Blog 18: 2-Hour Meeting Answer #3

1.  What is your essential question? 

• How has social media most affected the ways Americans interact? 

2.  What is your third answer to your essential question (write your third answer in a complete sentence)?

• Social media has made it easier for Americans to adopt second lives.

3.  What are three details to support or justify your second answer (details are examples or facts)?

• For example, anonymity and virtual discussion eliminates the pressures of face-to-face interaction. In fact, it is apparent in a recently story written by Anita Felicelli called "Stepping out from behind the email", where the author met and married her husband through email. Although anonymity was not a huge factor, Felicelli makes a point to explain that because of the perfection and the way that only a correspondent to anyone's online interaction usually sees the best of you online.  
• In addition to this story, a MTV docudrama, created by Nev Schulman, Ariel Schulman, and Max Joseph, called Catfish also captures the way social media affected Americans. By helping online couples meet for the first time, it gives life to what (author) described in her story, as well as the potential conflicting roles on people and their life online.
• In fact, after interviewing CalPoly Sociologist professor, Dr. Dennis Loo, Dr. Loo also described the affects of social media and our identified by explaining that it is not in our DNA to have our private lives in public. By using examples from political sex scandals and public scandals in general, Dr. Loo helped me understand this point by distinguishing between social and personal identities. (Social identities are no longer private, while personal is private.)

4.  What source helped you prove this answer is justified for your essential question?

• Loo, Dennis. Personal interview. 6 Feb. 2013. 

5.  What do you plan to study next and why?

• I plan to study the infrastructure of the current social media giants in America (Facebook and Twitter) and "dead" giants that once dominated the platform (MySpace, Geocities, etc.)  By understanding what different ideologies, policies, and what they have to offer to the user, I can start to understand how and why we use these in a market perspective. 

Works Cited

• Felicelli, Anita. "Stepping Out From Behind the E-mail — Modern Love." The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Feb. 2013. Web. 06 Feb. 2013.

• Catfish. MTV. 12. Nov. 2012.