For our presentation, Bettina and I wanted to start off with a group activity that got students thinking about their messaging habits. It was interesting to see what students submitted to the Facebook group chat. I distinctly remember Parker submitting several character stickers and telling the class that they often did with strangers. It was the complete opposite of what I did in messages. I would only send visuals (emojis, GIFs, memes) to close friends. The group activity highlighted the different texting habits we had as same-aged millennials. Bettina and I also concentrated on talking about some of the themes we had identified from our interviews. We spoke to the class about two of our themes: privacy and community. At the end of our presentation we asked our classmates for recommendations on other topics we should try to cover. Below are their suggestions…
Etiquette (example breaking up with someone over text)
We tried asking our interviewees questions in regard to this topic, except we called it the ‘unwritten rules’ of communicating over the phone (message/call/email)
Uncomfortable calling people on the phone – is it an intergenerational phenomenon?
Not all millennials seem uncomfortable talking to people on the phone. One of our interviewees said that she makes an effort to exclusively call people rather than texting them. She preferred calling because she interpreted it as a more genuine gesture.
Is there a movement towards more Facetime? – is Facetime different but equal to texting?
Reasons to keep messages…
Changing our language – aka form of socialization
A lot of the research I conducted for the annotated bibliography argued that text language was constantly evolving in this day and age. For example, early users of text language started with the abbreviation of words and emoticons. Now, abbreviated words are frequently being replaced with visuals.
Use of read receipts = programmed in on Facebook
Is facetime more like texting because you can pay less attention and do other things?
Emotional attachment to how we perform over technology
Facetime – it is a commitment to talk to someone; “you have to talk to me” – is facetime more instant than texting?
Features on Facebook dictate how/why we use it – shifts the way we use apps/technology
Read receipts add meaning to the message even though it is not part of the text
This week…
After much consideration, Bettina and finalized the themes we would cover in our podcast mini-series. We plan on talking about privacy, authenticity, and the Presentation of Self. We found that privacy was relevant to the Sociology of Millennials because of Facebook’s recent problem with Cambridge Analytica. After reading Richard Ocejo’s Masters of Craft, Bettina and I thought it would be fun to connect millennials’ desire for authenticity to authenticity millennials’ communication habits. For the third podcast, Bettina and I settled on the themes of the Presentation of Self because we wanted to use Erving Goffman’s theory to contextualize our research.
I completed my annotated bibliography (five sources) and started editing the rest of the interviews on GarageBand. Bettina will be submitting five additional annotated bibliographies. I organized the interviewees’ responses into the themes and Bettina began writing a script for our podcasts’ introduction. We hope to finish up the analysis for each podcast and polish it up (jingle and everything) before the final deadline.