Insights from CIS 605

One of the biggest insights for me was recognizing that many media-effects traditions still leave important gaps around power, intersectionality, context, and agency, even though these factors deeply shape mediated experience. I also found it meaningful to see how identity processes such as self-concept clarity, self-presentation, and comparison are more complex than simple “time spent” approaches to social media use suggest. A major challenge in the course was learning how to hold together critical theory and quantitative methods without feeling that I had to choose one over the other. That tension, however, became one of the most meaningful aspects of the semester because it helped me see my scholarly path more clearly: I want to build rigorous quantitative research that is also context-sensitive, critically reflective, and responsive to lived inequalities in digital life.