I have no idea what my term paper is going to be about. I thought it had to do with the project that we were doing, or the article we were supposed to write so long ago. (What happened to that?) Then there were those web sources that we annotated.
In that case, I have focused on how kids spend their time on the Internet with the hypothesis that they do a lot of short interaction. They want short sentences as seen by TL;DR. They like to screw with people for fun, but don’t like it done back to then (trolling). Memes move far too quickly to cover them in something like print. They enjoy visuals though these aren’t always necessary.
Sources:
- There was this annotated source on Social Media in Teens and how they spend their time.
- Then there are actual websites like Reddit, Skype, YouTube, where I could analyze information from.
- Also, I have already started recording so I have some info from my brother.
Other than this idea for a project, I have nothing. I wish something could just be assigned to me instead.
Has your reaction changed at all, now that we’ve finished Hayles and you’ve had some more time to think about her ideas?
Would you like to arrange a phone conference so we can have some one-on-one time to sort through your ideas? The journalism article for The Setonian Magazine is a separate item from the academic paper, and I gave students the option to apply the annotated links either to their new media artifact or the academic article.
I just searched the library database under the subject “Internet & youth” and found several articles that might interest you.
Davis, Katie. “A Life In Bits And Bytes: A Portrait Of A College Student And Her Life With Digital Media.” Teachers College Record 113.9 (2011): 1960-1982. Academic Search Elite. Web. 23 Apr. 2012.
Davis, Katie. “Coming Of Age Online: The Developmental Underpinnings Of Girls’ Blogs.” Journal Of Adolescent Research 25.1 (2010): 145-171. Academic Search Elite. Web. 23 Apr. 2012.
Das, Ranjana. “Digital Youth, Diversity And Heterogeneity.” Journal Of Media Practice 11.3 (2010): 293-299. Academic Search Elite. Web. 23 Apr. 2012.
Soep, Elisabeth. “Youth Media Goes Mobile.” National Civic Review 100.3 (2011): 8-11. Academic Search Elite. Web. 23 Apr. 2012.
While I never assign paper topics, if you are stuck, you might start by reading these articles, and looking for a statement you think you can disprove — whether that means disagreeing with the authors of these articles, or disagreeing with somebody these authors cite.
Let me know what you think.