Tech & Research: I get complacent/don’t go far enough
When I asked everyone to blog about the ways they’re already using technology to conduct research, I didn’t realize that it would reveal some of my own character flaws to me! Now, when it comes to my doctoral research, I like to think I’m quite thorough and comprehensive in my use of digital research tools. I’m the Google Scholar Queen, I keep my dissertation organized through the use of project management software, Zotero is my go-to for bibliographic completeness and accuracy. I know how to use a boatload of databases, and I’ve managed to even bring tech into the archive, photographing and religiously documenting the primary sources I’m commenting on in my dissertation project. I have enough tech in my own research that I get self-righteously frustrated with academics who don’t use technologies to their fullest–when a library puts out a ridiculously incomplete digital finding aid for an archive, for example, or when a member of my dissertation group confesses that she’s still keeping her dissertation bibliography in one massive Word file. And finally, I’m teaching this class, so I’m thinking about digital research practices pretty much every day–I’m choosing what I want to share with you all, and thinking through how to explain what I do choose to share.
But outside of my research life, I don’t actually think I use technology particularly well. I feel like the research I do is indulgent, and only serves my baser interests. I’ll delve deep into Facebook and spend hours searching to figure out what happened to a friend from elementary school, or I’ll find and download a 30-gigabyte torrent of every episode of Road to Avonlea (I watched the entire run, seven seasons, over January break. People, it is not that good of a show!), or I’ll turn on my tablet and open up the Seamless app to order the exact same food from the exact same neighborhood restaurant for the third time this month. I once spent an entire Sunday morning reading up on the history of the song “Indian Reservation.” In a lot of ways, I think the “research” I do with tech in my personal life is all about gratification. That’s what I get for assigning this question–a harsh look at my own moments of sloth!
2 Comments
Laura Ayala
February 3, 2014I completely agree with the latter part of this post. One of the drawbacks of my own “research” methods has been letting my own interests direct how I use, or misuse, my time online.
I wish I could say that I spent the ENTIRE break revising my paper. In reality, I spent an entire day listening to different audio versions of a single Poe poem and another couple of days researching the serial killers who inspired Norman Bates. Though I could excuse those two, I honestly can’t work American Horror Story: Asylum into my thesis.
As amazing as it is to acknowledge the infinite bounty of resources one can find online, I’m more anxious about the pitfalls that await me. That’s why I took a step back and wrote several sections of my thesis the old fashioned way, with a stack of books and lots of paper and pens. Yes, it’s a pain to find time to type it all out now and make sense of my handwritten footnotes, but I had to find a way to avoid my online guilty pleasures.
L. M. Freer
February 3, 2014See, now, my first thought here was, “Hmm, I’ve heard great things about American Horror Story, maybe I should start watching it…”
Two apps that have made a difference for me (and which I think I preached about to everyone in the fall, but what the hell, I’ll post ’em again): SelfControl shuts off your access to distracting web sites for predetermined amounts of time, and focus booster helps with in-task time management.
Still, Laura, you’re right to go back to pen and paper, I think. I now have one internet-free writing day per week, at a local coffee shop that has no wi-fi, and it’s actually left me feeling refreshed and energized!