science

Why We Post

Why We Post is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Why We Post rather than just read about it. In short: Why We Post is a research project funded by the European Research Council and launched in 2012 by Daniel Miller with the objective of examining the global impact of new social media. The study is based on ethnographic data collected through the course of 15 months in China, India, Turkey, Italy, United Kingdom, Trinidad, Chile and Brazil.

Key takeaways

Why We Post belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Why We Post to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Why We Post from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Why We Post is a research project funded by the European Research Council and launched in 2012 by Daniel Miller with the objective of examining the global impact of new social media. The study is based on ethnographic data collected through the course of 15 months in China, India, Turkey, Italy, United Kingdom, Trinidad, Chile and Brazil. The results of this project were released on 29 February 2016. This included the first three of eleven Open Access books (available via UCL Press), a five-week e-course (MOOC) on FutureLearn in English, also available in Chinese, Portuguese, Hindi, Tamil, Italian, Turkish, and Spanish on UCLeXtend. In addition a website containing key discoveries, stories and over 100 films is available in the same 8 languages.

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Why We Post

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Why We Post claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Why We Post before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Why We Post ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Why We Post

In research: Why We Post appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Why We Post in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Why We Post is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Internet stubs, Research projects, Social media, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Why We Post outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Why We Post in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Why We Post means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Why We Post out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Why We Post in simple terms?

Why does Why We Post matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Why We Post?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Why We Post.