500 Word Summary - No.3

I have been able to be put in contact with Professor Ben Light, who has sent me over a draft copy of his book ‘Disconnecting with Social Networking Sites’ to read through in order to help further my research. I’m finding the research I’m doing at the minute to be really formative and am quickly developing a strong sense of the issues I am talking about. So far, a lot of my research has revolved around self-presentation and developing interpersonal relationships, forming a stronger foundation for my chosen essay question which I’ve decided will be:

- To what extent do Social Networking Sites impact our ability to form interpersonal relationships.

I feel that my research is informing my practice in the sense of how human experience and emotion can inform imagery. I’m very much enjoying working around quotes I’ve found and conversations that people have had online. I have also started to collect the results from my questionnaire, although I could still do with a few more, so will be holding off on pushing that any further and instead developing my written work more whilst waiting for more results to come in.

I have begun analyzing and dissecting my case studies which I’ve chosen to be Victoria Vincents’ two animations, ‘Find True Love’, and ‘kittykat96’. These two animations explore different strands of online culture, looking at communication, self-disclosure and presentation of self specifically. These are both things that impact the development of interpersonal relationships and I feel align with me wanting to look at the individual experience people have online rather than looking at society as a whole. I’ve also found some interviews with Vincent online that allow her to explain her reasoning behind the work and her motives behind her making, I’m hoping to use some quotes from these in my essay.

At the minute, I’m happy with the progress I’m making, despite having an extended period of time away from uni, which I believe has impacted this module in some ways. I’m happy with how my body of research is coming along and think I’m in a position to begin writing now. The practical work is developing a little slower but I am confident in my abilities to get it done. My next steps will be:

- Begin Context and Themes Chapter of Essay
- Compile research from questionnaire
- Develop practical work
- Further research