Social Privacy in Networked Publics: Teens’ Attitudes, Practices, and Strategies

Abstract

There’s a widespread myth that American teenagers don’t care about privacy. The logic is simple: Why else would teenagers share so much on Facebook and Twitter and YouTube? There is little doubt that many – but not all – American teens have embraced many popular social media services. And there is little doubt that those who have are posting photos, sharing links, updating status messages, and commenting on each other’s posts. Yet, as Waffles explains above, participation in such networked publics does not imply that today’s teens have rejected privacy as a value. All teens have a sense of privacy, although their definitions of privacy vary widely. Their practices in networked publics are shaped by their interpretation of the social situation, their attitudes towards privacy and publicity, and their ability to navigate the technological and social environment. As such, they develop intricate strategies to achieve privacy goals. Their practices demonstrate privacy as a social norm that is achieved through a wide array of social practices configured by structural conditions. How teens approach privacy challenges the ways in which privacy is currently conceptualized, discussed, and regulated.This paper examines how teens understand privacy and what strategies they take in their efforts to achieve social privacy. We describe both teens’ practices and the structural conditions in which they are embedded, highlighting the ways in which privacy, as it plays out in everyday life, is related more to agency and the ability to control a social situation than particular properties of information. Finally, we discuss the implications of teens’ practices, revealing the importance of social norms as a regulatory force.

Group privacy management strategies and challenges in Facebook: A focus group study among Flemish youth organizations

“…Kramer-Duffield, 2010;Stutzman & Hartzog, 2012;Young & Quan-Haase, 2013). boyd and Marwick (2011) found in their research that young users of SNS develop social strategies online and move beyond the settings that are offered by SNSs. The current study also shows how they can be creative on a group level, by translating the youth organization's internal structure into the Facebook groups or by creating a control agent to preserve the established boundaries (e.g., "Facebook police").…”

“…Over the years, much research studied boundary coordination and privacy in the context of SNSs (e.g. boyd & Hargittai, 2010;boyd & Marwick, 2011;Litt, 2013;Marwick & boyd, 2014;Stutzman & Hartzog, 2012;Wisniewski, Lipford, & Wilson, 2012). Against popular belief, these studies show how young users re-establish boundaries and care about their privacy.…”

Why concern regarding privacy differs: The influence of age and (non-)participation on Facebook

“…Moreover, most of the social benefits that can be obtained through SNSs are particularly relevant to young people. Developing an identity and relationship formation to build social capital are important tasks during adolescence (Boneva, Quinn, Kraut, Kiesler, & Shklovski, 2006;boyd, 2008;Bukatko, 2008;Marwick, Diaz, & Palfrey, 2010;Mesch & Talmud, 2010;Peter & Valkenburg, 2011;Steijn, 2014a). This would suggest that young people have a differing risk-benefit trade-off compared to older people with regard to SNSs, i.e., one more focussed on the benefits, which could, in turn, lead to less concern among young people.…”

Learn It, Buy It, Work It: Intensive Pregnancy on Instagram

“…Making direct claims of goodness in words (verbally or in writing) is widely considered bragging or boasting in Western cultures. People are well versed in creating nuanced, polysemic messages to get around this-a skill that some authors (boyd & Marwick, 2011) link with social media use in particular. Images are particularly polysemic and seem to become increasingly important in social media interactions.…”