Through the writing comes the structure. From structure arises possibility.

The past six weeks have been spent throwing myself into the writing of my thesis. Currently, I have 60 pages of solid writing, and in the process have discovered an emergent structure that belies that which I'd previously been naively imposing on myself. It has become clear to me that I am able to provide a kind of phenomenological perspective that is notably absent from much of the preexisting literature on computer-mediated communication, generally, and online social networks, particularly.

I have found a lot of journalism, a lot of psychology, a lot of sociology, and various intersections of the three. Don't get me wrong, there is some great research out there, but the vast majority is either biased to some degree (not that there is such a thing as being unbiased, but that's a whole other post) or somewhat dehumanizing, Anthropology, in contrast, is the analysis of individual voices and perspectives that make up webs of meaning and power. Humanism and science spring forth and coalesce! But I digress: in tandem with the written thesis, I am also creating a website. A website that is both a blog (this blog) as well as a wiki, so as to better articulate a) my personal ethnographic and research process, and b) the various media sources involved in the construction of my knowledge (images, blogs, videos, online articles, public forums, the sites themselves, etc;).

I am constantly reworking the whole. Truth be told, things have never been so gooey. I recommend clicking.

By the way, if anyone reading this has any career advice, throw me a bone!