Using Social Media Networks to Conduct Questionnaire Based Research in Social Studies Case Study: Family Language Policy

Abstract

The Internet has permeated all aspects of daily life in many areas of the world. Its advancement and feasibility affects how we work, socialize, and spend our time. The advent of social media networks has greatly contributed to these changes and has become the place where people on the Internet are. In light of this new social movement, we propose that social media networks can and should be viewed as the potential way of reaching participants in social studies research. In the current paper we review Internet’s social effects research and provide an example of how the Internet and more specifically, the social media networks and other Internet tools can be utilized to perform a questionnaire based social research study in the area of Family Language Policy. We provide the ‘how to’ guide of conducting such research by sharing the technique employed in our study.

Keywords: Internet, research, social media networks, family language policy, social studies, questionnaire