This assignment is for an undergraduate program which requires a senior thesis to be completed, and for the past relevant literature and new data/research conducted to be presented. The topic at hand is to take a closer look at social isolation in college students/Gen Z and the effects of this isolation on their participation in political/civic matters. I plan to work on this independently as well but since I am really tight on time, I would ideally like as many sources and past literature to be found that is relevant to this topic, that I can then also expand on myself using the writing I receive from this service. I would also like for the data from the survey I’ve attached to be analyzed briefly to include into the writing and methodology section.
More specifically, I would like writing to be done on conceptualizing social isolation and talking about its causes, its relation to COVID-19, its effects on student life in the U.S (due to 2020 quarantine, online/remote class options, social anxiety, etc). Also, I would like writing to be done on conceptualizing political engagement (the paper should focus on protests and social media activism as the two means of political engagement), how much U.S students prioritize political engagement, how doxxing and other risks associated with attending protests/posting online about social matters effects engagement, whether campuses feel safe to students, etc. It would be ideal to also include scientific articles that specifically examine social isolation effects, psychological precursors to collective action, etc.
Then, a linkage between these two concepts (1. social isolation and 2. political engagement) has to be made, talking about how they impact each other in the context of young college students.
Next, the data from the research survey can be implemented. The Study Materials doc includes the survey questions and the Subset excel sheet includes responses. Focus should be on the last portion of the survey regarding the Social Isolation experiment. The purpose of those two questions was to see if putting participants in a lonely mindset (those marked with a 1 in column BK) and putting them in a socially connected mindset (marked 1 in column BJ) would make a difference to their willingness to join a protest or post on social media. It was expected that those put in a lonely mindset would more likely opt to just post online from the comfort of their homes, while those in a socially connected mindset would opt to physically go out and attend a protest. Although the results seem neutral, writing can be done explaining the results, connecting them to the article attached about previous generation’s trends on this topic. Also, the Age in column AJ can be filtered to focus on Gen Z (indicated by 2 in the column, for ages 18-24) and this can be compared to the responses/trends of older generations in the data. Other areas of the survey are free to be explored such as how education levelsmay make a difference, how interested participants are in politics in general, etc. A limitation to discuss is how this survey is only for those who identify as Democrats.
I understand this is a whole lot of information! Not every detail mentioned here has to be included, please go with your gut and just flush out as much writing and connections as possible for me to compile a presentation to share on the previous literature and my own data results. The writing can be elaborated and polished afterwards as well, I am more in need of relevant content and an understanding of the sources/data to be able to deliver my presentation.
I’ve also included the original abstract for this thesis for guidance but some of the topic ideas have/can be changed, this is flexible. The research was initially meant to focus on my campus’ college students but the survey includes all U.S adults from all ages and all education levels, so the idea is broader now.
Please let me know if there’s any questions, trouble understanding the survey/results, any additional clarity needed, thank you! 🙂
Link to Article “Millennials Talk Politics” – https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED498899