CCY 3999: Research on Youth and Social Media Mini Methodology Report

This report outlines a mini methodology for researching the impact of social media on young people. The study aims to understand how social media platforms affect the lives of youth, focusing on aspects like connectivity and potential alienation. The methodology includes a classroom-based survey using questionnaires with Likert scales, supplemented by focus groups. The report details participant recruitment strategies, research settings (classrooms and community spaces), and data collection procedures, emphasizing the importance of ethical considerations such as anonymity and informed consent. The research also addresses the darker aspects of social media, such as cyberbullying. The report references relevant academic sources to support its methodological choices and highlights the need for sensitivity when addressing sensitive topics with young participants. The goal is to gather insights into how different sociological groups of youth interact with social media and how their online experiences evolve.

Running head: Mini Methodology
Research with Children and Young People
Name of the student
Name of the university

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Participants and Recruitment:....................................................................................................4
Research Setting:........................................................................................................................4
Research Procedure:...................................................................................................................5
Research ethics:..........................................................................................................................6
References:.................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction:
The research question that this study aims to understand is how social media platform
affects the lives of the young people of our generation. Using a combination of primary and
secondary resources, the research tries to explore the various aspects of using social media,
such as the fast connectivity with people or the alienation it produces to capture how young
people navigate this relatively new technology.
As this is a small survey a class of 50 students was used for this survey and this does
not reflect an overall picture of how the youth view social media. The questions that will be
asked is naturally influenced from the papers about the topic conducted in different parts of
the world studied in the literature review. However acknowledging the gaps in the studies
mentioned a few other questions that highlight the darker aspect of using social media such as
cyberbullying and other cybercrimes like blackmailing will also be addressed.
Participants and Recruitment:
There are several strategies that will be helpful to conduct the research. As it would be
useful to understand how the question brings responses from a group with certain
commonalities; it would be wise to bring the research to a class room setting. A primary
source can be the friends who are in college and working through them and their connections
may help to do make the research smoother. It is natural that young people have their busy
lives so it might be possible to create a questionnaire like in a likert scale and request the
students to answer it online therefore saving everyone’s time and increase ineffeciency. The
choosing of participants will impact the research heavily as two different sociological groups
among the youth may respond to the questions very differently. Apart from classrooms to
target people who are just out of university can also be used by using some personal
connections, and observe how different times in youth show varying levels of engagement

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with social media. It is important to have a few alternatives in case one doesn’t work. For
example checking other avenues in town such as gymnasiums, dance clubs or shopping malls
where young people hang out or are engaged in some can also be very helpful. It maybe be
insightful to conduct two different research to understand how the interaction with the online
world changes for youths of different sociological groups.
Research Setting:
A practical research setting is perhaps the classroom itself after a class as it might be
difficult to have the same group of people for two or three times to meet outside class.
Another way would be to ask the group to meet up in a community hall or any large
playgrounds near campus. Just to be on the safe side, it will be wise to collect the social
media profiles of the people, and in case they are unable to participate fully in the process
physically, they can be reached online to make the research is successful. In a campus setting,
the professor or a student union can be requested to allow to use the common room for
showing awareness videos about social video and conduct the research peacefully.
Research Procedure:
The process of collecting information about their can be done in two stages. First the
target group will be approached and the basics of the research will be explained and after
interacting with the students and having a general idea about the sociological group they are
coming from, the particular questionnaire will be prepared. This is important as youth from
different sociological groups may have different responses to how they interact with the help
of social media. For example, really extroverted people generally use more instagram and
facebook where as introverted teenagers prefer tumblr or twitter( White et al, 2017). Again it
is seen that teenager more into politics and culture use facebook more whereas as teenagers
into photography prefer instagram or flickr. A focus group can be used for this research

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design as it has been seen to yield successful results. A free discussion on life online can lead
us to understand how the group lives online. Opinion of the students about how the hyper
connectivity of our age ironically leads to loss of connection can be understood by trying to
keep the setting very informal. Because several questions tend to be personal and good
research depends on honest answers by participants it is important to gauge the mood of the
crowd who are answering the questions. In case the group seems uninterested or
uncomfortable by the setting it will be imperative for the research design to make them
comfortable and get an honest answer. Some of the methods that can be used to let this
happen is by loosening up the crowd by showing interesting documentaries about how our
lives are invisibly but significantly impacted by social media. Because of the research
question regarding finding out the darker aspect of social media such as cyber bullying,
alienation or other cyber - crime it will need to be done with care and subtlety. After making
people aware that what some of them might have faced online is not only common to them
but has been happening to people all over the world might make them more comfortable to
open about their own bad experiences (Saunders et al, 2015) . After the crowd shows signs of
participating willingly in the research it is important to make the process anonymous at one
level to make people comfortable sharing about their personal experiences.
Research ethics:
There is a set of ethics in any field that we work in and in case of research
ethics constitute the moral principles that researchers should follow in their field
(Kruger, 2014). And especially as our research subjects are human and in a vulnerable
period in their lives the basic principles of ethical research such as privacy about the
information disclosed, respecting human dignity and not pressing too much to elicit a
answer from a unwilling subject and autonomy are very important

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References:
White, R., Wyn, J., & Robards, B. (2017). Youth and society.
Kumar, R. (2019). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage
Publications Limited.
Krueger, R. A. (2014). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research. Sage
publications.
Saunders, B., Kitzinger, J., & Kitzinger, C. (2015). Participant anonymity in the internet age:
from theory to practice. Qualitative research in psychology, 12(2), 125-137.