Factors of Public Self-Disclosure Via Instagram Stories

Abstract

Openness is an important factor in relationship maintenance. However, excessive self-disclosure can jeopardize the privacy or security of one's own identity. Therefore, we need to manage the boundaries between private or public information. This privacy management explained by Sandra Petronio in the Communication Privacy Management Theory (CPM). Before the rise of social media, someone usually conveys private information face to face to others who have personal closeness. Yet, social media changes the old manner. Nowadays, someone could share their personal stories (public self-disclosure) to people they haven't know well. This research was conducted to determine the factors that cause Instagram stories users in five largest cities in Indonesia doing public selfdisclosure. Researchers used seven indicators of CPM theory namely: perceived control, privacy awareness, privacy concern, privacy invasion experience, privacy risk, interaction, and tie strength, adapted from Ampong et al. The result shows that users of Instagram stories in Indonesia strongly consider privacy concern factor. However, users do not consider privacy invasion experience factor too much. In addition, researchers found that gender and educational background showed differences of consideration among respondents. Overall, this research shows that Instagram stories users in Indonesia have been managing their personal information according to CPM theory.

Understanding gen z's online self-presentation on multiple Instagram accounts

“…Its followers are screened based on their familiarity with the informants, and usually, only close friends (roughly 10% of the total first account follower number) made it into the list. This data is supported by previous research, which showed that Instagram users in Indonesia strongly consider privacy concerns (Purmiasa et al, 2020).…”

“…Being able to customise and restrict the information they share aligns with Gen Z's concerns for privacy (Seemiller & Grace, 2017). This fact is in line with surveys conducted among 400 respondents in Indonesia's five big cities, which found that Instagram users also consider "what information" and "to whom" the information is shared, as emphasised by Sandra Petronio in Communication Privacy Management Theory (Purmiasa et al, 2020).…”