Facebook as Potential Tool for Qualitative Source of Data

Abstract

The Internet is increasingly being used for social research, especially for obtaining qualitative data. Social environments are among Internet's greatest information-rich resources. Such environments preserve a depth of information about their users and their interactions. Textual content are now part of the massive amount of qualitative material available on the Internet. These social network sites can provide a unique insight into people’s experiences. This paper provides an overview of recent literature that describes studies that use Facebook as a data source. Then, researcher discusses an example of data collection and analysis from the study, which employed Facebook as a secondary data source. We conclude that by discussing some key characteristics of Facebook and highlighting some of its strong points, we propose that social networking sites are an important part of informant lives and have the potential to be used in a variety of future studies, both qualitative and quantitative.