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Facebook dissertation help!!

S

slashjunior

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 19, 2007
117
0
Hey all,

I hope this is allowed and posted in the right place.

I was hoping some people could just take the time out the answer this short questionnaire regarding Facebook privacy. It is completely anonymous and only takes 5 mins and will really help me with my dissertation!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=m0sT9mkqjxcF_2f5kZLCKsdA_3d_3d

It would be an added bonus if you could send it on to your friends. NOTE: You need to be a Facebook member to take this questionnaire.

Many thanks
Dave


***UPDATE*** The questionnaire is now CLOSED.

Thank you so much to everyone who participated.
 
How should we address Yes/No questions on a 1-5 scale? Use 1s and 5s only?

An example would be "I accept friend requests even if I am unsure of who the person is"

Thanks!
 
KC2 said:
How should we address Yes/No questions on a 1-5 scale? Use 1s and 5s only?

An example would be "I accept friend requests even if I am unsure of who the person is"

Thanks!
Click to expand...

For example if you always do then a 5, if usually then a 4, 50/50 or not sure 3, rarely a 2 and if never then a 1. Some questions do not make as much sense as others, but wanted to try and keep it as easy as possible.

Hope this helps. I appreciate all your help! :)
 
...AND...Done.

Good luck with the results and the dissertation!
 
Thanks. I appreciate all your responses.

I will be happy to repay the favour.
 
A couple thoughts.

slashjunior said:
For example if you always do then a 5, if usually then a 4, 50/50 or not sure 3, rarely a 2 and if never then a 1. Some questions do not make as much sense as others, but wanted to try and keep it as easy as possible.

Hope this helps. I appreciate all your help! :)
Click to expand...

Good luck with your dissertation. A couple quick thoughts on the survey:

It might be useful to add anchors to Qs 5-18. Otherwise the respondents might interpret the response categories in a wide range of ways, which at a minimum is going to increase the variance on these items.

Also, there may be a good reason for this, but your age categories are of different sizes (e.g., 18-25 vs. 26-35). Seems like this is going to unnecessarily complicate your interpretation task for any quantitative analyses you conduct. Could you just have the respondents enter their age? This would also make it much easier to check for nonlinear effects of age later.

Finally, if you are posting this survey to a number of sites, it might be a good idea to add a question about which site led them to the survey.

Not saying you haven't considered these, but just wanted to offer a couple ideas in case they would be useful. Looks like an interesting project!
 
Interesting that you are choosing to focus on just one social network. I responded to your survey because I know how hard it is to get people to help out with dissertations (I'm trying to do mine this year too!).
 
neiltc13 said:
Interesting that you are choosing to focus on just one social network. I responded to your survey because I know how hard it is to get people to help out with dissertations (I'm trying to do mine this year too!).
Click to expand...

Partly because Facebook is the largest social networking site in the UK and it appears to be the site that has the most hype/controversy surrounding it, what with the TOS out-cries etc. There is a huge amount of secondary data out there, so there is more than enough "meat" to cover just Facebook for a 10,000 word dissertation. I know what you mean about getting people to help with a dissertation, although forums like this one have been a huge help.

Thanks for the suggestions mkeech. I had thought of some of the things you mention. The thing is, the questionnaire is already out there now so I can't really change it now. However, I will make sure I mention these points where I could have improved my research in my findings and conclusions.

Anymore suggestions would be welcomed.
 
Facebook

slashjunior said:
Partly because Facebook is the largest social networking site in the UK and it appears to be the site that has the most hype/controversy surrounding it, what with the TOS out-cries etc. There is a huge amount of secondary data out there, so there is more than enough "meat" to cover just Facebook for a 10,000 word dissertation. I know what you mean about getting people to help with a dissertation, although forums like this one have been a huge help.

Anymore suggestions would be welcomed.
Click to expand...

Ah, 10,000 words? I just realized that "dissertation" might have a different meaning in the UK than what I'm used to (i.e., something you spend years writing in order to get a Ph.D.). :D

You've probably seen this, but did you know that Facebook has social scientists on staff crunching their data? Might be useful if you haven't checked it out yet:

http://www.facebook.com/data
 
mkeech said:
Ah, 10,000 words? I just realized that "dissertation" might have a different meaning in the UK than what I'm used to (i.e., something you spend years writing in order to get a Ph.D.). :D
Click to expand...

Tomorrow said:
You're seriously doing a dissertation about Facebook?
Click to expand...

Okay, that's what I thought when I made my comment above. I was wondering how I could stand in front of a panel of Professors and defend some statistics on Facebook as Ph.D-level research.

OP, please accept my apologies. If mkeech's hunch is right, then I was mistaken regarding your work.
 
mkeech said:
Ah, 10,000 words? I just realized that "dissertation" might have a different meaning in the UK than what I'm used to (i.e., something you spend years writing in order to get a Ph.D.). :D

You've probably seen this, but did you know that Facebook has social scientists on staff crunching their data? Might be useful if you haven't checked it out yet:

http://www.facebook.com/data
Click to expand...

I don't know how it works in the States. Here you usually go from A-Levels/College, then to university for an Honours Degree. If you choose to then you go for your Masters, then PhD, then Professor level (I think). I'm sure if I was at PhD level then I wouldn't be doing a 10,000 word dissertation on Facebook.

When I complete my degree I will just be going on to Professional Qualifications such as ACCA as I see no real benefit of staying on. However it would be good to do an evening course in management as it is an area I wish to improve on.

Thanks again for all the feedback.
 
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