This study will aim at answering the main research question which seeks to determine, do people understand what privacy is when it comes to using technology and the internet? The sub-questions that will be addressed are: do people realize the impact that social media has on privacy? Have people prioritized technology use over privacy? Why are technology users prone to giving up private information on social media? Has instant gratification become a priority over user privacy? What type of information is exposed on social media, and what are its implications? How can one use social media safely without disclosing their personal information?
Therefore, to address the research questions outlined above, the research will employ a qualitative research design to facilitate data collection and analysis. Conducting research using qualitative methods is advantageous because the named approach is the most flexible study technique, which offers a variety of processes and structures that can be manipulated to realize study goals (Creswell & Creswell, 2017). Moreover, the qualitative design will facilitate the in-depth analysis of the research questions to explore people’s perspectives, experiences and understanding of the information era and its implications on their privacy. A subject that is as complex as the privacy of users in tech-savvy society requires thorough analysis, which is possible through the implementation of qualitative methods. The named approach will facilitate the realization of the goals of the research by revealing the linear relations that exist between the study variables and yield rich and insightful data that will enable the explanation of the underlying patterns and reasons behind the disregard for privacy among tech users (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). Therefore, a qualitative approach to the research is the best as it will facilitate the realization of research goals.
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Plan of Action
The research process will entail the collection and analysis of data from scholarly sources deemed relevant to the resolution of the study questions. The researcher will restrict the resources used for the study to peer-reviewed journals and sites to ascertain the credibility of the information that is compiled. Scholarly sources are scrutinized by experts before they are published to ensure that the arguments presented are valid and reliable (Ludovico & Wittig, 2015). Thus, by basing the study on data presented in peer-reviewed sources, the conclusions drawn upon the completion of the research will depict equal credibility.
The data collection process will be characterized by the implementation of data mining techniques to find relevant resource materials through keyword searches on scholarly databases like Google Scholar, Jstor, Ebsco and Elsevier. The mentioned approach to collecting data will be vital because it will allow the acquisition of data that has already been tallied and presented by other researchers, offering crucial insight on the subject matter (Tan, 2018). Thus, data mining will enable the researcher to explore the research topic in detail based on the perceptions of other study publishers, leading to the realization of conclusions that are relevant and applicable in real-life situations.
After collecting and documenting information from the online resources, the researcher will categorized the data based on its relevance to specific research questions. Grouping the data will be vital to ensuring that the most convincing information sources are used to provide the evidence required to affirm or dispute the researcher’s assumptions. Additionally, it will enable the classification of study resources based on the established data patterns, a factor that will be essential in the compilation stage (Gibbs, 2018). Finally, the process will be concluded by organizing the findings to come up with a logical argument that answers the research questions and sheds light on the issue of user privacy when technology use is involved. The organization of the data collected and analysed will enable the compilation of the research paper, which will outline the researcher’s findings and recommendations of the measures that can be employed to resolve the problem explored.
Research Methodology for Data Collection
The first sub-question that the research will explore will entail the determination of whether people understand that social media impacts their privacy. The acquisition of the information required to answer the stated question will require a keyword search of the scholarly databases stated above, focusing on the effect that social media has on the privacy of its users. Among the keywords that will be used to collect relevant data are privacy, social media, impact, effect and user privacy. The researcher will scheme through the resources that the online data search presents to determine the ones that are most relevant to answering the study question. Afterwards, the most appropriate sources will be selected and stored for further analysis in a later stage of the research process (Johnston, 2017). Therefore, the systematic exploration of the study resources is expected to provide relevant data that will enable the researcher to answer the research question effectively.
Secondly, the researcher will focus on determining whether people prioritize the use of technology over their privacy. The same data collection process applied to answer the first question will be used for this question characterized by the search, sorting and storage of information for use in the analysis phase of the research. However, apart from exploring online resources for information, the researcher will also observe random tech users to compare the findings documented by scholars with their own. Observation of real-life experiences is vital because it enables a researcher to use their senses to gain insights into people’s behaviors (Spradley, 2016). Thus, observing will provide further information that will allow the researcher to establish whether technology use is prioritized over privacy.
Thirdly, the researcher will explore the reasons behind the predisposition of social media users to give up private information on the named platforms. They will use the same data collection procedure employed for the first question to collect, categorize and store relevant data awaiting analysis. Their focus will be on determining whether immediate gratification from likes and comments or sympathy and remorse shown by other online users is reason enough to convince users to abandon their privacy. For this question, the researcher will require different data groupings for each predisposing factor explored, including gratification from likes, comments, retweets and shares.
Also, the successful completion of the research will require the determination of the type of information that people expose on social media and the effects it can have on facilitating identity theft and the creation of shadow accounts. The researcher will employ the same data collection approach used in the second question. Apart from collecting, sorting and storing information obtained from online scholarly sources, they will engage in observation. However, the observations made will focus on celebrity social media accounts, which are deemed to expose the most personal information and the effect the divulgence has had on the creation of shadow profiles. The identity theft aspect of the issue will be explored based on publications of known cases to determine how the availability of personal information eased the replication process. The information obtained during observation will be documented for later use in the analysis phase of the research. The documentation of data collected is essential because the researcher cannot be certain that they will be able to remember everything, especially considering the vastness of the information they will be dealing with throughout the study (Schindler III, 2019). Hence, the process expressed above is deemed as the most vital for the optimization of the results of the data collection process.
Lastly, the researcher will explore whether scholars that have published their work on peer-reviewed sites or journals offered suggestions on how one can use social media without exposing their personal information. Collecting the relevant data will follow the same process as the one used for the first question entailing an online data search, the grouping of data based on the relevance to answer the research question and its storage for later analysis.
Research Methodology for Creative Projects
To answer the first research sub-question seeking to establish whether people understand that social media impacts their privacy will require the development of a research guide. A research guide is a targeted and organized collection of resources that relates to a specific topic (Denscombe, 2014). Compiling the guide will require the researcher to write a list of the keywords that will be necessary for the online information search to acquire relevant information sources. For question two, focusing on the establishment of whether people have prioritized technology use over privacy, apart from requiring to create a research guide through the process outlined above, the researcher will also need an observational guide. When collecting data through observation, it is essential to use an observation guide to highlight the key components that the researcher should focus on and reflect upon. The development of an effective observation guide will require prior analysis of online sources to determine what the researcher should include in it (Smit & Onwuegbuzie, 2018). Answering question three on why technology users are prone to giving up private information on social media and question five on determining how social media can be used safely without divulging personal data will require the development of customized research guides through the process used to create the guide for question one. Finally, question four, requiring the determination of the kind of information that is exposed to social media and its implications will involve the use of both a research and observation guide. The creation of the guides will follow the same process as that which will be used for question two.
Conclusion
The data collected to answer the research sub-questions will be organized by the establishment and use of a clear file naming system, developing a data tracking procedure and creating a framework for translating and documenting the information. Additionally, the researcher will establish a clear timeline to guide the organization process and implement quality control measures to enhance the validity and reliability of the data collected. Consequently, the researcher will focus on data analysis which will be guided by outlining the research questions, exploration of the data collected, the removal of unnecessary data, the determination of the relevance of the data to the research questions as well as the interpretation and application of the results obtained (Gaber & Gaber, 2018). Thus, through the implementation of the steps explained, the information compiled in the research paper will realize the goal of the research.
References
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Denscombe, M. (2014). The good research guide: for small-scale social research projects . McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Gaber, J., & Gaber, S. (2018). Qualitative analysis for planning & policy: Beyond the numbers . Routledge.
Gibbs, G. R. (2018). Analyzing qualitative data (Vol. 6). Sage.
Johnston, M. P. (2017). Secondary data analysis: A method of which the time has come. Qualitative and quantitative methods in libraries , 3 (3), 619-626.
Ludovico, C., & Wittig, C. (2015). A universe of information, one citation at a time: how students engage with scholarly sources. Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning , 9 (1-2), 30-39.
Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2015). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation . John Wiley & Sons.
Schindler III, A. R. (2019). U.S. Patent Application No. 10/198,676 .
Smit, B., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2018). Observations in Qualitative Inquiry: When What You See Is Not What You See.
Spradley, J. P. (2016). Participant observation . Waveland Press.
Tan, P. N. (2018). Introduction to data mining . Pearson Education, India.
