Since that's pretty much all I write about on my blog - personal experiences - I'm not surprised that he wants to include me in his research, but I am sort of amazed that he actually found my blog, since we are not related.
He said that he was "interested in how the thoughts and experiences written by people like you on weblogs and other social media can be used to make conclusions about society as a whole." Then he asked me to fill out a survey, and concluded with, " In the course of this study, we will also be analyzing the public posts on your weblog... The goal of this analysis is to correlate your responses to this survey with what you write about your life on your weblog."
In other words, after answering a bunch of questions about me and what I thought, he was going follow up to see if what I put in my blog squared up with my survey answers.
He included several ways to confirm that he was who he said he was, and that this was a bona fide research project, and not some Nigerian widow trying to give me millions of dollars, so after checking him out I took his survey.
First we covered some basic demographics; how old was I (he almost didn't make the date range high enough), how much money did I make (almost didn't make the dollar range low enough), where I was born and raised (Texas, Texas), and general stuff like that.
Then he started out with a zinger. "What did I think of Hillary Clinton?" It interests me that he didn't ask about any other candidate. For the record, my response was, "I try not to."
And as best as I can remember, here are (more-or-less) the rest of his questions, and (more-or-less) my responses:
- What is my religion? Limited choices here, so I put Protestant. Close enough.
- Do I think global climate change is serious/not serious? I said I was serious about coffee on the patio and any change that affected that was serious.
- My views on abortion. The check boxes didn't quite allow the answer I wanted but I responded that I was by-and-large agin it.
- What was my reaction to the word "feminist." Good/bad/indifferent? Say what? Does this have anything to do with Hillary?
- Who did I vote for in the last Presidential Election? I told him; I'm not going to tell you.
- Had I had the flu this year? Didn't see that coming, but no, I have not.
- Did I have the flu in any year since 2010? Nope. Get my flu shots regularly.
- Have I been in a car crash this year? No.
- Did I have a car crash in any year since 2010? No.
- How many Dr visits in the past year? My highest choice was 6 or more. Shoot, I can do that in a good (or bad) week.
- How many Dr. visits in any year since 2010? See above.
- Did I take a vacation in the past year. Two, actually.
- Did I take a vacation in any year since 2010? I'm not a slacker when it comes to vacations.
- Had I crossed any international borders in the last 3 years? Heck, I snuck into Canada twice in the last 2 years alone. And I've lost count of our trips to California.
- Had I traveled by plane last year? In any year since 2010? I sure didn't drive to Canada. Or California either, for that matter.
- Why do you blog about your personal life? I gave him my standard answer; to amuse myself and embarrass my kids.
- Who is my audience? Close relatives who have not yet gotten tired of my ramblings. Plus my wife and kids sort of have to read it in self-defense because I make fun of them a lot.
- Have I ever told a lie on my blog? I answered No, but that was probably a lie, come to think of it.
- Are there subjects I avoid? Oh, yeah. In addition to religion and politics, I have to take it easy on my wife because she is within striking distance. The kids, not so much
Posts
1 comment:
Funny, funny! He'd think I was lying if he asked me how many doctor visits since 2010.
Post a Comment