Due Apr. 5, 2015

Bartholomew, M.K., Schoppe-Sullivan, S.J., Glassman, M., & Kamp Dush, C.M. (2012). New Parents’ Facebook Use at the Transition to Parenthood. Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies, 61, 455-469.

Bartholomew, et al. examine how new parents use Facebook through the concept of social capital, which centers on how people accrue resources through their relationships with other people. “[C]ontextual sources of support, includ-ing the parents’ social networks (e.g., friends, neighbors, relatives) [have been regarded] as important influences on parental adjustment” (455). Bartholomew, et al. suggest that Facebook’s status as a popular online social network may allow new parents to gain social capital.

In their study, they asked four questions: “How do new parents use Facebook? How does new parents’ Facebook use change over the transition to parenthood? Do new mothers and fathers differ in their Facebook use at the transition to parenthood? How is new parents’ Facebook use associated with their adjustment to parenthood?” (457). Bartholomew, et al. took their data “from the fourth and final phase of a short-term longitudinal study of new fathers’ and mothers’ adjustment to parenthood (the New Parents Project)” (458). Expectant parents participating in the study were required to be at least 18 years old, able to read/speak English, cohabiting or married, the biological parents of the expected child, and expecting their first child. Couples signed on for the study during the third trimester of pregnancy. The study ultimately explored 182 couples.

Some fascinating results form the study are as follows:

• “New mothers who reported having Face-book accounts were significantly younger thannew mothers who reported not having Facebook accounts” (461).
• Mothers reported greater satisfaction with parenting when they also reported “that a greater proportion of their Facebook friends were family members or relatives” (463).
• Mothers reported greater satisfaction with parenting when they also reported that friends were likelier to comment on photos of their children.
• Mothers reported higher levels of parenting-related stress when they frequently visited and managed their Facebook accounts.

Bartholomew and Glassman come from concentrations in human development and family sciences; Schoppe-Sullivan teaches human sciences and psychology; and Kamp Dush teaches human sciences and sociology. The blend of their similar educational backgrounds makes for an interesting study – and boosts their credibility when it comes to this particular study, too. However, for my particular research, I was hoping this article would focus more on Facebook literacy. Thankfully, my next annotated bibliography focused on that concept…

Due Apr. 12, 2015

Bowen, L.M. (2011). Resisting Age Bias in Digital Literacy Research. College Composition and Communication, 62, 586-607.

Bowen “argue[s] that literacy researchers should pay greater attention to elder writers, readers, and learners” (586). She visited an 81-year-old friend and checked her email at the house. Her friend’s house computer was not turned on; this spurred thought about a predominant ideology concerning literacy narratives, which “privileges the literacies and literate activities of younger people and figures elder adults as digitally deficient” (587). Literacies tied to Web 2.0 are viewed as being tied to younger people; Web 1.0-centric literacies are often seen as being for the elderly.

MORE…

JSTOR link for future reference: http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.odu.edu/stable/pdf/23006907.pdf?acceptTC=true