Focus is something that is often repeated and lectured to us time and time again. I always ask, why is focus such an important lesson and why should I even care?
In school, professors often test us to make sure that we are paying attention and that we are keeping up with the assignments that they give out. Many times the assignments that are given out are in order to test if we are focused on the subject and if we are picking up on the lesson and able to apply the lesson to our own research or work. By being able to complete the task that it expected of us we can then be able to use the lessons learned and apply it to our future jobs.
In the research that I intent to conduct, the focus will be on the methods in which indie musicians use social media platforms such as Instagram to promote themselves. It may sound very simple, however like many other researchers, the problems becomes to stay on track. This become difficult since there are time in which our research question might change in order to pursue a more interesting topic. In the book A Problem in Presence the research could have changed the focused from apostolics to studying the similarity of the hymns that they seem to share with other Christian churches.
The aim of every researcher is to be focused on the topic in which they chose to study since it becomes difficult to read an article that is all over the place (as I had done before.) There are many methods in which we can stay focused on our research and one such practice is by conducting interview questions that will help us get content that is resourceful and also interesting to use. In the book A Problem in Presence we can see that the researcher asked question that were specific yet simple. The answers that were received were rich and valuable to the researcher and thus made the book a bit more interesting and authentic. The interviews are what helped to back up the argument that the author was making in the book and thus we can conclude that besides going to the library and archives to retrieve information that we are after, the people can be a more valuable resource.
The same is also true in The Life Informatic as Boyer doesn’t go to the libraries but instead goes to the place in which the action is taking place. In my research I plan to go to the people that use Instagram as their own platform to promote their own talents. I plan to use academic journals and other reading to get a better understanding as to why social media has a strong influence in today’s society and get a better understanding as to the history behind our use of social media. Yet there is only so much a book can inform me about and the rest will be up to me to figure out and what better way than to take to the people that post those 60 second videos showcasing the amazing skills that they posse.
