According to Guansheng Ma, a person’s nutrition is considered not only a “physiological and biochemical process,” but also “a cultural biological process” (Ma). One of the key portions of Traditional Chinese Culture includes food, and the ways that it extends beyond daily life. This includes maintenance and growth of interpersonal relationships, representation of social status, group identification, and symbolic significance. For my research, I will be interviewing 3 Chinese-American Adults between the ages of 18 and 25, and investigating three aspects of their lives that relate to their use of food on Snapchat. These aspects include the posting frequency, the editing, and the audience. These three areas will allow me to determine how much Chinese culture plays in the role of daily activity and food sharing on Snapchat.
My approach to the data that I’ve collected will allow me to understand the posting frequency and how that relates to people’s habits, the editing of the pictures and how that relates to the message the user is trying to get across, and the audience- who the users want to send that message to and why.
For frequency, my theory is that the more people post, the less important the picture is in the grand scheme of things, and the message is not meant to have a great impact. However, if the user posts less often, and posts a picture, the message may seem more important because the user decided to share that one moment out of their lives rather than any other moment. In terms of the different editing techniques, and the messages they send, I think that the heavily filtered pictures hold less sentimental value and significance to the user than a picture that is less filtered. Pictures that have less edits show the candidness and true nature of the subject in the picture, whereas a heavily filtered picture is there for display, and may not hold as much sentiment. Finally, as for the audience of the picture, if the user chooses to post the picture to their SnapStory (where all users can see), the picture has less of a direct value, and tells people more about what is going on in the user’s life. If a picture is sent to only specific people, it may hold more sentimental value, and have an underlying message. The direct picture will tell people what is going on in the user’s life, but will also tell them how that person thinks, and give more of a viewpoint to different situations.
With any research method, there will be shortcomings. In my case, I have three main shortcomings. First off, my research will be based mostly on people’s encounters with social media, and their experience. I will not know what their experience is first hand because they will only be repeating their experiences to me. This is excusable however because I will be analyzing the details and drawing reasonable conclusions from that information. Their social media accounts are also accessible to me so that I can determine if their sentiments are accurate. Another shortcoming that I may have is the weighted nature of the 3 factors I am measuring. The way that the pictures are edited, and who they get sent to carries more than the frequency of the posts. This is excusable because all three factors are important, and I will be looking at the data collectively, taking into account the importance of each factor where needed. Finally, a shortcoming that I have is the nature of my sample size. In statistics, for a study and analysis to be considered accurate and usable, the sample size must be greater than or equal to 30 people (n=30). With a population of 3 people, it is a small sample size. Thus, there is no variance in socioeconomic class or geographic location. Both of these factors could offer up different insight. However, this is excusable because I do not have the resources to interview that many subjects. I can, and will, critically analyze the data and take into account these factors, and speculate about how it could be different in other situations.