symbiosis
Friendships through IM: Examining the relationship between instant messaging and intimacy" by Yifeng Hu et al deals with the social significance of IM in a pretty good way. Through a small quantitative survey of college students they indicate that there is a positive relationship between the amount of IM use and verbal, affective and social intimacy. The results are not surprising. Quantitative studies often confirm my impressions of user patterns. I end up thinking about what my informants tell me to get more comprehensive answers. More detail and depth. I like statistics, and I'm happy when other researchers contribute with numbers, factor analyses and interesting bivariate relations. They make good references now that I'm about to start analysing my own juicy interviews.
4 Comments:
I am glad you liked this article :)
I also enjoyed reading your PhD project. Where are you in the process of writing the dissertation?
I have been working with my phd-project for almost a year and I have funding for two more years. Writing has thus far been a slow process though... I've done most of the interviews I've planned to do, and they are very soon transcribed as well. But I might do some follow-up interviews later.
Cool! When will you come to US?
Well, be sure to let me know of interesting conferences or seminars ;-)
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