Facebook Instructions

WARNING!!!  You cannot collect ANY data for this study unless you have given Dr. Cannon your certificate of training regarding University research policies affecting humans.  

Each student will look at 24 Facebook entries.  Entries examined will be restricted to students who have listed their graduation dates ranging from 2010-2007.  Therefore, neither alumni nor faculty will be included in this study.  The participants should be matriculating members of the University community.  They will be selected randomly based on the information they have entered regarding year of graduation. 

   
We will provide you with  lists of randomly generated numbers that will result in each of you looking at 3 male and 3 female Facebook entries for each current class at the University (2010-2007).  With one exception, all data can be collected directly from the inital Facebook page for each person selected.    

This page tells you your observer number and the range of data that you will be contributing.

This page tells you the random numbers to use when looking at faces.  NOTE!!!  This page was changed at 9:53am on Saturday February 17th.  If have an older file and didn't start using it - DISCARD that file and use this one.  If you have already started using the page that was available earlier, you may have impossible numbers for faces - please pause in your efforts and post that  you used the earlier number list on the Blackboard Discussion Page.  We'll  figure out what to do. 

Enter your personal set of random numbers and the ID Numbers you're responsible for on your data sheet BEFORE you sit down to record data.  Trust us, this will save time.  

In Facebook, go to Search and then to Advanced Search.  In Advanced Search BE SURE to select "Scranton" in the top window to avoid getting non-Scrantonian hits.  Then select the Sex and Year  needed.  You'll be doing 8 Advanced Searches.  The output of the search will be in blocks of 10 members:  1=1-10, 2=11-20, 3=21-30, etc.  So, if you need to find the 347th face in a search output, you'd go to page 35 and look at the 7th face.  Hint, the fastest way to move through large numbers of output pages is NOT to  click on Next but rather to click on the highest, or lowest, number available.  Then you'll move with the speed of 5 pages per click - hey, we didn't design Facebook.

This is a list of the variables you will looking at.  It includes a link to how encode complex variables.  

We will also give you a datasheet upon which to collect your data and a sheet that summarizes the variables and how to code them.   You don't have to collect all of your data in one session.  So don't worry if someone offers you a social opportunity while working on Facebook, you can always come back to it when you have time.  BUT - please have the data submitted by the deadline.  

An Excel file is posted in Course Documents for your data entry pleasure.  Trust us, entering data into Excel is easier than SPSS.  Later you'll be given access to a larger data file into which the entire class will copy/paste data.  This data file will be on Google.