Limitations

In any good research project, there is always a section titled "Limitations" in which one outlines all of the many potential problems one is likely to encounter. It may be written in retrospect as well, limitations that were expected and also the unexpected that one learned along the process.

In the beginning, there were a few limitations I expected:

• Having only a few voluntary participants, but requiring a lot of time from them
• My own slacker tendency when it comes to blogging
• Setting regular meetings
• Motivating others to write on the blog
• Communication
• Cultural differences

However, there are also a number of limitations that I hadn't anticipated, particularly when it comes to my participants:

• Problems with technology and lack of access to resources
• Online blogging on a cell phone is incredibly annoying. I have a lovely MacPro and so typing and submitting usually has few problems or annoyances. However, cell phones often have more difficulty with internet access. It's constantly cutting out, it's really slow with loading, you can't always view videos or hyperlinks, and sometimes the connection fails right in the middle of submitting your blog and the last thing you want to do is write it all over again. Besides, you won't even be able to say it as well the second time anyway. 
• Problems with transportation
• Busses, walking, trains, cars, and rides can all be incredibly unreliable 
• Cultural Barriers
• Access to resources and technology 
• Context of poverty
• Apathy for one's own situation
• "It is the way it is" kind of fatalism
• Survival/Die Young Culture
• Poverty and Problems with Life
• Even if you are doing okay, making money, able to afford your rent, groceries, and bills that still doesn't mean that living in the context of poverty doesn't take its toll. Life happens and things, in general, are just tougher when you live in the context of poverty even if you don't consider yourself poor. Cars that you expect to be reliable break down, your grandmother goes into the hospital, your friend can't pick you up anymore, your mom needs you to watch your sibling so she can go to work, your baby gets sick or you can't find a babysitter, and so many more things that just happen that make keeping your commitments that much more difficult.