system map/research poster

This is what I developed to have a visual conversation with my committee members on my up-to-date research.

The poster can be seen in it's entirety on Scribd.

research_poster

the keystone to my thesis: motivation theory

On the outside looking in many things probably seem obvious, but as you are immersed in a thesis project attachments grow to certain terminology that actually create tunnel vision. Up until now, I have been calling it "synergy". I knew that this was a key aspect to my cognitive artifact that would differentiate it from other attempts to mediate the social networking dilemma. While I was enlightened to the relationship that my cognitive artifact had to have with the participant, I never viewed it as an entry point into the architectural and interactive system map that I needed.

I had just finished taking a 3 day online workshop for CoAT (Certificate of Accomplishment in Teaching), and the topic was Motivational Teaching Strategies. We were instructed to read an article called, "Student Motivation: Putting Theory to Work in the Classroom" by Michael Wuthrich when I noticed parallels between what Wuthrich recommended in the classroom and what I wanted my cognitive artifact to do. His implementation of motivation theory in the classroom indicated the effectiveness of a synergistic relationship between the teacher and student. Therefore, if I approached the design of my cognitive artifact through the lens of the theory of motivation, synergy would be an implicit result.

The three objectives that Wuthrich describes for encouraging motivation are balance, goals, and clarity. I reflected on how those objectives aligned with my participant's actions, motivations, and goals. As I was mapping this out I became enlightened by my sub-questions. I had an instinct at the beginning of this project that the reason that participants had disillusions of a trusting environment while social networking was because they (1) didn't understand the susceptibility of the future self, (2) didn't see the patterns of their online behavior that was placing them at risk, and (3) they did not understand the permanence of their online information. When I discovered danah boyd's properties of networked publics and began aligning them into a matrix of researchable points, I noticed that my sub-questions directly correlated with those properties. I initially rationalized this as an objective that I had to meet (the sub-question) at a particular touchpoint (the property of networked publics), but once I stepped away from that matrix I did not know where to go with it. It made sense, but fell flat. What I came to realize—while mapping out how the theory of motivation could be the platform for my cognitive artifact—is that my sub-questions are not separate from the properties of networked publics, they are just a concrete rephrasing.

What my sub-questions really get at—and what ends up being the overall goal of my cognitive artifact—is the following long winded question that will make sense and find a proper rephrasing in the near-future:

How can I bring clarity to the properties of networked publics that contribute to the bad actions which impede the participant's goals, by incentivizing towards the participant's motivations in an effort to refreeze the participant's behaviors towards their explicit goal?

I promise this will make more sense later, but for now....a major breakthrough.

making connections

lit. review I

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr


"Our ways of thinking, perceiving, and acting, we now know, are not entirely determined by our genes. Nor are they entirely determined by our childhood experiences. We change them through the way we live—and, as Nietzsche sensed, through the tools we use."

Nicholas Carr, author and critic, has a unique perspective on the technological revolution. Carr explains how high computer usage neurologically rewires our brains, in effect changing the way we think. Understanding how the brains of digital natives are reconfigured helps me accommodate the habits and expectations of young social networkers in my designs.

Carr, Nicholas G. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.

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Cyberpsychology: an Introduction to Human-computer Interaction, Kent Norman


"Users will expect computers to interpret both their intentions and their actions."

Cyberpsychology is a book that introduces an emerging field of psychology that deals with the study of the human mind and behavior in the context of human-technology interaction. Norman helped me understand the importance of mental models—the stored mental representations of objects and processes—which is pivotal when rethinking the design of a social networking space. The emphasis that my thesis has on a synergistic relationship came from Norman's work—where the human learns and remembers from the computer and the computer learns and remembers from the human (and environment). He also explains a lot of the theoretical approaches and research methods in human-computer interaction, with lots of interjections on the role of the designer.

Norman, Kent L. Cyberpsychology: an Introduction to Human-computer Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008. Print

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Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other, Sherry Turkle


"Now, technology makes it easy to express emotions while they are being formed. It supports an emotional style in which feelings are not fully experienced until they are communicated."

Sherry Turkle is a sociologist who focuses her research on people's relationship with technology. My thesis is grounded in her theories—on young adults' relationship with social networking sites. Analyzing the effects of current human-computer interaction, Turkle worries about the negative implications of being constantly tethered to a virtual network. She puts forth the idea that we are determined to give human qualities to objects and content to treat each other as things and describes young adults' perceptions of privacy in online social spaces, like Facebook.


Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other. Basic, 2011. Print.

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Psychological Predictors of Young Adult's Use of Social Networking Sites, Kathryn Wilson, et al.


"Extroversion was found to be associated with addictive tendencies, suggesting that extroverts may become overly reliant on SNSs because the interactive experience meets their need for stimulation and social interaction. Low scores on conscientiousness significantly predicted addictive tendencies. It is plausible that unconscientious young adults demonstrate addictive tendencies toward the use of SNS because unconscientious people tend to lack self-control."

This study focused on young adults' use of social networking sites (and addictive tendencies) from personalty characteristics and levels of self esteem. The results from this study are the foundation for the personas that I will develop for my thesis. The researchers theorize that (1) social networking sites appeal to extroverts because they like to connect and reach out to others, as well as present information about themselves online, and (2) that unconscientious people have an addictive tendency towards social networking because it occupies their time while procrastinating. These findings are a breakthrough in the field because it is inconsistent with previous researchers who have typically concluded that extroverts prefer face-to-face interactions, and the internet mainly appeals to introverts with low self esteem.


Wilson, Kathryn, Stephanie Fornasier, and Katherine M. White. "Psychological Predictors of Young Adult's Use of Social Networking Sites." Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 13.2 (2010). Journal.

metaphors on the mind

What if people reading your profile page was like flies on a carcass?

audible buzzing, constant unpredictable movement, negative connotation, lingering, movement could signify on-screen mouse behavior.


What if your permanent online information behaved like a shadow?

always behind you, shape shifting, notice others more than yours, in and out of visibility.


What if your permanent online information hovered above you like a cloud?

different conditional states, sometimes audible, shape shifting, cyclical (evaporation), brings down elements of the past (rain), can be heard and not seen, varying distances from you.


What if your risky patterns of online behavior were revealed through throat clearing?

disruptive, visceral, anthropomorphic, can be exaggerated for humorous affect, alarming, hint, audible.


What if the susceptibility of your future self behaved like a talking conscience?

preoccupation, dialogue, surprising, dichotomy, private, expert data, decision making, custom.

understanding sns

Last semester, I investigated the trajectory of the "social networking problem" and looked at the different platforms addressing those problems. Now, I want to research the affordances of Social Networking Sites (SNS). Since there are so many SNSs out there, what are they doing? What are the commonalities and distinctions? How do their affordances align with the properties of networked publics (persistence, searchability, replicability, and scalability)? What kind of social networking statistics—specific to my demographic— could shape the way I approach my thesis' cognitive artifact?

So far, I narrowed it down to the most popular:
01. Facebook
02. MySpace
03. Twitter
04. LinkedIn
05. Ning
06. Tagged
07. Classmates.com
08. Hi5
09. MyYearbook
10. Meetup
11. Bebo
12. MyLife
13. Friendster
14. MyHeritage
15. Multiply
16. Orkut

According to BizMba's Rank of Alexa Global Traffic, Jan 2011

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Notable spectrum
friendship-driven vs interests-driven communities
connecting people vs content creation

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Then, I skimmed through the popular websites and listed the affordances of each site—designating each affordance a combination of properties:

(p)ersistence: "the continued, prolonged existence of something,"
(s)earchability: "ability to explore, examine,"
(r)eplicability: "ability to repeat, duplicate, reproduce," and
(sc)alablity: "ability to adapt to increased demands."



This helped me understand the nature of the property terms—persistence, searchability, replicability, and scalability—in regards to the social networking sphere. The affordances were usually a combination of multiple properties: Although the affordances exhibited various properties, there was usually one property that applied most—reinforcing the categorization in my matrix of researchable points. With SNSs being a virtual environment, the affordances are automatically persistant and usually searchable and replicable: Scalability seemed to be the only property that did not explicitly apply to the majority of affordances, but even that is an easily argued judgement.

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core characteristics of social networking sites:

01. user-based
02. interactive
03. community-driven
04. relationships
05. emotion over content

"The evolution of the Internet is now forming itself around the characteristics of social networks."

According to a 2007 research study conducted by researchers from Rice University, the University of Maryland, and Max Planck Institute for Software System

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Now, I need to read, read, read...

Currently reading:
+ "Alone Together" Sherry Turkle
+ "Living and Learning with New Media" Mizuko Ito, et al.
+ "A Networked Self: Identity, Community and Culture on Social Networking Sites" Zizi Papacharissi
+ "Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods" Dr. John W. Creswell
+ "Young People, Ethics, and the New Digital Media" Carrie James
+ "Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out" danah boyd
+ "Cyberpsychology" Kent Norman
+ "World Without Secrets" Richard Hunter

Projected reading list:
+ "Does It Really Matter That People Zip" Yoonjae Mam, et al.
+ "The Influence of Social Networking Web" Daniel Bohnert
+ "Does Imposing a Goal Always Improve Exercise Intentions in Avatar-Based Exergames?" Seung-A Annie Jin
+ "Understanding Diversity in Millennial Students" Ellen M. Broido
+ "More Information than You Ever Wanted, Does Facebook Bring Out the Green-Eyed Monster of Jealously?" Amy Muise
+ "The Virtual Geographies of social networks" Ziz Papacharissi
+ "Psychological Predictors of Young Adults' Use of Social Networking Sites" Kathryn Wilson
+ "Social Networks as Health Feedback Displays" Margaret E. Morris
+ "Structure and Evolution of Online Social Networks" Ravi Kumar, et al.