Eve Stirling

Email: eve.stirling@sheffield.ac.uk
Twitter name: @evestirling
Supervisor: Dr Julia Davies

Programme: PhD

Title of Thesis:

The Future is Social: WHY WASTE YOUR TIME ON FACEBOOK?

Details:

My current research aims to build on the theories of social networking site (SNS) usage by undergraduate students and the potential of social software and web 2.0 in Higher Education. It aims to explore the rituals and etiquettes of the students SNS usage, including patterns of use and non-use, participation and exclusion, communication typologies and the relationship of these to the undergraduate university experience.

The study will build on my previous ethnographic experience and will explore the dichotomy of online and offline interaction, presentation and representation, through using both online and offline methods. I hope my study will document the actualities of Facebook usage and how this relates to the student experience.

This PhD research is funded by the ESRC. Previously I have completed a postgraduate degree in MA Educational Research (2009). I am a member of the Centre for the Study of New Literacies and a core participant on the ESRC seminar series: Children and young people's digital literacies in virtual online spaces (2009-2010) and taking part in the research group iRis (Interdisciplinary Research in Socio-Digital Worlds) at the University of Sheffield.