Social Media, Sociality, and Survey Research

Preface

We started with the premise that survey researchers should be thinking always about the future. That has never been more true than now. Beset by problems not of our own making, the survey research discipline faces unprecedented challenges as a result of declining data quality stemming from, for example, falling response rates, inadequate sampling frames, and approaches and tools that have not adapted to the rapid pace of technological change, especially the changes in the way human beings (our respondents) communicate with each other. Conducting a survey is, at its core, a social interaction between a researcher (represented by an interviewer, or, increasingly, a computer screen) and a (potential) respondent. Yet, the current pace of technological change—and the way people communicate with each other—threatens the upheaval of survey research as we know it because people expect modern communication to take place differently than it did when we developed the current set of best practices for survey research.

Thus, survey researchers should—and must—search for ways to improve the manner in which research is conducted. Survey researchers should—and must—constantly scan the landscape of technological and social change to look for new methods and tools to employ. In this spirit, we have been somewhat jealously watching the explosion of “social media.” Social media is, no doubt, having a profound impact on communication styles and expectations, and thus, more than likely, will ...