Project+4+Social+Media+Data+Collection+&+Interviews

Social media seems to be at the center of social society today. Adolescence, teenagers, and adults of all ages use social media to connect and share with the community of their choosing. Even though social media technology is used by a wide range of users and consumers, there is still a lot to learn about what drives people to use social media and how different groups utilize social media to satisfy daily living needs and wants. Obviously teenagers have different uses for social media than adults at different stages of life. Most people realize that teens will be more exposed to social media than mothers, grandmothers, fathers, and grandfathers. This is simply because teens grow up with the technology that older generations fight to learn. Project 4 focused on interviewing multiple age groups of people to see the value social media plays in their lives, if any. Some of the hypotheses in my own mind were confirmed based on the questions that I asked from the social media survey that I was provided.
 * Introduction **

My selection of interviewees were not scientifically thought out, I simply found people that fit the grouping criteria, whom I already had access. Finding people to complete surveys over summer semesters can be quite difficult because of the lack of normal co-worker interaction and for many people family members are the only available or willing participants. My situation is a little different from most teachers because I coach football at my school and we train our players over the summer. I had access to students and other coaches to complete the interviews for project 4.
 * Selection of interviewees: What were the challenges? **

Another challenge that I found in the interviewing process was the brevity of which some of my interviewees would answer the provided survey questions. Often, during the interview I needed to ask other questions that were not provided to get a more specific answer that would provide the detail needed for the survey. The question regarding if the interviewee was a user or consumer caused confusion for most of my participants. Most of my participants could not distinguish between a consumer and a user because they are so similar in definition. After the first interview I had to Google the definition of both user and consumer to try to make a distinction between the two terms in my own mind. Clarity seemed to be the key when interviewing my participants. If my participants did not understand or follow the question then I might ask several follow-up questions that were not in the survey. One of my coach friends actually felt like some of the questions were redundant and I got the feeling that he didn’t want to continue because of the quick and brief responses he gave me. I don’t think he wanted to hurt my feelings by declining to answer the rest of the questions. This coach also thought social media was useless. He already had the notion that he didn’t care much for social media.
 * Interview experience: How did it go? What is good, bad or ugly about it? **

I decided to use my iPhone to record the interviews so that I could easy extract the pertinent information from each interview. This turned out to be an excellent procedure. I was able to pause the audio while I typed each question in the online survey. This is how most of my survey answers were written in the first person and they also seemed very specific.

=Lessons learned about interviewing and data collection = The biggest thing that I learned is that you really need more interviewees than 1 from each age group to be able to make generalizations about people from an age category. My interviewee in the 20 to 29 age range seemed to be less fond of social media than the person I interviewed that was 65 years old. Just because a person is young does not automatically make them a good candidate for a social media survey. I also found that an interviewer may need to add a little improvisation to an interview and not just stick to the script. I found that sometimes I felt like I needed to flush out more information about social media than the questions on the survey would have gotten alone. It is also important to reduce noise and distractions by creating a private and comfortable environment in order to obtain great interview feedback. Data collection is much easier to manage if it is entered into a Google survey. I have been creating and using Google Forms for about 3 years for data collection of the special education students for which I am responsible. Google Forms makes anecdotal data from qualitative observations very easy to manage and organize. Management and organization of data collected is the key to quick data analysis. = = =Advice to future students who will be completing a similar project = I would advise future students to make a list of people that fit the different age categories to which you would have easy access. I would also plan the interview dates well in advance and make sure that you have previewed the questions on the survey before you begin the interview. I recorded the interviews with my iPhone rather than taking notes with paper and pencil. This really helped when I extracted the ideas and typed them in the Google survey. Before attempting to record the interviewee, always ask if it is alright to do so. The last thing that I would advise students would be not waiting until the last day to start. The interview process takes a little time and you should plan to utilize your time and your interviewee’s time wisely.

=Conclusion = The project 4 interviews about social media helped me realize that just because a person is young does not mean that they use the technology that is associated with the youth of the current generation. Social media has impacted many lives in very different ways and the interviews that were conducted and the qualitative data that was collected by all the members of this class should shed some light on many of the things that drives people to use social media. I am anxious to get a look at some of the other anecdotal data that my peers collected as well. I will be able to get a better understanding of the age categories that may be affected the most with social media use. We might be shocked to learn how many people in the 60+ range have been impacted.

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. ===== ||