Theme 2

In one way it is easier to try to say what theory is not, than try to say what it actually is. So you can say “not theory is...”. Theory is not the personal opinions of the researcher himself/herself. Diagrams, figures, variables, data and references are not theory themselves, but they can be a part of evidence that support a theory. Hypotheses are not theory, but can be links between theory and data. Hypotheses are statements of what is to be expected and not why something is to be expected. This brings us to what theory is. Theory is general and abstract text which answer the question why? Theory is providing explanations with clear argumentation that can be tested. The aim of theories are to describe, explain and predict (theory type I, II and III) the future developments based on revealing of the current connections between the cause and the event.

The paper I have selected is “Mobile Geotagging: Reexamining Our Interactions with Urban Space” by Lee Humphreys and Tony Liao. It was published in 2011 in the journal “Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication” which has an impact factor of 2.172. The paper focuses on a mobile geotagging service called Socialight and the social practices associated with it. By exploring how people use Socialight’s virtual “sticky notes”, the paper demonstrate how people integrate mobile geotagging technology into their everyday lives, what kinds of location-based communication people create, and how people make meaning through this service. Sticky notes are messages that users can leave in particular locations for people in their network. Using GPS, Socialight alerts users if they are near a place which they or someone in their network has tagged by leaving a ‘‘sticky.’’ For example, users could tag the corner deli with a sticky note saying, ‘‘remember to buy milk’’ and when they walk by the deli again, they receive the milk message on their mobile phone. Alternatively, Socialight users have the ability to leave messages for other users.

I would say that the theory type of the paper is II (explanation). Different terms are explained, and with references to other papers. Questions like “how” and “where” are kind of answered through examples. There are no predictions in this theory, but the theory part of the paper ends with “therefore it will be interesting to see if...”, so it still says something about the future.

One limitation of using this type of theory is of course that it does not predict something particular about the future. One benefit using this type of theory is it focuses on getting everything well explained so that the reader will get a more in-depth knowledge about the things and terms.