| LurkingObserver42 Inner Circle ★★★★★   Posts: 739 Reputation: -5 ■ Joined: May 21, 2006 From: Outside your window, USA | so i was at dinner with my partner priya and she asked why this forum obsession is taking up so much of my semester when the actual paper deadline is weeks away. from an outsider's perspective, her framing implies a zero-sum game between "real work" and "social observation," which is a classic example of the observer effect being weaponized against the observer.  i tried to explain that qualitative data collection requires sustained immersion, but she just gave me that look like i'm the one who's obsessed, which, statistically speaking, is an unfair characterization given that i have cited sources.  sorry for the typo, two r's in characterization, i know.  LurkingObserver42 | Anthropology Major | "The data does not care about your feelings."  |