Loneliness is a part of writing a PhD. To even imagine completing a PhD you need to have some sort of equanimity with solitude. You are often alone with your thoughts. You are supposed to contribute to knowledge or be "the only one" with an idea. Your family and friends are supportive but you like to spare them the intricate details which you find fascinating. Meetings with supervisors are too brief to truly get into your head space. Add part time to the equation and you are less often on campus but rather at home (alone) trying to make sense of the massive task that is writing a PhD.
No wonder I can't leave social media alone.
I have Facebook for friends and family, Twitter for professional purposes, LinkedIn for my resume and YouTube for sharing (what I think are Sundance worthy) films of my kids playing. I used to have MySpace and I suppose I need Instagram. I admit. I love social media because it gives me a sense of community that was lacking in my life for a long time.
Ray Oldenberg (1997) writes about the "great good place" -- the cafes, pubs, bookstores, hair and beauty salons that are the social hub of many small towns. Places people went to connect and feel a part of a community. Post World War II many writers began to express nostalgia for the small town. According to Max Lerner (1957, America as a civilization), "the critical question is not whether the small town can be rehabilitated in the image of its earlier strength and growth -- for clearly it cannot -- but whether American life will be able to evolve any other integral community to replace it."
Is social media the evolutionary state Lerner was imagining? Is Twitter the new cafe? Facebook the new pub?
I have certainly found a sense of community on social media. While I am still at home alone in my post World War II cottage looking after the kids like a typical '50s lonely housewife, I have a sense of community. I connect with mothers on Facebook for park play dates. These mothers don't live next door but are just a quick drive away. I connect with my family who are scattered all over the world. I hold a cup of coffee or a glass of wine as I tweet with other PhD students, I hashtag with PhD mums who now know "someone understands", I share professional reading with other teachers who are not afraid of using technology in the classroom, I butt in on conversations I find interesting. I have made some great connections and friends. I may still be alone at home but I certainly don't feel lonely.
In our modern world can social media be added to the list of great good places?
About Me
- Naomi Barnes
- PhD Candidate at Griffith University, mummy, wife, teacher, social media enthusiast, avid reader
Friday 12 April 2013
Friday 5 April 2013
Working through a part time PhD
- Completing a PhD is a difficult task for a full time student but some would argue even more so for a part time student. But it doesn't have to be any more difficult. I think it's important to look at and approach a part time PhD as a completely different beast.The following is a recap of tips about completing a part time PhD gleaned from Twitter over the past week. The information collection process involved reading blogs, asking questions and hosting a #PhDchat.Four main points were raised over the information collection period:1. What are the advantages of conducting a part time PhD?2. How does or can decision making about the PhD differ between full time and part time?3. Motivation and tips for writing in short bursts.4. Loneliness as a part time PhD student and how to build a community to address this.Below I describe my experiences as a part time PhD student and the "tricks of the trade" as seen by both students and supervisors.1. What are the advantages of conducting a part time PhD?The main advantage I see as a part time PhD student is that I am not required to be as committed to the process as a full time student. I started part time because I needed to pay the mortgage. I presented my confirmation presentation heavily pregnant at about the 18 month mark. Maternity leave gave me an opportunity to continue working on my PhD but learning to be a mother for the first time was tough. My part time status enabled me to drop the study for much needed sleep and childhood sicknesses. I was still able to work at a full time pace for the first stages of my PhD but part time gave me flexibility.Here's what others had to say:
@Alicia_McCoy @nomynjb @AbbeyDiaz_says I do find myself questioning things more, in a constructive way. That’s a +ve for me/work #phdchat- @Orientchris @nomynjb @AbbeyDiaz_says I agree Chris. The impact of the PhD on my job so far has been an important outcome #phdchat
- Career progress and spending time with family were common themes in the #PhDchat. Feelings of guilt about not working on a dissertation were also common. Amber Davis made a good point that feeling guilty is a mind set.
@nomynjb @PhDSkills Q5 Pitfall- feeling guilty for 'not working enough'. It's a mindset you can change. Not easy, but it's possible!- Maybe what John Finn had to say can help towards that change -- knowing that being part time can have true opportunities for success in the degree.
- Distance has scientifically been shown to have advantages.
Why we have our best ideas in the shower: The science of creativity - The Buffer Blog bit.ly/17eLOqq- Clarity may come making school lunches or problem solving something unrelated at work. Part time students have the distance to make good decisions.2. How can decision making about the PhD differ between full time and part time?Important decisions made about a PhD such as the research question, research approach and participant pool can be very different between a full time and part time PhD.
- My part time status has allowed me to conduct a longitudinal study over two university semesters. In a full time PhD 10 months is a large chunk of time but quite small on a part time schedule.I collected my responses via Facebook updates over four slices in time. This allowed me to gather data and look after my newborn baby at the same time. The four slices in time were each approximately 3 weeks long so I only had to be really on the ball, watching Facebook for short intensive periods. If I missed a day, I could scroll back through the Newsfeed and gather the updates I missed.Unfortunately the time I have spent trying to work out how I was going to conduct my research, complicated the process considerably. Maybe I should have heeded John Finn's advice.
- Too late now!Additionally, some disciplines lend themselves better to a part time PhD than others.
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