Go with the flow: Making Smart Choices

Definition of Qualitative Research Methods

Dear Baym & Marham,

            You start of saying “ Every generation believes it is singular in its experience of rapid and monumental social and technological changes.  Ours is in no exception”.  Indeed you 100% correct. Today the Internet has provided us like no other age/century has before.  The Internet has provided capacities, uses, interfaces at whole different level.  Due to this, researchers, anthropologist, philosophers, teachers, students, and so on now have so many ways to track information, receive data, and even more communicate.  We can now analyze different medium online.  We can retrieve and track data.   In your introduction you talk about what it means to be a researcher today and how methods are changing just as technology is.  “Challenges of conducting Internet research have prompted its researchers to confront, head-on, numerous questions that lurk less visibly in traditional research context”.  I get what your saying and would imagine this to be true and understanding.   You have to have credible research, and be able to articulate and defend the processes of decision making during research.  Under reconsidering without reinventing, you say credible research is driven by clearly defined questions and adaptability in answering them’”.   So many people are on the Internet and you have to regard peoples privacy, and be careful what you consider research and what should you be analyzing more so what is it that your looking for.  In Internet related research, traditional ways are shifting and therefore so should our research skills.  You talk about identifying and categorizing, even if only you are to protect the rights of participants.  I found this to be somewhat aggravating to always have to ask permission to interview online, or when you are doing participant observation.  This time around I do not have many questions to ask you, or a lot of response because I agree with all three articles that online research or any research needs to be done carefully and needs to adapt to the technological changes.   

Sincerely,

Ashley G.