THEME 4 - Prereflection

Petter Bae Brandtzæg (2012). Social Networking Sites: Their Users and Social Implications - A Longitudinal Study (Volume 17, Issue 4, pages 467–488, July 2012)

The paper contains a quantitative longitudinal study that examines different social implications of social media sites. A part of the theories that were presented was from the paper I read last week about the relationship between Facebook and social capital. This study, by Brandtzæg, also investigates the term social capital in different ways. It was really interesting to read both papers and see the connections between them, since their topics are very similar.  The method that was used by Brandtzæg in his paper was in some ways very similar to the method in the paper I read last week. Both authors propose a couple of hypothesis, collect data by questionnaires and analyse the results and test their hypothesis. The different lay mainly in how the data is collected.

In this paper, by Brandtzæg the study consists of three survey waves with different questionnaires on 2000 persons during a three-year period. It was interesting that the study was going on for such a long period, but a disadvantage with this is that the methods in the different waves in someway varied.

Fondell, E., Lagerros, Y. T., Sundberg, C. J., Lekander, M., Bälter, O., Rothman, K., & Bälter, K. (2010). Physical activity, stress, and self-reported upper respiratory tract infection

The paper investigates the relationship between physical activity level, perceived stress and incidence of self-reported upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). The researchers conducted a population-based study and sent web questionnaires to the participants with frequent follow-ups. The results showed that people reporting a higher level of physical activity had a lower risk of getting URTI and that highly stressed people might benefit more to physical activity than the less stressed people.

One limitation with the quantitative method in this paper is that the result of it is very depending of the participants. Within this study 1111 out of 5000 responded on all the follow-ups, which gives a low response-rate overall. With that said it is important to analyse who it is and why people chose to answer this online survey. Are they having any personal interests in this subject or what is the reason for their participation? Especially in this case when they were interested of comparing stressed people to less stressed people it. Maybe the less stressed people are more likely to answer, since they do not experience that they have too much to do.

Another limitation is that the results from the study are depending on what type of questions you have asked and those are based on your pre-knowledge. Maybe you afterwards realize that the questions did not mean what you wanted or that the participants have misinterprets your questions. You have got one shot, and have to get it right the first time only.

On the other hand, a benefit with this type of quantitative method is that it is easy to conduct and to reach a large amount of people, which could give good data and material to analyse. It does not take so much time or resources to set up an online survey or questionnaire compared to the amount

One benefit within this study is that it was on going for a very long period of time, which was made possible due to the choice of method.

Qualitative methods provide a more flexible way to perform studies, since they are more adaptable. They also result in longer and comprehensive answers that can be very useful because it provides more specific information about the topic, but they are not suitable for longer periods of research, like the questionnaire above was. Therefore a combination of both quantitative and qualitative answers should be used when doing research and studies to achieve best possible data and results.

By reading the paper by Olle Bälter and colleagues I learnt a new way of how to use quantitative methods. I found it extra interesting that the study was done during such a long period of time, with several follow-ups and not only one time questionnaire.