DIY Research Methods for the Digital+Social Age

Masumi Izawa is an energy-efficiency consultant in Portland, Oregon, USA with a background in social media market researchand environmental psychology. She is the lead author of a myth-busting journal article on the Hawthorne Illumination Experiments–the experi- ments synonymous with the “Hawthorne effect.” On the side, she blogs about  online  dating.

Friendster was all the rage back when I was beingschooled on social science researchmethods in college.By the time I reached grad schooland was studyingsocial science researchmethods again, social media had become commonplace. It was also during this time that I began using socialmedia and digitalcommunication tools to complete grad school researchprojects, primarily out of efficiencyand convenience reasons.This included using Facebook to recruit participants, Skype to conduct a focus group, an online dating site for a photoexperiment, and Facebookto advertise a survey. Then after grad school, I joined a social media research group on LinkedInand was spottedby the director of a future employerfor a job as a social media and market research analyst. You could say that the digital+social sphere has had a pull on me.

I’m an advocate for developingand adapting research methods to the digital+social age. One of the best reasons to consider using digital tools and social media to conduct researchis flexibility. Sure, digital+social methods currently lack the standardsand rigor of academic research.However, digital+social methods allow flexibility in creatingan original method unique to the researchobjective. At the moment, this flexibility in methods may be a better fit for real-world clients who have very specific and ever changing needsthan for academia.

Moreover, the flexibility in conducting researchusing digital tools and socialmedia can lead to innovative, DIY research. An interesting example of this DIY research can be found in online dating. If you’ve ever googled for online dating tips and stories,then you’ve probablycome across many data mining,experimental, and ethnographic research conducted by regular membersof dating sites who just wantedbetter results; so they developed their own method for answering their dating questions.One of these DIY researchers gave a TED talk about it.

Alongside flexibility in methods is the flexibility in recruiting participants using digital toolsand social media.Perhaps the quickest and cheapest way to recruitparticipants nowadays is through social media. The market for smartphones and other mobile devices continuesto grow, and these digital tools that are coupled with social media will be the primary ways through which many participants will be found and recruited. Researchstudies conducted in academiacan finally recruit beyond WEIRD college students!

What’s possible with the currentdigital tools and social media? To convinceyou some more about the flexibility and possibilities of research methods, here’s a matrix of some of the adaptations and applications of methods I’ve come up with so far.

Technologies change and social media companies come and go. Conducting research

 

using digital tools and social media is understanding that communication and data

 

constantly evolve. And research methods should evolve too.