Challenges in Research

I really do love researching about my topic–it really relates to me personally in the sense that I care for the future of my sister. In a way, the paper was a way of me trying to solve my frustration over my sister’s lack of maturity when she began using computers, phones, and videogame consoles more often. It was easier to research the background information of the topic: children and use of technology/media. I found many statistics of the growth of use of media by children. But, I had a problem with general things, such as defining terms such as “Digital Age” or “Digital Revolution.”  I also, strangely enough, had a problem finding a statistic tracking the growth of technology over the past decade. I’m not sure if this is common knowledge, as some areas are not easily touched by technology as New York is. I will continue to search for this specific statistic.

Another problem I had was finding credible sources for my ending argument. Because I will end with advice on how to drive children towards success utilizing technology, no real research  was done on this. I had to rely on psychologists who stated that their advice was the way to go.

I had to adjust my research focus as well. Because these sources are all relatively new, and because sources are not readily published every day, I was limited to using peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and about 2011. The age group these sources spoke about was, more often than not, my age group (born around 1995). I had to adjust my definition of “children” to include these ages. I’m still unsure about how to explicitly state this.

My thesis includes three types of effects of technology on children: psychological, physical, and social. Psychological and social were easy to find due to the amount of studies on depression, academics, and so forth. Physical effects were rather difficult to find and pretty scarce to say the least. I only found two sources–one saying technology had no effect on physical fitness, while the other said that technology had a detrimental effect on physical fitness. This amount contrasts starkly with the amount of sources I have on psychological (about 6-8) and social (about 5-7), making the physical effects almost seem like a side note.

Perhaps research help is needed. I found that after I stopped looking explicitly at peer-reviewed journals, I found many more articles which sourced those journals, making them easier to find. On the other hand, not all sources were credible using Google.

Research Paper Progress

Before I started my argument, I did a lot  such as outlined my sub-thesis and  finding peer review journals or news for each one, but I only have a sketchy plan for my research paper. Especially I did not fully develop my logic. Thus when I finished my paper, I found that there were numerous flaws in my argument, and even the title was not suitable enough. Because during the process, I did not  organize my words and linked them in a logical way. I just put some related material together. Some material was good, but I failed to use them to illustrate my point, while some were not persuasive at all so I needed to delete them. Because of my carelessness at the beginning, I have to make great endeavor to revise my essay.  I cannot have a detailed plan in the initial stage, which is the most challenging thing.