CHUA JIA'EN, NATALIE

Background information of the project

The project aimed to let us learn more about social sciences and how sociologists do research. It allowed us to gain a better understanding as to what sociology entails. It taught us that we had to have an open mind when learning about people and their behaviour. We were able to explore any topic we were interested in without any restrictions. This enabled us to have freedom when exploring sociology and different research methods.

Our project consisted of choosing a research question on a social topic and doing research on it. We were then to present a poster and a report to explain our findings.

the process

We had to think of a research question based on everyone’s interests and produce a report and poster on the research question. The question we eventually decided on is “What are the trends that Gen Z born in 2004-2005 popularize on social media in 2019?”. After we had decided on our research question, we proceeded to do surveys and interviews to collect data. We also found articles on our topic and analyzed them to do literature reviews. By doing interviews to get data, we can understand people’s behaviours and why they do certain things. We used our surveys and interviews to discover the relationship between trends and the teenage generation. The difficulties we faced were that our target age group had to go to school during our project duration, meaning we had to find a way to allow them to be interviewed without causing too much of an inconvenience. Our data was limited by our location, which was Temasek Junior College. A large number of our survey responses and interviewees were all students in Temasek Junior College. This could have caused our research on trends to change slightly based on the similarities of all Temasek students. However, the difference would have been minimal as most trends are perpetuated online.

For our interview, we had much more in-depth questions to gain a better understanding of the mindsets of those who are fifteen and sixteen years of age. We split the interview into different sections for clarity and linked questions together so that the interviewee would be able to elaborate on their answers. Unlike our surveys, we only conducted 6 interviews of detailed and good quality due to time constraints. Using data from our surveys and interviews along with literature reviews, we presented a report and poster exploring our research question of “What are the trends that Gen Z born in 2004-2005 popularize on social media in 2019?”.

3 things i have learnt

When speaking and/or interacting with other people, it is good to not only take note of what they are saying, but also their tone and body language. This helps us to understand how they feel about the topic discussed and be more empathetic to their reasons for certain behaviours.

When collecting data, it is important that all data collected is meaningful and useful. We should thus not be too caught up on the numbers, for example, trying to get over 150 responses for a particular survey. We must be aware of the quality of our data, not just the quantity. Sometimes, a smaller number of data points may mean that the data collected will be more insightful, comprehensive and thorough. This would ensure a higher quality when presenting our findings.

During a project, it is important to plan out a timeline ahead of time in order to have time for every aspect of the project. Planning ahead would allow better time management and address problems should anything go awry. This would make the whole process less stressful, leading to a better delivery.

2 interesting aspects

The nature of working in social sciences is that one has to be flexible. When one publishes reports, findings and analysis, people are bound to have different opinions. To be a sociologist means to be accepting of the fact that people have different beliefs and morals, and to do your best to understand why it is the case. It is never black or white, but rather many shades of gray.

A great amount of patience is required in this field. Refinements will constantly be required and the final product will never be perfect. One can only keep adding on to extant research and sharpen it. As one grows through new experiences and with new insights, one could come back to their previous work and see things from a different perspective.