Great post bhr. I did Sociology at university and after being familiarised with social theory/theories I had a resource that I could draw upon when it came to doing research projects. For example after learning about Foucault's theory of panopticon I was able to apply that and do a research project which looked at how the panopticon functioned in the call centre that I worked at. Overall it is definitely worth familiarising yourself with some of the key theoretical ideas in sociology as this gives you a theoretical toolkit which you can draw upon regardless of what area of social life you decide to research. In light of this I'd definitely recommend the book "Key Sociological Thinkers" by Rob Stones as this is a great introduction to the contributions of key sociological thinkers have made to studying society, this book is in most university libraries too.