1. R E S E A R C H P R E S E N T A T I O N
B Y D E A N N A S M I T H
The Digital Family Structure

2. Research Objective/Questions
 How do users of the social media site Facebook
interact with their family online?
 Are their actions modified with family members
compared to interactions with their friends?

3. Methods
 Observe four American Facebook profiles and evaluate their
interactions with their family members (liking pictures,
posting comments, sharing media).
 Monitor how many times daily they are directly interacting
with a family member (how many comments, how many likes,
how many shares) and mark the data in a Microsoft Xcel
sheet.
 Assess the amount of family members that the user is
Facebook Friends with.
 Complete Skype or Facebook Chat interviews in order to
assess their accessibility to their family members on
Facebook; are family members blocked from specific photo
albums? Do they include their family members in their “About
Me," section?

4. Ethical Issues
 Not to be overstep my boundaries when assessing
their familial interactions online.
 -To remain unbiased through a digital format.

5. Timetable
 Recruit four Facebook users and ask for permission
to observe and evaluate their interactions with their
family members online.
 Record observations over a two-week time period
and record data in a Microsoft Xcel sheet.
 Commence interviews the third week in order to
include their perspective.

6. Research
 Participants: Paige, Miranda, Matt, and
Parker.
 Age Range: 18-22
 All four participants are American citizens
currently residing on the East coast.

7. Data
Participant # of
“friended”
family
members
Daily
Comments
Daily Likes Daily Shares
Paige 7 M: 6 Tu: 2 W:
11 Th: 0 F: 5
Sa: 7 Su: 16
M: 3 Tu: 6 W:
0 Th: 20 F: 10
Sa: 0 Su: 0
M: 1 Tu: 0 W:
3 Th: 0 F: 0
Sa: 0 Su: 2
Miranda 5 M: 2 Tu: 21 W:
13 Th: 5 F: 25
Sa: 11 Su: 13
M: 0 Tu: 0 W:
5 Th: 11 F: 2
Sa: 1 Su: 2
M: 4 Tu: 0 W:
0 Th: 0 F: 0
Sa: 1 Su: 0
Matt 12 M: 22 Tu: 50
W: 3 Th: 2 F:
15 Sa: 32 Su: 5
M: 11 Tu: 3 W:
0 Th: 2 F: 0
Sa: 12 Su: 5
M: 2 Tu: 2 W:
5 Th: 3 F: 3
Sa: 2 Su: 1
Parker 3 M: 0 Tu: 3 W:
6 Th: 11 F: 3
Sa: 0 Su: 0
M: 2 Tu: 0 W:
4 Th: 1 F: 3 Sa:
0 Su: 0
M: 0 Tu: 0 W:
0 Th: 0 F: 1
Sa: 0 Su: 0

8. Conclusions
 Social media is a good way for family members to
keep updated and stay in touch with each other.
 It is important to clean up your social media sites not
only for family members, but for potential
employment opportunities.
 The majority of the participants feel that family
members can overstep their bounds on Facebook,
thus causing them to modify their behaviors online.