tavie.com

I need help with this one. I need to devote the rest of the semester to designing my research proposal for my anthropology class. I don't have to actually do the research, just design a proposal; that's the goal.

I have an appointment next Monday to meet with the professor and present my research question/hypothesis to her.

I still haven't nailed it down. I know this much: I want to do something with online community participation and social performance. Something along the lines of, "What effect does online community participation have on (offline?) social performance?" or, you know, if it's a hypothesis, "Online community formation has a positive effect on (offline? What word am I looking for?) social performance". Or "Does online community participation lead to success in face-to-face interaction?" (Or possibly, negative. That's what my hypothesis would test. Then I have to define "success"...) You see where I'm going here. I haven't figured out the wording yet.

The problem is, if you look at this question, it's really a psychological hypothesis, not anthropological. I've wandered off into another discipline altogether. So, how do I make this relate to anthropology? I can't conentrate on any particular ethnic group, nationality, linguistic (mainly-- I do have a copy of Crystal's Language and the Internet) or geographically-based (sub)culture because the internet generally transcends those boundaries. Online communities are something else altogether. But I have to have some group to measure the effects on. I'm so frustrated.

Now, I've come across some stuff about Cyberanthropology, which might help me figure out how to make this legit as an anthropological question. But I still don't quite have the question right.

Can anyone help? I mean, really. I need help. Should I abandon this question altogether, or is there a way to make this more... anthropological?

Addendum: Djin has stressed an important point: that I need to focus on the group rather than individual effects. Obviously, this would be my tendency, since this is basically an hypothesis extracted from personal experience. It's useless if I'm using myself as the variable. This is harder to keep in mind than you think. Objectivity, objectivity. Am I too close to the subject? But how do anthropologists get into anything unless they're somehow invested in the outcome?

The quest continues.

(And, by the way, if you think online community participation doesn't have an effect on offline social success, consider readers of my blog as part of an "online community", and the fact that I often engage in blog-based brainstorming sessions such as these, which help me achieve academic success. Whether or not academic success can relate to social success is another matter, of course. Smart kids get their heads flushed down the toilet, I hear.)

Why are you in Tavie's head? 9:47 PM | shower me with attention