Michelle and I gathered data from three students during the week of March 26th – April 1st. They are students we have relationships with who were willing to share their messages with us. We explained the project to them in-person and requested for screenshots of a day’s worth of message or an extended thread of conversation. Michelle and I asked informally so we were not able to clarify every point of our research project but we assured the students that their messages would remain anonymous and the content would be irrelevant as we are only looking for language habits or patterns in their messages.
We also drafted an email template to send to our respondents:
“Hello,
For our final project, Bettina and I are interested in analyzing millennials’ (college students) SMS (short message service) to identify patterns in text language. We plan on using text message chains, Facebook messenger, and direct messages (i.e. Instagram, Twitter). For example, phrases are abbreviated, visuals (i.e. GIFS, memes) are used, or punctuation marks are intentionally left out.
We would greatly appreciate your participation. If you are interested, please respond to this email. We are asking for screenshots of a day’s worth or an extended conversation. All names and specific details will be omitted. We are not concerned about the context of the messages, instead we are focusing on messaging habits/patterns. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me or Bettina.
Michelle Jeong ([email protected])
Bettina Mariano ([email protected])
Thank you!
Best,
Bettina and Michelle”
Our projected summary detailed Sociology 3010 as the initial subject group because they are the most accessible and likely the most willing to participate, but we were also thinking of asking millennials outside the Bowdoin bubble if we wanted to expand. This is something Michelle and I still have to discuss after we gather data from Sociology 3010. We also need to think about whether or not we want to send a follow-up questionnaire or conduct short interviews after receiving data. Michelle and I are interested in WHY these students are using certain forms of language which we would not be able to get unless we ask the subjects. We want to meet with Professor Greene next week and consider his opinion about it.
Tina,
I’m glad that you and Michelle are finding some interesting data on this subject. In my comments to Michelle, I expressed some concern that, given recent events in the media, students may feel very reticent to share their private texts. This might be further complicated by the fact that Bowdoin is a bit of a fishbowl, and privacy among students is difficult to guarantee in some of these cases. I think this is a very important topic, so a survey or some kind of questionnaire might be a great supplement if students don’t want to share their private texts. You also might find another kind of public online forum where you can analyze how young people communicate to one another (i.e. is there another YikYak out there?).
Equally, have you begun to consider the literature you will situate your research?
I look forward to meeting with you and Michelle over the next week or two to discuss your progress.