Research Proposal on Social Media: Unlocking the Potential of Digital Networks & Communities

Introduction

Social media refers to the computer-generated technologies which are interactive and make it possible for one to share information, ideas and other forms of communication through the virtual networks and communities. The social media uses the Internet-based applications whereby one is able to post texts, comments, videos, digital photos and the data which is generated through interactions which take place online. The social media sites such as Twitter have become popular in recent times because one is able to share information instantly. Sometimes the information contained in Twitter might be inaccurate because there are no laid down mechanisms of ensuring that the information posted is accurate. Research has shown that any information which is encountered after an event can lead to the distortion of the memory. Therefore, social media such as Twitter may be detrimental to autobiographic memory. This research proposal will test the effect Twitter has the participants who are falsely presented with several images that portray a story and then presents information which is false about the images. The images will be presented in a scrolling feed that has either a low or high similarity to the feed on Twitter. The study aims at finding out if multiple distractions have an effect on memory.

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Literature Review

Several scholars have widely written about the effect of brief exposure to misinformation can lead to long-term false memories. However, much has not been written on how much this effect is on the users of social media such as Facebook and Twitter. According to Higham & Hanczakowski (2016) taking photographs impairs the memory because there have been situations where the devices like the mnemonic crutch have been used in offloading information and then the information is immediately forgotten. Jacoby & Kelley(2015) posits that in a study conducted in 2013, the participants were grouped into two and one groups took photographs of the objects which were found in the museum while the other group did not take the photos but rather observed the objects. The findings showed that the participants who took photos were able only to remember scanty details about the objects. They too remembered fewer objects that they had photographed.

The use of the media further complicates the situation further by impairing the memory of the features one experiences and are not recorded. The use of the media affects the subjective experiences of an event such as how much is enjoying or how he/she is engaged in an experience. However, the previous studies have shown that how media such as Twitter might affect the above aspects of the experiences have a mixed picture. For example, in a survey conducted in 2016, the participants were allowed to take photographs freely which showed visual memory which is enhanced but the auditory for the events that are photographed( Rindal, Rich, & Zaragoza,2016). This study, therefore, will provide converging support that the use of media images such as Twitter will affect the experiences of memory.

The study will further assess whether the information presented inaccurately on Twitter affects the formation of the false memory rather than the information which is presented accurately which is accessed through a media format which is not under the social media. There are several social media platforms, but this particular type of study will use Twitter. The reason for choosing twitter was because it is the social media platform which is ecologically valid because of its presentation format. Though Twitter has fewer users compared with other social media platforms such as Facebook, the researchers felt that it creates an excellent platform for studying the use of social media(Wahlheim,2015).

Method

For this study to be effective, a total of one hundred and sixteen college students pursuing undergraduate and associate degrees were chosen for this study. The number of participants was divided into 50:50 whereby the number of females was 58 while the number of males was 58. The participants will be between the ages of 16 and 19 years of age. Two colleges were sampled for this study the: Lake Superior State University and the Michigan State University. All the participants had active Twitter accounts, and those ones who did not have were not included in the study. However, three participants had twitter accounts, but they had deleted them in the previous month, but they were allowed to participate in the study. The participants were recruited through the fliers that were distributed through the student leadership, and the ones who were willing presented their names(( Rindal, Rich, & Zaragoza,2016) ) After the presentation of the names the selection process began whereby those who did not meet the set-down criteria were struck out.

Materials and Measures

There were three experimental phases which all the participants completed which involved encoding, misinformation and the test of confidence. A huge television screen was used to display a series of 50 pictures showing a man who was robbing a car(Wahlheim,2015). The images show both the car, the man and the surrounding environment such as the rivers, flowers and even the animals which were around the scene of the crime.

Procedure

The participants were shown a series of 50 images which demonstrated a man who was robbing a car. Each of the pictures was displayed for 15 seconds with an interval of 300-ms. After they had encoded the pictures, then the participants began then did the operation span with the aim of reducing the information rehearsal Okada & Stark, 2005). The validity and reliability of the study were improved through the improvement of techniques of measurement, the randomization of the participant the to reduce bias in sampling and to control more variable to ensure nothing changes during the experiment. The participants were then asked to keep the verbal information in their memory while performing some simple mathematical problems. They were then asked to answer the following questions:

1. What's the color of the car with the yellow bumper sticker?
2. What was on the billboard?
3. What road sign did you see?
4. Did the man breaking into the house have glasses?
5. What color was the big dog?
6. What kind of car was the red one?
7. What time did the clock say?
8. What kind of scarf did the penguin wear?
9. What kind of toppings did the pizza have?
10. What was the field of flowers?
11. What was jumping out of the water?
12. What color was the 3rd vitamin water?
13. Were the stripes on the navy shirt horizontal or vertical?
14. What brand of sneakers were there?
15. What color was the nail polish?

Study Design

The cross-sectional study design was employed in this study. This is because this type of design is aimed at the phenomenon prevalence, attitude or problem by taking a cross-section of the population. This study makes it possible to obtain the picture as it is during the time of the study (Wahlheim, 2015). This study also has the advantage of being quick and cheap to undertake.

Testing the Hypothesis

The data collected from college students were analyzed. The significance levels used was 0.01 and 0.05. The following was used: Test statistic = (Statistic - Parameter) / (Standard deviation of statistic) The null hypothesis was accepted because it was higher than the significance(Wahlheim,2015).

References

Higham, P. A., Zawadzka, K., & Hanczakowski, M. (2016). Internal mapping and its impact on measures of absolute and relative metacognitive accuracy.

In J. Dunlosky & S. K. Tauber (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of metamemory (pp. 39 - 61). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Jacoby, L. L., Wahlheim, C. N., & Kelley, C. M. (2015). Memory conse-Sequences of looking back to notice a change: Retroactive and proactive facilitation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41, 1282-1297. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000123

Mickes, L., Darby, R. S., Hwe, V, Bajic, D., Warker, J. A., Harris, C. R., et al. (2013). Major memory for microblogs.Memory & Cognition, 41(4), 481-489.

Okado, Y, & Stark, C. (2005). Neural activity during encoding predicts false memories created by misinformation. Learning & Memory, 12(1), 3-11.

Rindal, E. J., DeFranco, R. M., Rich, P. R., & Zaragoza, M. S. (2016). Does reactivating a witnessed memory increase its susceptibility to impairment by subsequentmisinformation? Journal of experimental psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 42, 1544 -1558. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000265

Wahlheim, C. N. (2015). Testing can counteract proactive interference by integrating competing information. Memory & Cognition, 43, 27-38. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13421-014-0455-5