This recent article in the NY Times discusses how academic researchers are studying behavior on Facebook.
What do you think of this article? Is it fair for people to be studied when they don't know it? How does this differ from the APA Ethics code for observing people in their day-to-day environments? How can we balance what we learn from the risks we take? (You may need to look up the APA ethics code to answer some of these questions!)
You may need to register for the NY Times the first time you read an article. I recommend that you do because 1) it's free and 2) we're going to be using them as a source quite a bit throughout the semester.
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11 comments:
I think the facebook article is really interesting. I do have concerns over who their studying. The participants don’t know that their profiles are being monitored and studied so they never gave their consent to participate in the study. According to the APA Ethics guidelines you must obtain the participants consent before they partake in the study. I would be really mad if someone was looking at my profile without permission. By getting permission for the study by facebook and not the person’s who’s profiles are being viewed is like getting a parent’s permission for a 19 year old to participate in the study. I do agree that it is a great site to do research since it is used by 58 million people, but they needed to get consent.
I found this article very interesting as well. A few points...as the article stated there is no policy on studying profiles as long as they are public. I personally keep all my profiles private because I do not want people that I do not know looking at my stuff. That is a personal decision that someone makes when setting up these types of profiles. You also have to think, and I'm sure have heard to be careful what you post because employers might look up or are able to get in and "check you out" so to say. What makes employers looking at your profile different than researchers? It is interesting to see the difference between the people that use myspace and the ones that use facebook.
I am not an active user of facebook but I have seen some profiles and that is the reason that I decide not to use it. I don't want my life to be on display for other people to ctitique and evaluate. I don't think there is anything wrong with looking at these profiles and studying them...they are there for everyone to see right?
I have no issue with users being researched on sites such as Facebook. Sure, according to ethics we're supposed to get consent. But technically the subjects being looked at did consent by marking their profile as public. Now, if the researchers start bypassing privacy settings, then I think it's a situation that needs to be looked into. By asking the owner of the profile for consent you're probably going to contaminate the results, especially given the setting. From a personal point of view, I use both Myspace and Facebook and I wouldn't have any issues with people studying my activity. However, I will admit that my Myspace is more anonymous because it isn't set to private. As we've discussed in class, the anonymity of CMC can be an excellent tool for letting people know exactly what you want them to know about you and nothing else.
I see nothing wrong with researching the students on facebook. Research is conducted or should be conducted with the participants' identity remaining private. In this day of computer knowledge and fast growth, nothing placed on a website is strictly confidential. Even if the students being monitored were made aware of the study, would they have really opened up and posted their "real" comments. The research method used was necessary in order to obtain useful information that hopefully will result in positive and new knowledge.
This article was very interesting! I don't think that it is a problem for student’s profiles to be studied as long as their profile is public. When someone post their name and picture on the internet I think in today's world most people assume that the whole world could see it if they really wanted to. However, I do feel that once the study is over the students should be informed and given the chance to give their input, because a comment they made to someone on facebook could be perceived by a researcher one way, but really just be an inside joke with a friend. The one thing that I have thought about with facebook is that I’m not really going to need to go to any high school reunion because I pretty much already know what’s going on with every I graduated with, even though we never speak.
“We’re on the cusp of a new way of doing social science,” said Nicholas Christakis"
“Facebook is the key site of the moment.”
These two statements stood out to me. The first is seems as though they are surprised that something such as facebook could become such a vital part of the young adult society.
The other is just something that made me laugh, It reminds me of a few years ago when Facebook was just starting out, and you had to email them numerous times to add your school. (I was in the first 200 to register for WCU, and I probably emailed them 50 times.)It is like everything else, when you don't expect it to succeed it blows everyones minds and is available for everyone to use.
About the reviewing part, and I know that a bunch of us have said it, If you are willing to put it out there, then you can get used to the idea that someone is going to look. Just be glad it is a researcher, not a stalker.
On a side note, I enjoy my facebook and myspace, it has kept me connected with people I have met and with old friends, going back to those elementary years. I do however keep some information off the page, you can never be to careful these days. If you want to add me on either be my guest, and see what I have been up too :)
www.myspace.com/melbell0405
on facebook I am the only Melanie Nicole Craig :)
Of all people I’m definitely a huge supporter of ethical guidelines ranging from humans to animals. With this article, I understand both sides of the debate. If I was told that I was to be studied; of course I would be more conscious of my actions, nonverbal communication, etc! The validity of the research would be comprised by the mere knowledge that I had. As long as no one is harmed either physically or emotionally in studies like this, then I support the research. If someone was really that worried about their ‘privacy’ I doubt they would be on the computer to begin with.
I think everyone has some really interesting points. For the most part, I agree with Facebook being “public information” if privacy settings reflect that, but there are some areas when the line is drawn. If people are being observed in a coffee shop, mall, or any public setting, their names and other personal information is not associated with their data. Therefore, if that were used as criteria, Facebook wouldn’t really be considered public setting research.
While it’s true that privacy settings are available in Facebook, a lot of the privacy controls can be misleading for people. You can specify what people see different things on your profile, but there’s not an option for something like friends view, network view, etc. (at least as of now).
Some other examples – you could make your photos invisible, but people can still click on your profile image and see previous profile pictures. Maybe you really hated a picture of yourself from a party that you were tagged in. You remove the tag but that picture still appears on your friend’s profile. Assuming that you run in the same circle of friends, people are going to still see that picture. So is it really private- do you still consider that information removed?
There are all kinds of privacy issues within Facebook that the average person may not think about, so I think unless users are more informed and the privacy settings more usable, then it’s difficult to say that people are willingly putting themselves out there.
I think that facebook is a great tool to get people to network, however i believe that if researchers are so curious about what really goes on behind facebook, they should defnitely ask for permission. I know that when i heard employers do some research themselves on prospective employees, i changed my privacy settings. Facebook is turning into more of a tattle tale website other then the fun it was intended for. I understand that it seems to be a great tool to look into research on social science, but I think that facebook might slowly turn people away because people all of a sudden have no clue who is looking at them anymore.
I think that facebook is a good way for people to network. For researchers to examine the way that it is used is not unethical because, as stated before, it is public. Going into a public forum and looking at someone's conversation is no different than going into a store or restaraunt and listening to someone's conversation. If there is something in one's profile they do not want to be seen, they can merely block it so only their friends can see it.
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