Emo Culture Online – by Della McEwen

I have decided to base my coursework on emo sub-culture, ‘emo’ stands for ‘emotional’. Emos will usually listen to sad rock/punk/heavy metal music, dress in black clothing, wear heavy black make-up and have a certain way of doing their hair which covers most of their face. They are also well known to be depressing teenagers who self-harm. Emo forums and chat rooms are usually filled with sad poetry and songs, what they think they should and should not wear and music that is acceptable in their world.

In a few years ‘emo’ has become a very controversial and popular clique for teenagers. I would like to find out if the ‘emo’ stereotype is more a reality in cyber space because we have more freedom to express ourselves on the internet. I would also like to know if non-cyber emos are as stereotypical as the media has portrayed them to be.

My hypothesis is that emos online are more stereotypical than non-cyber counterparts.

My Aims are to investigate the views of the cyber space emos to find out if they themselves act more stereotypically like the emos the media has portrayed or if they are really what they say they are which is ‘misunderstood’. I also want to investigate the views of non-cyber space emos and compare their two views.

In my investigation I will be participating in an online observation, I will be going onto ‘emo’ forums and chat rooms and going undercover as an ‘emo’. I will be doing this because it gives me a chance to talk to them and find out what they really think. Also, I will interviewing three of the non-cyber emos with semi-structured interviews to find out what they think of the stereotypical view of ‘emos’ and think if it is more of a reality on the internet and also in real life.

Methodology
My study is a pilot study; a pilot study is researching what I want to study but on a small scale. A pilot study is used as a preparation for the real study, if any problems will arise they can be resolved, and it will save time and money.
For my research methods i will be doing semi-structured interviews and covert participation observation. I will be using the internet for my research and going on emo fourms and websites such as [link]
Because I am doing a cyber based study I will not be able to observe their body language, also, they may not be a reliable source because they may be using a cyber personality. But because I am studying stereotypes online and not in real life, I am in theory studying people’s online personality.
I decided not to do a questionnaire because if I did, the most effective way would be uploading it on an internet forum to get the most information, but I will be over-loaded with information and unable to sort through all the information.
I am doing qualitative research because I am not doing any number base investigations, all my research will be asking if they act this way and why they act this way, not trying to find percentages. I want to find the reasons why they act this way online and if they act this way in real life.
I will also be arranging three other semi-structured interviews but with emos in the real world, I have already had a short conversation with them to ask how I should say things and approach the emos online and what sort of questions I can ask without seeming to intrusive.

--
Whats the difference between, Orochimaru and Michael Jackson? Ones real.....partly