions put towards him. It does not matter what ethnicity a person belongs to or what gender he or she is. The aim is not to see a change in lives of an ethnic group but people in general. The interview is supposed to take place in the library of Lincoln University. It will last no more than 30 minutes. Data Analysis Data Analysis tries to interpret the questions posed to the respondent at the survey. Data analysis takes into account the sample size, in this case just a single respondent, and learns their opinion or perspective about the subject matter. There are many different approaches that a researcher can take to analyze the data in hand with him (Israel, 2008). Thematic analysis, for example, is a way to identify themes from past studies and then compare it with interviews organized as part of the research. This sort of comparison shows how different the previous studies are to the current ones and the changes that have taken place in time (Guest, 2008). This research will look to analyze data by audio recording. Technical Issues There are a lot of technical issues associated with audio recording although it is one of the best techniques to gather and later analyze data. One of the most basic problems is to maintain a high-quality audiotape to refer to in some point in time. Noise at the background and weak batteries could affect the quality of the sound. The recorder also has to be placed in a way that it records both the voices of the interviewer and interviewee. It is a common problem with audio recording that some part of the audio cannot be heard at it was not placed well. The new devices can be complicated to use as there are brands in hundreds each having different options to run it (Markee, 2000). Most institutions and individuals require paperwork before opting for this technique. Recording is a proof of something a person has said and could be used in a negative way at a later point in time. Ethical Issues It is very important to work in the realm of good ethics so that justice could be done to the research. This study will look to maintain ethical behavior anticipating the harm that could be brought to the interviewee, holding on to the information provided, accurately defining the nature of the study to the interviewee and trying not to exploit the interviewee. The questions are carefully designed, and ongoing discussion would be based on general things rather than things too personal. Social media are very important part of people, and it is understandable that a person may get upset if he thinks the question is negatively directed towards him. Best efforts will be made that it does not happen. Information regarding the interviewee and his audio recording would not be leaked or handed to someone else. The purpose of the study would be explained to the interviewee, and he would be ensured that he would not be exploited upon the accurate and honest information he provides (Hammersley, 2012). Limitation Only a single interview could be arranged for analysis. It limits the horizon of the study as it only brings a single perspective into the topic of discussion. Had there been more respondents it would have allowed the researcher to analyze and compare the interview to gain a better insight into the subject matter. Transcription Interviewer How important is social media to you? Interviewee Uh social media are very important to me! I have all my friends on social networking websites like Facebook, and I like to stay in touch with them. (.) There is no other platform other than Facebook messenger that I use to chat and stay connected with them. Interviewer I’m sure it fulfills your social needs and keeps you connected with friends but don’t you think it is too addictive and wastes valuable time of people? Interviewee No! I do not think so. Social media are a platform given to communicating, and it all depends on the way a person uses it. Yeah! I do agree some people might just use it to make unnecessary conversation but we also use it to take help from other friends when we are stuck with an assignment. (.) Most of our teachers are also there to help us, and that is very beneficial (hh.). On another day, I had my mother telling me that our generation is so lucky that they have something like Facebook! Interviewer Do you think social media have or are changing the way people live? Interviewee Yes, of course it is! It was never possible to stay in connected with everyone you knew and social media makes you do that (hh.). Your friends, cousins, aunts and uncles are all here and you could talk or video chat with them free of cost! Earlier if you had to do so you would have to call each one of them separately and it would be quite inconvenient and also costly. (0.9) One more thing that supports social media is the rise in popularity of smart phones. Smartphones today are like mini computers and people can log on Facebook and Twitter with much ease. (.) It is changing the way we live today as people are always on the go with their phones. Even while eating food in restaurants and café people first tend to take a photo and post it on Facebook. Once they have done that they continue with their food and other things. Interviewer But do you not think people used to make a better effort in physically going out and meeting their friends and family rather than just saying hi hello over social media? Interviewee (0.6) Yes, that is correct, I must agree with you. People were I guess, more used to making visits and physically meeting one another. But, hey uh, you cannot lame social media for that. It only tries to make life easier for you by making all the options to chat or stay connected available at once. (.) People can still go out and meet anyone they feel like right? Interviewer Tell me something positive about the way social media has changed the lives of people? Interviewee (0.5) I can tell you from my personal experience that it has given many opportunities for the business class. Like my mother runs her clothing store through Facebook and Twitter. She just made a page one day on Facebook, which was totally free of cost, and started to add clothing products. (.) In no time, she got a few thousand likes and clients that buy clothes from her! Just a couple of months back she made a major client who agreed to buy 1,000 uppers from her. Now she is guaranteed a huge profit every month with a chance to sell additional products and make more clients. (.) Business is on the rise and that day is not too far away when every business would e run through social media. Reflection Findings The findings from the interview suggest that social media can be put to good use. For example, students can use it to take help from other students or even with their teachers that are available online. Themes like convenience, free of cost and business use were identified from the interview. Social media websites are very ‘convenient’ to use as the interviewee was of the opinion that people could use it anytime and anyplace they felt like. They could use it from their homes or outside in the restaurant. They could also get connected to all their friends and family members through just a single social hub. The combination of smartphones and social media greatly complements one another. It is also ‘free of cost. People do not have to pay anything other than their Internet charges to make communication with their friends and family. Earlier people had to pay long phone bills to stay in touch with their friends and family members, but social media have managed to cut that cost down. It is also very good for ‘business use’ like the interviewee said. Through social media, people can run their independent business and make huge profits. Office rents and employees wages could be greatly reduced keeping in mind the free marketing that is available to promote the products and services. Expectations of themes out of the interviews and themes discussed I expected the interviewee to talk about how addictive social media is. Using it several hours a day, I know how addictive it could be. I normally look into my friends profile on Facebook to see what they are up to and to comment or start a conversation with them. I heavily use Twitter to keep myself informed about all the activities related to football and the club I support. People, I know are addicted to social media just like me in some way or the other. I also expected the interviewee to talk about how social media has restrained people from making actual physical contact with one another. To me it’s a great concern as people have become less active in terms of getting out of their house and meeting others. However, the interviewee talked about other themes like how successfully social media has changed the way people conduct business. I was surprised when he told me how good his mother was managing her online store through Facebook. I always knew there was potential in the business but did not realize that clients could be made so easily and frequently. I never looked at social media from the perspective of the interviewee. I looked at it as a social place to make conversation and attain news and that is all about it. The interviewee added a new perspective into our discussion. The interviewee was of the opinion that ‘convenience’ cannot be overlooked to ‘physical contact made with people.’ The amount of people available at once on social media gives a greater benefit to going out and meeting everyone separately. The interviewee was right that no one was stopping anyone to make physical contacts. Social media just make everything so effortlessly easy. Success of the interview I believe the interview was very successful. The purpose of the research is to learn something out of it and to make that information available to others so that they could also learn. I, for example, learned about the success story of a woman who was running her own business completely free of cost through Facebook. This inspired me greatly, and I am sure someone in the future could take inspiration from such a case. There was a healthy conversation with no negative response from the interviewee. There was mutual understanding, and I agreed to some of the things said by him while he also agreed to some of the things I said. Everything was done ethically, and the interviewee was ensured that the information would not be misused. No resources belonging to the interviewee was used up during the interview. Most importantly, the interview achieved its objective and purpose. The entire interview was focused on the topic of discussion, and it attempted to reach a fair conclusion. It was established that social media does affect the lives of people and in the future would continue to do so. There are too many positives associated with it. Strength and Weakness of the technique The advantage an audio-recorded interview gave is immense. I first planned to do a note down interview where I decided to write up everything. This would not have had the same effect and success. With just a press of a button, I can hear and analyze the interview as many times I feel like. I have already made notes of all the important and surprising things I found in the research. I am working on more things that could be penetrated through the recorded interview. There are some weaknesses like in a couple of occasions I cannot hear what the interviewee is saying, but I do get the picture as I conducted it. Something similar could also have happened if I had noted down the interview in writing and failed to recognize what has been written down due to lack of clarity. Where there are positives there are also a few negatives. Overall I am very impressed with the nature of the interview that was conducted. List of References Guest, G., 2008. Handbook for Team-based Qualitative Research. 3rd ed. Lanham: Rowman Altamira. Hammersley, M., 2012. Ethics in Qualitative Research: Controversies and Contexts. 4th ed. London: SAGE Publications. Israel, D., 2008. Data Analysis in Business Research: A Step-By-Step Nonparametric Approach. 2nd ed. New Delhi: SAGE Publications. Markee, N., 2000. Conversation Analysis. 2nd ed. Mahwah : Routledge. Merriam, S.B., 2009. Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation. 3rd ed. San Francisco : John Wiley & Sons. Tracy, S.J., 2013. Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact. 5th ed. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Appendix Total Respondents 1 Interviewee Gender Male Location University of Lincoln, Library Time Approximately 30 minutes Questions 1. How often do you use social media? 2. Who do you spend the most amount of time socializing with? Your friends or family members via social networks? 3. Are you happy with the form of social media that you use to communicate with people? 4. How important is social media to you? 5. I’m sure it fulfills your social needs and keeps you connected with friends but don’t you think it is too addictive and wastes valuable time of people? 6. Do you think social media have or are changing the way people live? 7. But do you not think people used to make a better effort in physically going out and meeting their friends and family rather than just saying hi hello over social media? 8. Tell me something positive about the way social media has changed the lives of people? 9. Do you see a drastic change brought to this world by social media? Read More