Project+5+Social+Media+Research+Paper

=Introduction = Some people may feel that social media has infiltrated our lives that will change the way we develop friendships. Teenagers or millennials have always known the technology and social networking sites that most of us use today. Teenagers wake up with their smartphone, get social network alerts while eating and going to the restroom and go to sleep after posting their daily escapades. Teachers and parents try to compete with social media for the attention of their child or student, but parents and teachers are just not as entertaining. Teachers and parents should embrace the social networking sites and understand teenagers’ perceptions of social media so we can better know with what our children and students are facing. We should know the consequences and implications of social media in the classroom and in our homes so that we can better raise awareness of being a good digital citizen. This research project informed me about teenage perceptions of social media. I also found that there are many more social networking sites that teenagers are using today than I was previously aware

=Description =

The research project focused on the following research questions. We were required to come up with both a quantitative and qualitative research question to address in the study.

Quantitative Research Question:

What types of social media are being accessed by teenage or millennial students?

Qualitative Research Question:

How do teenage or millennial students perceive social media in their lives?

This research project forced me to learn more about how social media affects teenagers. It was very easy to find articles that related too social media and the influence that social media have on teenagers. The qualitative information that we gathered as a class through surveys was very descriptive, but I would have liked to offer my own questions to ask in the surveys. Some of the questions just seemed to gain redundant answers. There seemed to be a consensus among the teenagers’ answers to the survey.

Keri Beth Jones and I collaborated on this social media research project. I called Keri Beth as soon as the assignment was posted on the wiki site and we spoke for about an hour about the project. She told me she was taking two other classes this semester so I decided rather than waiting around on her to take the lead, I would go ahead and layout the sections and plan who would be in charge of writing each section. After I began putting together the literature review, I realized that I may have given myself most of the work, so I sent Keri Beth an email with the Word file that I began and the sections that she would need to complete. It was not that difficult to collaborate on this assignment. Keri Beth and I mostly communicated through email and we shared our resources with each other through email as well. The most difficult part of the assignment had to backtrack and find more articles that supported the research questions. Keri Beth and I had some of the same references from annotated bibliography from project 1 and then others were not as relevant to our topic, demographic, and research questions. Researching and evaluating a plethora of research articles and writing the literature review was pretty difficult for me.

I was very fortunate to have Keri Beth as a partner. Anytime I have to collaborate on an assignment with another student you never know what kind of work ethic the other person has until you begin working with them. Keri Beth answered all of my emails in a timely manner and she completed her part of the assignment in a timely manner as well.

=Conclusion = This project 5, research assignment was great research and writing practice that I will need when I take my program evaluation course next semester. I am gaining more and more strategies for research and I learned so much about social media and the teenagers who use social media. While I have always dreaded collaborative projects, simply because you never know the work ethic of your partners, I have always learned a substantial amount more through the discusses partners must engage in to accomplish the finished product.

About the Author

 * [[image:jameytrask7465/jamey head crop.jpg caption="jamey head crop.jpg"]] || =====James Trask or "Jamey" is a special education teacher at Fayette County High School, in Fayetteville, GA. He has been teaching and coaching varsity football there for the past 9 years. This year he also accepted a part-time position as a teacher for the Georgia Virtual School. Jamey is currently teaching one engineering course through the GA Virtual School. Teaching online has been a great challenge for Jamey and he is glad to have been given this opportunity to be on the front-end of a movement toward online education. Jamey received his undergraduate degree from Georgia Southern University in graphic design. He completed his masters degree in Instructional Technology from the University of West Georgia in the spring of 2012. Jamey spends most of his professional time co-teaching math, but he also co-teaches a British Literature course. Jamey always looks for opportunities to use and share the knowledge he has in graphic design and technology with others that will listen. ===== ||