Capstone #4 – Interview

For our 5th grade Capstone project, we needed an interview. An interview is where you ask someone questions and they answer them. My Capstone topic is Social Media so I needed to find an expert in Social Media. My site visit (a place related to my topic) was to a place called We are Social (advertising on Social Media), so my dad helped my find two people I can interview.

The first person was Matthew Friedman. Matthew works in strategy. For the interview I need questions so I made a list of 17 questions.

1. Do we need Social Media in our lives?
2. How has Social Media affected our lives?
3. What are some top ways we can protect our privacy from different Social Media sites?
4. Do you think Facebook’s scandals affected Social Media?
5. What have Social Media companies been doing in response after the Facebook scandal?  
6. Do you think the government can do anything to prevent Social Media privacy?
7. In the event of a any violation of customer privacy by Social Media companies, is there any law that regulated and punish the companies?
8. Do you think we should limit the access to information from different companies? CEO, and other big parts of a company?
9. What is it that your company is doing to protect customer privacy?
10. Are there technology developed specifically designed to protect Social Media privacy?
11. Do you think people from different people view privacy protection differently and if so what differences?
12. Are there Social Media products and services that are friendlier to privacy protection than other product and services?
13. What are some of the best ways to teach kids to be responsible on Social Media?
14. Has Social Media causes too much addiction?
15. Do you think Social Media has ruined bonding, family, etc?
16. Should there be a age limit for Social Media accounts like alcohol?
17. What is the difference of Social Media evolution in the US compared to Europe?

These questions were very different but related to the same topic.  After I ask these question he gave some interesting answers. For example for question 12 he replied “Not that I know of”, which surprised me because I thought they world have some sort of technology that can protect our privacy.

My second interview was with Samantha Palser. Samantha works in research and insights. I asked her the same 17 questions and she had very similar answers but for a few questions she would say something like ” I think BLANK is BLANK but also is BLANK and Matthew was more of a straight answer. Samantha had less direct but more thoughtful answers. I think Matthew and Samantha were very different interviewees.

My second site visit for Capstone was to a place called Cowen (Diversified financial services firm that provides alternative investment management and investment banking services), there I interviewed one person, Liliana Riotto. Liliana had my questions in advance so she made a packet explaining all her answers. This helped me understand what she was saying during the interview. Her answers always had two sides and were way more complex. She had lots of opinions but most of her answer was based on research or an article.

My favorite interview was Matthew’s because it was clear and simple, which made it easier to understand. Samantha and Liliana were a little confusing and unclear. These interviews helped me in my Capstone research. The interviews also helped me see what real people think about important things about Social Media.