Comments on blogs

After having read a handful of students’ blogs, there were two in particular that generated my interest. The focus of both blogs was unobtrusive research; however both students went about it differently, narrowing down their topics to fashion and social media.

Roberta's blog concentrated on how the fashion world relies heavily on conducting unobtrusive research and observation of fashion in particular. In fashion, it’s essential to observe what people are wearing everyday to get a better sense for what is “trendy” or “in style.” Just like when a girl goes out to a bar, she observes what the other girls are wearing so that next time she goes to that particular bar she knows the dress code or what special attire is worn.

Clothing styles at different locations are not discussed, they are simply observed. No professors tell you what to wear and what not to where to your classes. That’s up to the student to decide and they do this sometimes without even knowing it. There are no signs telling you that you can’t wear a dress to class but people don’t engage in that behavior because they observe what is expected of them and then abide by that specific code of dress. When young girls admire a certain celeb’s style they can grab a magazine and conduct unobtrusive research by looking at what type of clothing people are wearing.

Amy's blog focused on social media and how it provides us with the ability to gain insight about peoples’ perceptions without intruding. With technologies such as the nielson wire, we are able to find out how much time we as Americans actually spend on the Internet. With this information we found out the absurd amount of time we spend online gazing at our computer screens. “Americans spend roughly a third of their lifetime online communicating across social networks.”

It’s very easy to conduct unobtrusive research on say someone’s Facebook page. Without talking to or even knowing someone you can find out about as much information about them that is provided, which is usually a lot. Facebook has many different features in which you can get to know someone better. For instance, it has an area designated for your birthday, your religious affiliation, a siblings category, a relationship status, and an interested in category, to say the least. Not to mention you can view pictures of this person and even observe thier “wall-to-wall” with another person. For this you can find out what their personality is like and what they are interested in. Someones’ Facebook status is probably one of the best indicators to learn about a person because you write whatever your feeling, thinking or doing at that particular moment. For example, someones status could say, “yankees are the best! Jeter rules” you can sum up this person is a Yankees fan, is a Jeter fan and most likely lives in New York.