HW5: Survey Report

       I conducted a survey a few days ago for my research study about the effects of photography technology on youth culture. The survey questionnaire is composed of 10 questions asking on the things which they were all familiar with – photography technology. I have asked them questions according to my parameters which are educational, emotional, social, economical, and psychological aspects.

      I approached some students of Asia Pacific College and the rest are just random. I have come up with 35 respondents coming from random courses with different ages, but mostly from our block also. It took them several minutes to answer because of the question number 10 which is somehow a psychological question. I noticed that most of them have common answers which made me conclude to the following:

It can be inferred that most of the youth at present is fond of taking photographs with a percentage of 82.85% while the rest is 17.15%.

With the self-portrait or people's photographs as the highest in percentage which is 55%, youth likes taking photographs of them or other people than other things. The nature or wildlife photographs and events are just of the same percentage (22%) which they prefer also to take, but not that much. There is 1% who answered others wherein their answers would be food, things, and animals, dog in specific.

The youth prefer to use gadgets or equipments which are accessible, cheaper, and convenient to use which are cell phones (46%). The SLR/DSLR has 17% and seemed to be higher than web cams or laptops because I think they are of the same value, but not in the quality of image and accessibility also. We can bring SLR/DSLR anywhere, but not the web cams or laptops.

Half of the respondents said that taking photographs is just a hobby for them. There are 21% who said that they take photographs because it helps in socializing with other people by uploading it on facebook or other social media sites. The remaining 17% is by learning new knowledge about how to use modern gadgets and equipments while the 10% is for editing photographs. The last 2% is about earning from the downloads of their photographs.

With regard in editing photographs, the most common and used by the youth is Adobe Photoshop (50%). Next is the Photoscape with 29% because of its popularity and free download in the internet. The Instagram with 17% is currently the most well-known photo editing software as well as a social networking site, but not all youth is using this. The Paint.Net and Webcam Toy is both with 4.5% while the least are the Corel Photopaint and Pixlr.com with 2%.

The 80% of the respondents said that their photographs help in socializing people and making friends while the remaining 20% said it does not help.

The majority of the respondents said that they are happy (45%) and satisfied (30%) when taking, editing, and uploading photographs. The 10% said that they are excited when doing these and 15% with no feelings at all.

Most of the youth said that on free time only they do take, edit, and upload photographs having a percentage of 85.7%. There are 5.7% who said they do it everyday and once or twice a week. The least part which is every month is 2.9%. It can be inferred that this as a hobby does not interrupt other important things to do of the youth.

The majority which is 60% said that they do not perform tasks simultaneously while 40% said they do. Therefore, it does not affect their studies much and can focus with their own tasks.

      The last question which tests the mental ability of youth to understand the photograph seemed to be the most difficult part. They have common answers such as hurricane/tornado, abstract thing, confusion, fear, mystery, problems, chaos, scary, worries, and of course a man with a wild imagination. Some answers were unusual but full of meaning. This only means that even if they know it is an edited photograph, their wild imagination has not yet vanished, and their way of thinking is not literal.

      With the results I have discovered, some met my expectations but mostly, the results are positive which is a good thing to know. Photography technology does not greatly affect or harm the youth, but instead help them a lot in many ways. In their education, they can still focus in their studies knowing also that taking photographs is just their hobby. They also learn new knowledge about the different gadgets and equipments used. Their photographs also contribute a lot when it comes to socializing and it made them happy and satisfied. They also build a wider and wilder imagination with their photographs.