Population and Purpose of the Study The population and purpose of the study is unique. The study used 20 student-athletes at a midsize private University in the southern region of the U.S. (Browning & Sanderson, 2012). In total, there were 17 males and 3 females who were interviewed in a semistructured manner. Out of 17 males, 10 were football players, 5 were basketball players, and 2 were baseball players. All 3 females were basketball players. The purpose sought to discover why student-athletes use Twitter and how they handle and react to judgmental commentary they receive from others. Another possible purpose is to help student-athletes understand …show more content…
One limitation of the research is that the sample population was student-athletes from only one university. Future research should focus on other Division I universities and other levels of competitions. Another limitation is that the information found in this study is cross-sectional, meaning that it pertains to one point in time. Future research should take a longitudinal view to understand how student-athletes use of Twitter changes over time. Another limitation is that the participants were mainly males. For future research, it is suggested that more females or even a larger diversity of sports are represented in the research. One other future implication of this study is to analyze how student-athletes influence one another to use Twitter or other social media