Volunteers wanted `'Reseach project about Ereaders`'

[Fat Abe]

Originally Posted by Tamara

I have a degree in sociology. I'm familiar with the methodology.

I have an amateur detective license, obtained from a correspondence school that advertised on a matchbook cover. So there. What would the survey team learn from my photo? That Fat Abe is really fat, or that he is a liar, and really skinny? Or is Fats a Martian? I even lie on the Census! Anyway, my library is huge, bigger than the one that used to exist in Alexandria. The location is secret and will remain secret, lest it be burned down by the Fahrenheit 451 squad.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by Tamara

I have a degree in sociology. I'm familiar with the methodology.

Odd then that you don't know how "someone taking 10 pictures of themselves with a reader helps the research study." Self-recording by participants is usual is this methodology.

[Tamara]

Originally Posted by TGS

Odd then that you don't know how "someone taking 10 pictures of themselves with a reader helps the research study." Self-recording by participants is usual is this methodology.

Sorry, it just doesn't make sense to me but then the OP was kind of skimpy with the details of why they want 10 pics. Do they want to see the person with the reader at Panera, in the tub, on the bus, in bed, etc? I just don't see the relevance of pictures when questions would make more sense unless the pictures are just a way of padding the thesis.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by Tamara

Sorry, it just doesn't make sense to me but then the OP was kind of skimpy with the details of why they want 10 pics. Do they want to see the person with the reader at Panera, in the tub, on the bus, in bed, etc? I just don't see the relevance of pictures when questions would make more sense unless the pictures are just a way of padding the thesis.

Photo-elicitation is a methodology in which study participants make photographs of themselves engaged in the activity that is the subject of the study. These photographs then provide the basis on which the researchers construct structured questions. The thinking is I guess that the photographs that the participants provide will be in part based on the salience of particular situations for the participants. So, if I send in photographs that show me using my ereader on a bus, in a library, in a coffee bar, at home, in the office, that might lead to the researchers to ask me about whether I'm reading the same kind of material in all these places, what kind of material that is, how many hours a day to I spend reading off my ereader compared to other forms of reading, if I use it for both leisure and work what proportion of time and what amounts of time do I use it for each...and so on. Obviously, I've no real idea what questions they will ask because I don't know what they are actually trying to find out.

What I don't understand is why people on the forum respond to a student making a request like this by ridiculing it and making brainless responses (this bit isn't really directed at you Tamara). If you don't understand the point of something this might be a deficit in your understanding and not necessarily something wrong with the idea. If you don't understand it there's an email address of one of the students, so you could contact them, or send them a PM, you don't need to engage in nasty minded piss taking (Leboblo and Bilbo). If you don't want to get involved with the study that's fine, but don't use the fact that you have been invited as an excuse for some wank-brained ranting (Fat Abe).

[Fat Abe]

TGS: Tsk, tsk. Some stranger posts a request on this board and asks the subjects to take photos or have photos taken of themselves. I joke about it and you presume to call me an idiot? I value my privacy, unlike some members of Generation eXhibitionist, who obviously do not.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20...ol;mlt_related

Next thing they'll ask you are invasive questions such as- what's your political leaning? or when did you last violate your country's copyright laws? Let's stick to words only, and keep surveys as neutral and anonymous as possible. You want to see pictures, visit crap sites like www.i***shot***myself.com.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by Fat Abe

I joke about it and you presume to call me an idiot? I value my privacy, unlike some members of Generation eXhibitionist, who obviously do not.

I thought the defining characteristic of a joke was that it is funny

You basically misunderstood the nature of the request that the student was making and on the basis of that misunderstanding went off on one. But you were happy to do that because it allowed you to have a rant about something that has got nothing to do with the original posting. Had you been interested in what the post was actually about you could have followed up the link that the OP gave, could have found out about the method they were using, and then decided whether or not you wanted to take part. Or you could just have ignored the original posting. But what you did instead was put some uncalled for nonsense into the world based entirely on your original misunderstanding - why would you want to do that?

[Fat Abe]

Danes have no sense of humor. Proof: Hamlet. I abhor survey methodology that is invasive. Is that too difficult for you to understand?

[TGS]

Originally Posted by Fat Abe

Danes have no sense of humor. Proof: Hamlet. I abhor survey methodology that is invasive. Is that too difficult for you to understand?

I'm not a Dane - but the ones I know have a very rich sense of humour - different from yours in that they laugh at and say things that are funny.
Survey methods are designed to find things out by subjects telling the researchers things they don't already know and are not public knowledge. In that sense all survey methodologies are "invasive" if you want to see them that way. That you don't want to take part in surveys is not too difficult to understand - I have no problem with that at all. That you persist in talking crap is a bit more difficult for me to understand.

[LDBoblo]

It would be good to avoid direct attacks on one another. It's much better if the thread is dedicated to genuine responses to the original poster or general ridicule and discussion related thereto.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

It would be good to avoid direct attacks on one another. It's much better if the thread is dedicated to genuine responses to the original poster or general ridicule and discussion related thereto.

Why is it OK to ridicule the OP but not OK to ridicule the ridiculous responses to it?

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by TGS

Why is it OK to ridicule the OP but not OK to ridicule the ridiculous responses to it?

You betcha! And it's especially funny if you can work in a side joke about Moose hunting in Alaska!

Actually, I think the OP forgot that we're especially touchy here in the US over identity theft and the like - and we, nowadays, tend to wonder just what the heck someone might do with 5-10 photos of ourselves. Not that *I* think the OP had such intentions, just that there's a sort of mass hysteria over here concerning these issues.

Derek

[TGS]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

Not that *I* think the OP had such intentions, just that there's a sort of mass hysteria over here concerning these issues.
Derek

And the rest of us should be victims of "your" mass hysteria? (Mmm, on reflection, of course, we often are )

[cbarnett]

Originally Posted by TGS

Why is it OK to ridicule the OP but not OK to ridicule the ridiculous responses to it?

Actually, it's not okay to ridicule anybody (see the terms of use).

And two wrongs don't make a right as my old gran used to say, ALL THE TIME...

[jjansen]

I'll just add my two cents from Canada. When I saw the subject line I thought that I might participate. I just got a new ereader last week, gave my mum my old one and bought my husband one in January. We all use them slightly differently in our house. The moment I saw the request for photos I mentally jumped right back. I don't mind answering questions and explaining my usage but no-one needs photos of myself, or my husband or my mother. This isn't a beauty contest...........Jackie

[cbarnett]

Originally Posted by jjansen

I'll just add my two cents from Canada. When I saw the subject line I thought that I might participate. I just got a new ereader last week, gave my mum my old one and bought my husband one in January. We all use them slightly differently in our house. The moment I saw the request for photos I mentally jumped right back. I don't mind answering questions and explaining my usage but no-one needs photos of myself, or my husband or my mother. This isn't a beauty contest...........Jackie

I have to admit, I felt the same way. I'm happy to answer and complete surveys and do it regularly, but this requirement was the killer here.