Older and Wiser? Facebook Use, Privacy Concern, and Privacy Protection in the Life Stages of Emerging, Young, and Middle Adulthood

Abstract

A large part of research conducted on privacy concern and protection on social networking sites (SNSs) concentrates on children and adolescents. Individuals in these developmental stages are often described as vulnerable Internet users. But how vulnerable are adults in terms of online informational privacy? This study applied a privacy boundary management approach and investigated Facebook use, privacy concern, and the application of privacy settings on Facebook by linking the results to Erikson's three stages of adulthood: emerging, young, and middle adulthood. An online survey was distributed among 18-to 65-year-old Dutch-speaking adults (N = 508, 51.8% females). Analyses revealed clear differences between the three adult age groups in terms of privacy concern, Facebook use, and privacy protection. Results indicated that respondents in young adulthood and middle adulthood were more vulnerable in terms of privacy protection than emerging adults. Clear discrepancies were found between privacy concern and protection for these age groups. More particularly, the middle adulthood group was more concerned about their privacy in comparison to the emerging adulthood and young adulthood group. Yet, they reported to use privacy settings less frequently than the younger age groups. Emerging adults were found to be pragmatic and privacy conscious SNS users. Young adults occupied the intermediate position, suggesting a developmental shift. The impact of generational differences is discussed, as well as implications for education and governmental action.

Age differences in privacy attitudes, literacy and privacy management on Facebook

“…Accordingly, because they are more tech savvy in general and because they tend to use SNSs more frequently, younger adults may not only have higher awareness of privacy risks posed by SNSs but may also be more apt in adjusting privacy settings to protect themselves from these risks (Bolton et al, 2013;boyd & Hargittai, 2010;Brandtzaeg et al, 2010;Debatin et al, 2009;Litt, 2013;Tufekçi, 2012). In line with these findings, Van den Broeck et al (2015) report significant age differences in knowledge of options for changing Facebook privacy settings.…”

“…Attitudes about privacy may also determine the extent to which an individual engages in privacy management behavior in general (Jensen & Sørensen, 2013;Taddicken, 2014;Van den Broeck et al, 2015;Vitak, 2012). However, in current literature on SNS and privacy behavior, there is substantial disagreement about whether privacy attitudes can predict behavior.…”

“…Older users primarily use SNSs to maintain their relationship with close contacts (i.e., friends and family) and overall spend less time on the site (e.g., Brandtzaeg, Lüders, & Skjetne, 2010;Christofides, Muise, & Desmarais, 2012;McAndrew & Jeong, 2012), whereas younger adults seek larger and more heterogeneous social networks and use SNSs for a wider range of purposes (Arjan, Pfeil, & Zaphiris, 2008;Chang et al, 2015). Being at a developmental stage characterized by "exploration and instability" (Arnett, 2004), young adults are more likely to be motivated to experiment with social boundaries and engage in self-disclosure on SNSs as a means of satisfying this motivation than older adults do (for a summary, see Van den Broeck et al, 2015). Relatedly, young adults are more likely to use SNSs for self-presentation, which, in turn, may be related to their tendency to use SNSs more actively, which entails higher self-disclosure (Arjan et al, 2008;Chang et al, 2015;Christofides et al, 2012;Peter & Valkenburg, 2011;Steijn, 2014;Walrave et al, 2012).…”

“…Current research on self-disclosure and privacy-related behavior has primarily focused on adolescents and children (Van den Broeck et al, 2015). There is only limited data available on the effect of age on SNS use in general (Chang, Choi, Bazarova, & Löckenhoff, 2015) and privacy management behavior in SNSs particularly (Steijn, 2014).…”

“…Across different SNS platforms like Facebook and Google+, age of adult users has been found to be inversely related to the frequency with which users checked and/or changed their privacy settings (Blank et al 2014;Van den Broeck et al 2015) and their tendency to take measures to limit the circulation of information about themselves such as untagging photos and limiting updates to certain people (Litt, 2013).…”