Research Process

I'm finding my sources by searching the internet with key terms associated with social media.  I prefer to focus on Facebook because it has some controversy associated with it, but there are articles about all social media sites.  I've been searching topics about interaction, face-to-face communication vs. internet communication, and how social interaction is becoming a more standardized method of contact between individuals.  I ultimately want to read and learn enough to understand how this rapidly growing form of interaction is really effecting humans, socially and psychologically.

It's easy for me to find articles on education benefits from social media within younger children, and how the education system is evolving into a computer based, self paced, environment.  This doesn't necessarily help me when it comes to the social, psychological effects on people from the rise of social media and decline of in-person social interaction, but it does show me positive outcomes from a growing society.  It's hard for me to find researchers and experts who stick to their guns in terms of having a strict opinion and really feeling strongly about it one way or the other.  I've been noticing that they'll be in the middle, almost as if they don't want to offend anyone.  The articles will start out to seem to take a particular side and by the end I'm not positive which side I can utilize their knowledge on.

As my research continues, I see more sources pointing out positives from social media interaction, but I can't help but to see the negatives, myself.  I assumed there'd be tons of research on my side, just reiterating the notions I originally had. I've been learning more about the psychological benefits from ego boost, self identification, peer involvement and self expression.  Not having found at least one person that strongly agrees with my initial argument, leads me to believe there's plenty of personal research yet to be done and I just haven't delved deep enough yet.

Aside from sources not picking a definitive side in this argument, the main problem I'm running into researching, is really finding a source that digs deep.  These two are essentially the same problem, or at least have the same solution.  Once I can locate a person that feels passionately in either direction, I can read deeper into their argument and broaden my knowledge on social interaction after the social media boom.