Would this be good for a college Modern Social Problems project?

Question

OK so this coming up semester I'm taking a Modern Social Problems course and I have to come up with an honors Project to do in it...If you are at all familiar with Modern Social Problems could you tell me if this sounds like a good idea?

Ok so i thought I could do kind of like a PostSecrets thing, only in my school. For those of you who don't know..Postsecret is this blog where people anonymously send in secrets on postcards. I was thinking I could have a box out in my school where people could anonymously drop their secrets into, and I could make up some sort of project/paper with them. I personally think it would work because what's more raw and real with social problems then people's actual innermost secrets? But anyway, maybe I'm wrong..so if you know alot about sociology and stuff please give me your opinion/ideas! thanks!

Answer 1

Sounds FUN!  It sounds like a great idea; the only possible problem I would be concerned with is in regards to how your data was obtained.  Each university will have guidelines regarding ethical and responsible conduct of research, but your professor will be able to let you know whether or not there are additional steps you need to take in order to take on a project such as this.  Another issue you might keep in mind is the possibility that you don’t receive the type responses that you anticipated.  Keep a back up project in mind just in case.

Good luck, Social Problems was my first Sociology class taken as an undergrad and I loved it.  This will be an interesting class as you will have the opportunity to study a wide variety of topics:  obesity, AIDS, suicide, drug abuse, divorce, poverty, social inequality, discrimination, immigration, etc.

Answer 2

I think your idea sounds excellent. You could make up annonymous posts where people write about their painful problems. You've certainly got enough material to work with just reading the problems posted on YA. Good luck!