Lightening Talk
Join researcher Madison Lee as she dives into her research on social media and it's impacts on the adoption community.
Researcher Bio
Madison Lee
Madison is a fourth-year Professional Communication student at Ryerson University. She also has a minor in Public Relations and a certificate in Strategic Marketing.
She currently works for the Adoption Council of Ontario as a Communications Coordinator. Here she has learned about the field and importance of adoption.
Research Details
Research Problem
Adoption is changing, and that is largely in part of social media. The changes have impacted adoptees, who go through a lot with the change in living situation, close bonds and permanent families.
The impacts are also felt by adoptive parents, who are trying to learn more about adoption while remaining strong and effective parents for their children.
Finally, adoption professionals who work with both adoptive families and adoptees are an essential part of adoption and are impacted by social media.
Research Questions
Research questions focused on how social media was used, it's impacts on people and their feelings about it.
Negative and positive beliefs were asked about and recorded on without specifically asking if the participants believed one way or another.
Professionals: how has social media impacted the field? How will it continue to impact it? Do you have any anecdotes regarding social media?
Adoptive parents: How has social media impacted your child? How has it impacted your parenting? How do you use social media to connect with others?
Adoptees: How did you use social media to connect with someone? Was this connecting beneficial? Why do you feel the need to use and connect to people over social media?
Research Methods
Grounded theory, a popular methodology for research, was used to come up with a hypothesis and then conduct analysis after gathering data.
Using qualitative methods, it is explored as to how social media has impacted and changed the lives of adoptees, adoptive parents and adoption professionals.
In-depth interviews were conducted with each of these different segments of the adoption community. These interviews varied in length from 15-45 minutes.
Hypothesis
This research project took a grounded theory approach and, therefore, had a set hypothesis before research began.
The hypothesis for this assignment is that social media has positively impacted the adoption community. Furthermore, this means that all relevant parties, including adoptees, adoptive parents and adoption professionals, all see positive impacts of social media use in the field.
In order to prove or disprove this hypothesis all interviews were transcribed and coded.
Results
The hypothesis was proven correct for this research assignment. Although there were some negative impacts of social media on adoption in regards to privacy, the positive effects outweighed these greatly. Further results will now be presented.
Professionals
"Social media and the internet has given us lots of opportunities for finding the right family." - Professional Interviewee
Find more families and matches. Physical barriers can be diminished because people can access more information about children through social media platforms.
Share new laws, facts, stats and information. If anything changes within the adoption realm, professionals can share this immediately with their following.
Educate through social media and online platforms. Any files, videos or presentations can easily be shared with their audiences.
Concerns about social media and professionals relate mostly to privacy. As these issues are brought up, more regulations and rules are put in place to monitor the privacy of all parties within the adoption community.
Adoptive Parents
"Her and I would have some chat going on a some social media platform and then she would disappear." - Adoptive Parent Interviewee
Connections can be made with other parents, professionals and adoptees. Since adoption can be challenging for adoptive parents, they often find support through online groups such as on Facebook.
Ability to be educated on adoption topics, get instant feedback and questions answered since there is a lot to learn about adoption and parenting to adopted children being able to have fast resources is essential.
Learn about potential matches through social media postings or links for more information. Also learning about parenting children with different needs.
Concerns about adoptive parents and social media are more about monitoring their children's channels and respecting their children's privacy.
Adoptees
"You want answers. You want to know." - Adoptee Interviewee
Adoptees have the opportunity to maintain openness with birth relatives that they currently already have. Openness methods can include messaging or video calling through different social media platforms to meet openness agreements.
Reunion with birth relatives is now possible because people can be found on social media platforms easily. Platforms also allow for simple messaging and discussions to start relationships instead of immediate meetings face-to-face.
Connecting with other adoptees can also be beneficial to share experiences and feel as though you are not alone. Groups and pages on social media platforms allow these connections to be built and maintained.
Adoptees can struggle with personal identity and the idea of belonging. Social media allows for creativity and personalization of profiles and can allow for adoptees to learn more about themselves and express it to a following of their choosing.
The concerns for adoptees are that they are using social media without parental guidance and reconnecting without understanding the risks. Adoptive parents must urge open dialogue with children about social media to prevent problems from occurring.
Credits:
Created with images by Patricia Prudente - "untitled image" • paje victoria - "untitled image" • Austin Pacheco - "The Face of Content" • Thiago Cerqueira - "Air Happiness" • Javier Sierra - "International Women’s Day Too fast too smart" • Nathan Anderson - "All the family" • Markus Spiske - "untitled image"