Research Essay Proposal/Exploratory Draft (20 points)

Due in Sakai before class time on Tuesday, 10/25

Directions: Complete the following proposal and exploratory draft for your research project (you
may type on a separate document, if you wish). Your proposal and exploratory draft is due in
Sakai before class on Tuesday, 10/25. I will meet with students individually on Thursday, 10/27,
to discuss these documents. To earn full points, these items should be detailed and should
reflect your careful thinking about your project. You may wish to refer back to the Wayne Booth
chapters in Sakai as you complete this proposal.
Part 1: Research Proposal
YOUR NAME: Guillermo Cabrera

TOPIC (I am studying): The use of social media within the middle and high-class society.
Many times social media can reflect a person's feelings, thoughts or ideas. Other times it is
used for showing off by letting other people know what you may or may not have and can have
different interpretations. In times too social media is used to create a sense of well being when
there is none or the other way around too.

RESEARCH QUESTION(S) (because I want to find out):

1. How might peoples use of social media (facebook, instagram, snapchat) reflect hedonism,
narcissism, material wealth and happiness?
2. To what extent does social media show one's dependence on others people thoughts and
stereotypes built by the society?
3. How does ones sole purpose of using social media change as societal behaviors change?

AUDIENCE & SIGNIFICANCE (in order to help _______ understand):

My audience will definitely be people that have access to any sort of social media with ages
between the teens and probably even adults. Nowadays more old adults use Facebook or other
social media to communicate things. Although social media had as main purpose
communication, we can see all around the world that people use it for different purposes. Of
course the significance of the audience relates directly with the fact that the audience is the only
one who can actually feel any sort of connection to my topic due to the fact that they presence it
in their daily lives. Meanwhile if wanting to shorten my audience range, I would state that more
specifically it is teenagers or young adults that use social media with more frequency than
adults itself. Additionally I would focus on middle and high class American society and even
Latin American society too (it is something that is reflected in Peru as well). I want to help this
specific society better understand the importance and what lies behind each person's activity
within its use of social media.
CONTEXT (This issue is important and timely because):

The topic is relevant all throughout the world. Social media has become a fundamental part of
our lives. News, data, current events, and pretty much everything one needs to know is
available through social media. Companies and brands have adapted to society's constant use
of social media to fulfill their goals. This topic is important because many times we are blinded
to the reality of other people based on what they publish in social media. Moreover, happiness is
reflected many times by a smile in one's face or the word she or he uses to describe a moment.
With that said pictured in social media are everywhere and most of the time we see happy
people that in reality are not really happy. Social media can be really dangerous as people many
times hide what they are feeling or thinking because of what they post in the web. On the other
hand, we live in a world where most of the people are worried about what other people say
about them and social media is the perfect place to transmit ideas or thoughts that you want
other people to think. This can be dangerous as we see now a days that not all those thoughts
are positive and many times huge problems arise because of what one posts on social media.
Many times one gets a different approach to certain things because of what one sees in social
media, in other words people see happy faces in the social media and try to imitate this or think
that person is happy where he or she really is not. One can be blinded to reality so easily.

EXHIBIT (To illustrate my discussion of ______, I plan to focus on _______):

To clearly describe and illustrate my discussion about the use of social media in our society
nowadays, I intend to focus on research that explains the psychological reasoning behind each
person at the time one uses social media. I plan to focus on how one can distinguish between
people that reflect their thoughts and feelings in social media, and people that just show a totally
complete different image of the reality behind. I also want to concentrate on any possible
relationship between an increase in the use of social media, and if it can reflect hedonism or
happiness and to what extent. Basically that means how often one feels good by showing off
what they have achieved or simply have and if it connects to people being happy or just a
reflection of the hedonic treadmill.

KEY SOURCES FOUND SO FAR:

MLA citation

Type of source?
News article?
Scholarly journal
article? Book?
Website? Other?

What does the source offer your

project? Background? Statistics?
Theory? Argument?
Counterargument? Example?

Lanxton, Will. Whats Driving

Social Media: Altruism,
Hedonism, Narcissism? :
Globally Social: New Media and
Policy Change. Globally Social
New Media and Policy Change

Scholarly Article

Argument about relationship

between social media and human
behavior, invite to reflect

RSS, Collen McEdwards, 5 Nov.

2012, http://globallysocial.net/?
p=221.
Vulliamy, Elsa. Using Facebook Article in
and Snapchat Makes You
Interdependent
'Cognitively and Morally
Shallow', According to
Psychologists. The
Independent, Independent
Digital News and Media, 11 Mar.
2016,
http://www.independent.co.uk/ne
ws/science/using-facebook-andsnapchat-makes-youcognitively-and-morally-shallowaccording-to-psychologistsa6925941.html.

Theory and statistics about

psychological thinking

By Laurie Vazquez et al. For

Greater Happiness, Limit Social
Media Time, Studies Suggest.
Big Think, Big Think, 2 Sept.
2014,
http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/forgreater-happiness-limit-socialmedia-time-studies-suggest.

Scholarly Article in
Bigthink

Statistics and argument about

relationship between social media
use and happiness (negative
relationship)

Lenhart, Amanda. Mobile

Access Shifts Social Media Use
and Other Online Activities.
Pew Research Center Internet
Science Tech RSS, Pew
Research Center, 9 Apr. 2015,
http://www.pewinternet.org/2015
/04/09/mobile-access-shiftssocial-media-use-and-otheronline-activities/.

Report

Statistics and examples. Lots of

facts and quantitative data.

Part 2: Exploratory Draft

1) You should begin with a statement of what you hope to accomplish with the project, and
with what audience (e.g., I plan to propose to the Notre Dame administration an argument for
offering meditation courses as a physical education requirement). Explain why you find this
topic interesting and important. Provide relevant background information to show the existing
conversation around your topic and the new perspective you hope to offer through your project.
With my research project I plan to provide a realistic view on the use of social media by middle
and high class americans that creates a sense of awareness between this audience. I want
them to realize by important research and example how many times one does not notice it but
has a trend with its use of social media. I find this topic interesting because it is something I see
it everyday and in fact I probably sometimes feel the urge of showing off with a certain aspect
material or not of my life. Everyday in social media we see people posting pictures, posts or
whatever that can have a selfish motive behind. I also am aware of people I know, that
sometimes what they post in social media is not a reflection of what is really the reality and it is
more about what everyone thinks about you and not much about how you feel. I want to invite
people to think beyond what they simply see and think about the consequences of posting
certain things to the web. I intend to make people reflect on their real use of social media and to
call for a change when needed (selfish behaviors, hedonism). After all social media's sole
purpose since it was first created was to communicate. My final goal is to prove that the use of
social media (for posting pictures, posts, comments) does not increase happiness so that my
audience can realize that what they see in the social media is many times not relevant to the
truth.
2) Discuss in more detail the intended audience for this project and what this audience has at
stake in the topic you are researching. Your primary audience cannot be everyone. Questions
to help you identify an audience: Who will benefit? Who will lose something? Who is in a
position to be persuaded to follow the new course of thinking/action for which you plan to
argue?
As I mentioned already the intended audience for my project will be middle almost high and high
class Americans that use social media (Latin American culture too). I intend to target them since
they are the ones that have the most influence in social media with their constant use available
to them via smartphones, tablets or computers. I think in this case the audience will both benefit
and lose through my project. I intend to point out and remark a specific behavior that is more
common in the high-class society as they are the ones who have the tendency to reflect power
via hedonism and material wealth (due to their financial capability). I state they will both benefit
and lose since I will discuss a behavior portrayed by many of them that in my opinion needs and
can be changed and they will benefit as well since I intend to persuade them to change thinking
or think beyond what they simply see. I will use examples and facts that they can easily connect
with so that they can reflect and understand in a more profound way.
3) How do you imagine your essay unfolding at this point? What are the distinct claims/points
you anticipate making in order to convince your audience of your arguments quality and
relevance? Provide a tentative outline.

I imagine my essay unfolding within use of both data research and examples. I first plan on
claiming that social media has gone way beyond its simple purpose of communicating. Then I
plan to claim that there is a psychological reason behind each person's use of social media.
Then I plan to elaborate a point about how social media has an important reflection of people
trying to show off certain thing can be their body, beauty, material thing, food, achievement,
etc. Finally I plan to focus on any possible relationship between the use of social media and
happiness or hedonism. My last point is key to wrapping up every other key point or claim I
intend to describe. I will provide examples of:
People posting pictures of their body to show off
Love relationships
Posting pictures about trips, vacation, places
Frequency of posts and word choice
Pictures
Simple posts
Comments & Likes
4) Discuss what sources youve found so far and what other ones you would like to look for.
What kind of evidence will your audience expect? How will you accommodate those
expectations? Who do you anticipate might disagree with you, and why? What evidence will
they likely point to?
I have find lots of important facts and data that state some interesting points. Basically I have
found sources that state that as the frequency of use of social media increases (posts too), one
is more interdependent on what other people think of them. I have also found sources that
stated that for example relationships that were more intimate or quiet and not all over social
media, tended to be more stable which can connect to happiness in a negative way since the
use of social media did not reflect what really was going on. I think my audience plans to expect
evidence that will make them feel connected in certain way or think about people who can act
as the evidence describes. I think that is important so I can make them really reflect and the
more they reflect on it the easier the change since the longer it will stick in their heads. I think
there will be at the same time people that disagree since of course there will be people that will
not be part of that data or percentage of people that act a certain way. They will most likely point
to the fact that they act the same way but they feel different not as I describe which at the end is
important too since it reflects diversity in people's thinking and that how I tend to make certain
people feel or think can be possible. In other words, set them as example.
5) Fifth section: Share any concerns or questions you have about the project. Where do you
anticipate running into problems?
I think overall I am really looking forward to starting elaborating my research paper. I think I will
run into problems in some biased sources or some sources that simply can get to differ to my
general evidence. I assume I will have some information that will differ to other which at the end
will help me focus more on the sources reliability and find concrete and relevant data.