Privacy in social media: File under 'P' for Paradox
We all have heard the speech about how dangerous it is to post personal information on Facebook. We know people who get angry at Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for arguing Facebook users don’t want privacy online. However, I think a fundamental part of the disagreement about privacy in social media is not on its value, but its definition.
Privacy in the offline world
First off: What is privacy in real life? There are many ways to describe it, but the one I would like to choose for this post is self-alienation. If an individual or group want to be in private, they remove themselves from other people.
Because they exist in physical space, this separation is ideally accomplished spatially. This can be done by moving a great distance from others, or by going behind a wall, door, or around a corner.
There is no magic privacy button that will cloak you from others in the real world, and I argue it is counter-intuitive to assume that a similar button should apply to social media.
Social media sites are just like any other venue
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word, “venue,” is derived from from the French words for neighborhood, neighbors, and the Latin word for vicinity. I think people assume that a digital world somehow operates under different rules from the real world, but if you look at those root words, you cannot deny that Facebook is all of those things.
It’s just like any other bar, or meeting room, or performance hall, with one exception. You aren’t just going out with your friends, you’re going out with hundreds of them all at the same time. They’re all aware of you, but they may not all be aware of each other. I’m sure you’ve been to a party that functioned in pretty much the same way.
Just like any of these venues, however, the only way to achieve privacy is to alienate yourself. Similar to how people in a spatial world must alienate themselves spatially, users in a digital world must alienate themselves digitally, and alienation is contrary to the point of social media.
How social media is like high school
If we follow the notion that alienation is contrary to the point of social media, we further infer that we must behave as though we are in an open, public space.
When I think about high school, I think about how I liked hanging out in small spaces. It felt like I was with more honest people, to be sure, but I had to limit the group I was with, because of the social politics of not trusting the people outside my circle. I didn’t want to present those people with a cheerful, friendly image. I alienated myself.
If I knew then what Facebook has taught me in the past few years, I would have been a much more popular person. Some may argue I would have been a less sincere person, but that is the trade-off, and it applies just as much in social media as it does in our world.
Social media and the battle for ad data
If you didn’t know, Facebook for the dataset he uses to sell ads. Some think they should have the privacy of not having their data used to display ads, but the truth is, this is a new iteration in an age-old process: If you find yourself in a venue, talking about what you like, someone in that venue will hear you, and do something to try to please you.
In other words, you don’t even have to evolve. Human beings already have a rich history of being told about things they want but shouldn’t have. All you have to do is stand by your integrity, and you’ll be fine.
And if you don’t have that integrity, your only recourse might indeed be to alienate yourself.