Research approach

the way I plan on doing this is to read and take notes along the way then format everything toghether in the end. The page numbers of referering to the Jennifer Ryan's thesis-The Virtual Campfire: An ethnography of Online Social Networking. Theese are some of my notes so far...



The author uses part of her title in the first sentence of her introduction. “Thousands of years ago, our early human ancestors gathered around campfires, creating communal hearths of warmth and light.” P.6


What is a campfire?......A place where you hang out and talk, laugh etc. with acquaintances, friends, family. She is using the idea of a campfire as a metaphor for the virtual world. Quite interesting because if I had to think of a word to explain what a community online is like the thought of campfire would of never crossed my mind.


She mentions the traditional role of storyteller, gatekeeper and matchmaker and how they have been transformed. A thought that crosses my mind is all the dating sites available. You no longer have to depend on friends to set you up with someone. You can create a profile and leave it into the hands of the online world to find you a great companion. P.7



“Rather each new medium builds on prior media…” P.7. when I read this part makes me think of last Christmas I asked my younger cousin what she wanted as a gift. She told me a WEBKINZ doll! I had not the slightest clue of what she was talking about……. Did my research and basically it’s an animal that you can virtually take care of. You buy the stuffed animal at the store and it comes with a code and you use that code to log into the website. Here is the website if any of this interest you http://www.webkinz.com/us_en/. …It is possible to take a reductionist point of view in explaining how most things in the virtual world evolved.



“While these communication technologies allow us to accumulate more information quicker and keep in touch with others at any time and from any place, they are typically seen as lacking the fundamental characteristics of immediacy and presence valorized in the formation of intimate social bonds; namely, eye contact, gesture, and body language.” P.7 I love this paragraph right here because it justifies one of the downfalls of online communities. Basically “real” vs “not real” discussion could emerge here. In my opinion this is one of the disadvantages and perhaps consequence of online. For example I will use the movie Avatara we watched in class. I still see a difference between “virtual reality” and the “real world”. Many of those in the film might not feel the same or feel the same to the extent that I do. Participants in the film as discussed in class make up for the lack of face to face interaction by using their actual voice etc. However to me, there is nothing that can substitute actually seeing and being able to touch that person, or be in front of someone when they speak. You can easily make eye contact with someone online but it is not the same feeling as making eye contact with someone standing right in front of you in the real world.





As I read further p.8-9 I can see that she goes on to discuss a bit the meaning of the use of the words “virtual campfire” that she uses in the title. In Ryan’s opinion involvement with these sites symbolizes a “virtual campfire”. She goes onto say, that the lack of “physical” is one of the obstacles.


P.9 One of the problems she mentions about online is that “it is possible to learn about others and make character judgements without ever interacting with them.” I find this both true whether online or offline


Ryan’s interest in online social networking stems from her own personal affiliation with the following sites; Myspace, Facebook and Tribe.net,. The last one is new to me however Myspace and Facebook I know of.


P.14 Ryan discusses how people start relationships online and end up meeting people face to face that they were interacting with online. For some reason I find that sketchy.



“you don’t exist if you’re not on Facebook” mentioned by Julia a sophomore p.15. It is so funny to read this line because it reminds me of the times when I run into people from high school and they say “oh my god I thought you moved away” or they say something along those lines because they can’t find me on Facebook or any other online community.



The comments made by one of Ryan’s respondents is very sad. P.20 “I look forward to checking Tribe at the end of my day, like calling friends and chatting about my day, when I used to do that. I don’t have friends like that anymore”. Me personally I still have long conversations on the phone with people about how my day went. Things like that just can’t be replace by the virtual world.



P.21 The story from the 47 year old female middle school teacher from Nevada displays a positive advantage to being a member of Tribe. She had no friends where she was residing …made new friends online and at one point they all met up together in person.



P.22 “The struggle to effectively or authentically communicate one’s “true” self is not particular to online social networking…”


P.26 What Ryan has discovered is that “…I have time and again encountered the pervasive belief that experiences with online social networking diminish the quality of interpersonal communication and fail to authentically portray one’s “true” identity. To support her thoughts she gives three reasons that I very much agree with. First; relying on a computer to get one’s point across can be difficult at times. When your face to face with someone they can see your body language, they can easily tell by the tone of your voice whether your serious etc. Ryan goes onto say that the chances of miscommunication are very likely. Secondly; for there to be a successful computer-mediated communication there is a specific language in the online environment. Third; our true identity somewhat gets lost. The idea of “onstage” and “backstage” …..it becomes hard to divide the two.



P.27 research on online social networking is something fairly new. According to Ryan, the first ethnographic research on social networking was done by Dana Boyd’s research which was done on Friendster p.29.



Ryan considers a superficial approach to ethnography would be to evaluate what people say about online social networks p.34. She states that “the “truth” of ethnography lies in the interpretation of lived experiences, and is always partial.” P.35- Ryan, goes onto claim that this ethnography can be called to some extent an “autoethnography” because she aims at understanding her own experiences as well.



The goal of Ryan’s ethnography “ My goal in this ethnography is to juxtapose a variety of representation- scholarly, historical, technological, autobiographical, institutional, and popular- with the subjective accounts of those who engage with online social networking sites as regular facets of everyday life.” P.38


Before Ryan took on her research, she was an active participant in the sites she chose to study. ….which perhaps can be a good thing and bad thing. May be oblivious to some things p.38.