Social Network Fueled Research

We use social networks everyday.  Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. have become integral parts of our day-to-day lives.  When doing research we have unlimited access to so much information via search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing.  But, we might be leaving out an important component when we exclusively turn to academic sources to give us the information that we seek.  Social resources can offer a wonderful insight, which is why our class is engaging in doing such research for our e-book project.  For our e-book project, we are focusing on platforms such as the Kindle, Amazon, and Goodreads and related components and how they are influencing our reading habits in daily life and education.

Dr. Burton created a bibliography Google Doc for us to use.  He helpfully laid out several social topics for us to look at and start researching in.  He told our class today that next to Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine.  That really sparked my thought because I YouTube quite a lot of things.  I often turn to YouTube for help in explaining difficult school topics, audio books, and fun, entertainment-related things.  It only makes sense that we would use YouTube videos to obtain background and topic information for our e-book project.

I didn't have as much time to do research as I would've liked before I had to submit this post, but what I did find was promising.  I found several videos in which YouTube users compare print books and e-books, which is something that is super important and relavent to our topic.  Click here if you would like to see some of the search results that I found regarding e-book vs. print book.

I also found some videos on YouTube that will be particularly applicable to one of my chapters.  My first chapter has a heavy focus on Goodreads, an Amazon sister company.  Goodreads is a social networking site for readers, and it allows for readers to interact on many levels with books at the center of everything.  A simple search entry of "Goodreads" on YouTube resulted in many different users who related their feelings about the Goodreads site.  I haven't had time to look at it very much, but I plan on doing so before our next class on Wednesday morning.