From a discussion in my qualitative research methods class today:
It doesn't matter what you're doing as long as you know you're doing it.
There is no "best" or "recommended" methodology for doing things, no position you're supposed to take that's "better" than another. Choose your own way to do your work, because ultimately whatever works for you is best. Also, reflection and self-knowledge is vital to good work in the social sciences, because no research project is "untouched by human hands." We're all filters. I need to remember that.
I want to write more about this, but I need to take a nap so my brain unlocks enough for me to do AHS capstone. I have this terrible mental block (getting back to campus made me so depressed tonight because I knew I had capstone hanging over my head), burning eyes and a headache, and I'm definitely not coming from a place of abundance right now; I'm stressed, I'm grouchy, and I'm starting to snap at people.
I want to immerse myself in ethnography for a while. It's such a deliciously complex world with all these twists and tunnels and blossomings of ideas, especially when you understand technology and can write software to simulate social networks and facilitate data sorting. There are so many things I would like to go to graduate school in; sociology, product design, education, and computer science (or electrical engineering, but it's undeniable that I'm drifting towards the software side of things). Maybe I can get a master's and three PhD's? Yeah.
Naptime.