Reflection: Network and Feedback

Networks:

 Not enough diversity in age OR gender; However, in answers.

Feedback:

1.Rich in content

2.Relevant to the topic

 

What could have been done differently?

1.Looked for the weak ties in my networks to expand in ideas

2.Other networking sites

Different research methods

Reflection

 

 

 

http://clairelesley.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

 

What worked:

1.Survey strategies- Using 'surveymonkey.com' equipped me very well, it was effective and instant, and I recieved good feedback.

2.Facebook-As another revenue of broadcasting my my survey among others.

What did not work:

1.The original layout- Initially, I wanted to have images on there, with a scale of 1-10 but the website was limited n image layout, so next time, i will reconsider another survey site that could benefit me in that area.

2.Twitter- Strangely, I generally use twitter as my main social network, yet t did not help me when it came to broadcasting my topic, which was a shame-especially as a good sum of my network is on there too.

3.The availability of all my networks- not all my networks actually did the survey, so maybe going out and interviewing peope on the street, who would be willing to be interviewed.

So what have my results shown...

 http://www.visualphotos.com/image/2x3880155/a_teenage_girl_thinking

The survey I conducted, showed surprisingly, that the majority of the male reponses do not feel influenced by the media personally; yet completely contradicted themselves when they were referring to what they found most attractive in the opposite sex (long hair, make-up and full figures.)which i found quite amusing, as the majority the male respondants said similar things.

Also, there was a significant gap in the quantity of female respondents to males, which made me feel it was a little gender bias, yet, maybe that was a good thing and that in future references I could delve in more on specifically what women think on this issue.   

In my results...

For the last question: 'Do you think the media's idea of "beautiful" has to some degree influenced your personal idea of what is physically attractive? Why? (for eg. going to the gym to aspire to be a certain shape/built; or trying to find someone who fits a certain physical criteria due to the media etc.)'

My survey found that over 50% of the male participants, did not think the media had influenced them.

 

cont.

This is a following up of my last post; the quantative data of question 6: 'Do you think there is a more preferred race, sexuality and age seen as more physically attractive than the other in the media?'

This is just the statistics of the responses I have applied in quantitative data

Question six (On my survey)

I found this really interesting, the overall result was generally something I was expecting, however the minority vote (both the 'Not Sure' and the 'Indifferent') was quite surprisingly, i dont know whether it was the way i phrase the question that brought that outcome in the responses but both of those particluar answers were the same (11.8%).

A Survey Responses

Here is a look at a couple of the responses from a male and female perspective.

One Male Respondant: 

One Female Respondant:

I found the answers in both of these response fascinating, they both correspond with the Cosmopolitan article I researched upon; the woman paid more attention to "protective" attributes of a man, such as height and also eyes being another attractive characteristic. However, the male perspective was EXACTLY the same in correspondance to the male blogger on that article (being the curvaciousness of a woman)-hmmmm that definitely says SOMETHING! Does that maybe mean men and women are set in particular views? or that I need to check on what men read in magazines? I think we all know what they read, it clearly illustrates that in their answers.

http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/love-sex/whats-the-first-thing-you-notice-about-the-opposite-sex-94004?click=main_sr

My survey: Is beauty in the eye of the beholder of the media?

Here is a link to my survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?PREVIEW_MODE=DO_NOT_USE_THIS_LINK_FOR_COLLECTION&sm=gGGMm%2faW979uJK4C98mU2ZZyWO1yHIToOSGZF9xr4Cs%3d

My Research Methods

My network were used in:

*A focus Group (initially the concept of physical attractiveness derived from a discussion i had with my boyfriend and friends)

*Social networking; Facebook groups 

*A survey; ‘Survey Monkey’

Qualitative data: were the Focus Group/ Discussion- what peoples thoughts were in both the discussion and survey

Quantitative data: the close end questions I asked in my survey; such as age, gender and ethnicity.

“The more important thing is that the rich get to control perceptions of what is attractive. Extreme thinness shouldn't be attractive, but the rich in this country propagate that ideal through the media. The rich usually decide what is attractive for us culturally”  (Sample, 2008)

People in wealthy areas are perceived to be the most attractive

An article in 'The Guardian', spoke about a survey that was conducted on whether there were a connection in where the borough you lived in London, and how attractive you were. The results showed that people who lived in the more wealthier areas in London, were the most attractive compared to people who lived in Dagenham and Haringey, being the least attractive.

To be honest, our western society, feeds off of consumerism and capitalism-and what do they (elites) think sells? Their ideology of attractiveness. It is sad when, flicking the channels over and suddenly stop in shock when viewing a girl no older than nine, having her face painted with full make-up? and her ambitions in life are the petty issues of "wanting to get my teeth bleached". Is the media idea of beauty affecting us in some sort of way? i say inevitably yes. 

This question led to other hypothesises such as:

-Is the effect of the media causing increase in cosmetic surgery?

-Media’s unachievable idea of “beauty” could possibly be the cause of eating disorders among

teenagers.

-This craze of going to the gym not just for health wise but for a physical appeal

An online article: 'What's the first thing notice about the opposite sex?'

The Cosmopolitan Magazine had an article, 'What's the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?', about what was the first thing the opposite sex found attractive about the other; it showed that the male blogger that was interviewed admitted that the first thing he noticed was a woman's cleavage (no surprise there), whereas the female counterpart noticed a man's height and smile- says a lot really.

http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/love-sex/whats-the-first-thing-you-notice-about-the-opposite-sex-94004?click=main_sr

Being Attractive Helps Get You Hired

So can being more attractive give you more of an advantage to getting a job compared to someone who was not "blessed" in that area?

Here is an online article about just that >>>

http://workplacepsychology.net/2009/12/17/being-attractive-helps-get-you-hired/

What makes us attractive?

found this interesting article about what makes certain people in our society attractive and why. check it out....

http://www.viewzone.com/faces.html

hmmm...

strangely enough one thing i did want to put in my survey was a series of images if different faces, and find out whether the media's ideology of attractiveness (in a woman for this instance) was similar to peoples preferences.

I found this image accidentally whilst roaming on my Twitter timeline...i think this image speaks for itself really.

Deciding where to go in this project...

So, I have come to conclusion that delving (yep, there goes that word again)into the topic of physical attractiveness would have a rather interesting outcome, especially from the both viewpoints of women but more interestingly men. We live in a society where the media heavily influences our viewpoint on what we THINK is attractive, and this can affect our daily routines; for example going on a diet to look like the next Scarlett Johansson; finding yourself looking at your reflection more often than usual on your daily commute (admit it you do it too) and so on.

I'm going to do a cross between Qualitative data and Quantitative, using a survey from 'Surveymonkey.com' and using various social networking site (netnography) for more discussions.

... So do YOU think beauty is in the eye of the beholder OR in the cunning eye of the media?

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5Y37HR5 

Research Methods:

The types of data sampling:
Quantitative: "The use of sampling techniques (such as consumer surveys) whose findings may be expressed numerically, and are amenable to mathematical manipulation enabling the researcher to estimate future events or data".
Qualitative: To generate ideas; "Data that approximate or characterize but does not measure the attributes, characteristics, properties etc; of a thing or phenomenon".
Ethnography or Netnography: "Detailed study or a graph to describe its behaviour, characteristics, cultural mores etc."

www.businessdictionary.com

"Diverse networks are more successful"  - Groupthink

20 per cent do 80% of the work!

The 80/20 principle:

The 'Pareto Principle', the 80/20 principle, is another factor worth considering when establishing my own network. The 'Pareto Principle', named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who noted during the early part of the last century that 80 per cent of all land in Italy was owned by 20 per cent of the population. the same pattern occurred, he realised, in how people worked, generated ideas and owned wealth-in all cases the few (20 per cent) did the majority of the work, had the most ideas and owned the majority of the wealth.

Networks follow the same principle: within them 20% of the members are responsible for for generating fully 80% of the ideas. This is the reason why you eventually see 'super-nodes' or 'clusters'developing in all networks, as those 20 % become more visible through the ideas they generate.

(Raymond, 2010)

Delving in deeper...

In last week's lecture, we discussed about Paul Barron who created the different forms of network diagrams, this including:

- 'Centralised networks' (or hierarchical network) a network revolved around one dominant hub.
-'Decentralised networks' is a network with many central hubs, however, this is more secure compared to a centralised network, because if one hub disconnects this system can still work as there are many more hubs to connect to.

Sources: http://burak-arikan.com/from-network-diagram-to-structured-text

Names of a few networking sites

In some way or another we belong to different forms of social networks; whether this be in real life or interactively. so here's just to list a few :
*Twitter *Facebook *Formspring *Blogspot *Tumblr

"In networks, we find self-reinforcing virtuous circles. Each additional member increases the network's value, which in turn attracts more members, initiating a spiral of benefits"


(Kelly, 1999)

So...What exactly is a 'Network'?

In 'The Trend Forecaster Handbook', "Networks are about being in touch with our own and everyone's business. our current desire to connect ourselves and the world around us is fueled by living in an increasingly multi-layered and complex global society. Network help because they enable people to move, survive and communicate in a fluid and organic manner". (Raymond, 2003)

Ft1302-Networks and Connectivity 2012

Throughout this blog, I will be working through a research file for the duration of six weeks. However, in order for this six week journey to begin, lets crack on with the fundamental basics; what are my five commitments? :

* Be proactive; take up every opportunity as it comes

* Time management; to prevent the stressful woes of 'lastminute.com', I should set myself achievable personal    deadlines with a timetable

* prevent myself from procrastinating by motivating myself with small tasks

* Don't be shy to ask question; if you don't ask, you don't get

*Always look back on the grade criteria to sustain that good grade