Theme 3: Reserch and Theory

Journals

After going through different journals, did my focus first land at the journal "Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T)" with an impressive impact factor of 5.257. Even though the journal is highly regarded with good articles didn't I felt like it had enough media technology focus. My second big finding was the journal I finally chose; "Social Networks"  (ISSN: 0378-8733) from the Dutch publishing company Elsevier. Social Networks has a trustworthy impact factor of 3.381 and covers research on social network theories.  It aims to be a interdisciplinary journal containing mixed disciplines with the common interest of studies of the empirical structure of social relations. It publishes both theoretical and substantive papers.

Article

The article I chose came from the fourth edition 2008, from the journal Social Networks and is written by Lewis, Kaufman, Gonzalez, Wimmer and Christakis, authors from Harvard University and University of California. The text is called "Tastes, ties and time: A new social network dataset using Facebook.com" and is one of the most cited articles on Social Networks, with 350 citations on the database Google Scholar. The text is divided in two parts, part one is a huge dataset based on manipulations and embellishments of Facebook-users, and part two is analysis and conclusions of the presented dataset. The dataset contains 1640 students, freshmen's from an American university and analyses how they interact and behave on the social media platform Facebook. Lewis et al. believes that the use of social media is highly individual and some users "act out their social life" through Facebook and some don't. They believe that their work has much to offer and can for example be used for education and by scholars as empirical research. In my opinion is it an excellent paper to use as reference when constructing theories because it contains lots of basic facts, but I believe that the paper lacks in conclusions and analysis. Sure, it's an excellent dataset, but what is the consequence of all presented data and why?   

Theory 

Theory is a mental tool that can be used to construct an explanation to everything around us. A theory tries to give an understanding of what's going on and see connections between experiences and predictions. The two most important words that a theory is based on are how and why. How can for example an atom excite and why? To build a theory around excitation is it of importance to get an understanding of atoms, see all information clearly, observe the behaviour and try to see the interconnections. A theory can be used both in academic situations to support a hypothesis or in a sport bar to give an argument more power. 

Gregor's Theory Types

I believe that my selected text for this assignment "Tastes, ties and time: A new social network dataset using Facebook.com" had a clear theory type - the theory of analysing. Considering that the text gave an extensive description on how typical Facebook users behaves, how they are perceived and their characteristics, do I believe that the authors used the theory of analysing. Especially since the paper lacked enough explanations, predictions and instructions to be any other theory type.

It's important to use the theory of analysing if not enough extensive research and analysis has been done in the area before. Since Facebook only been launched for two years when the observations from Lewis et al. started in 2006, hadn't much previous studies on Facebook users been done before. Therefore does the theory type in the text play an important part, and many other authors have benefitted from their work. Although many other authors benefitted from their work, the limitations from this theory becomes clear when the paper clearly lack deep since no real conclusions been made. Even if the paper would have the highest potential ever, would the reader still get the feeling of unsatisfactory, since something felt missing. If future studies are required to get a satisfactory feeling, is it impossible to give the paper the highest rating, regardless of how well it's written.