When we do research, we start with a hypothesis that is usually in narrative form. For example, I might think that, with new communication technologies like e-mail, instant messaging, and cell phones, college students today spend less time in face-to-face interaction than in previous years.

I collect data on a sample of college students. Fortunately, I have data from studies in previous years that I can use for comparison. These earlier studies showed that, on average, college students spent about 6 hours per weekday in face-to-face social interaction.