With the huge and continual growth and development of online social networking sites, more and more people are sharing their personal and private lives in a public manner. This has resulted in a blurring of the pubic and private spheres, consequently increasing tensions between the rights of users and those they often unknowingly license away to the platform itself. The overarching aim of this research project is to explore how social media’s reinforcement of the blurring of public and private spheres, has lead to the undermining of the privacy and autonomy of individuals and their online lives.
Most social networking sites use ‘user authentication’, generally in the form of generic terms and conditions, to shape user content control and in turn, privacy. However, the users intention to share content and information often conflicts with the way in which these information’s are actually used by the relevant social networking site (Strauss & Nantwich 2013, p. 727). Sites such as Facebook and Instagram are constantly developing new ways to use and abuse user content and personal information through behind the scenes collection of personal data, creating an environment in which personal information and user content becomes practically indistinguishable (Strauss & Nentwich 2013, p. 727). Facebook’s privacy settings allowing access to information by default have significantly grown (Strauss & Nentwich 2013, p. 726), in which every click, search and download of the user can be collected (Livingstone 2005, p. 174). The varying ways in which this default information is collected counters the very ideal of the internet as a democratic public sphere of freedom and choice in connection and links (Livingstone 2005, p. 175). This is where I got the motivation for my research based digital story, Digital Footsteps. This digital story is designed to shed light on the way we interact with our social networking sites as ‘free and autonomous’ individuals, while reconciling with these privacy concerns through the role that social media plays in self-formation and self-representation i.e building ones own identity, fostering social connections and guiding ones place in society (Vivienne & Burgess 2013).
As the project depended heavily on the words of others and my own, it was crucial in my approach to acknowledge potential bias through my own personal cultural understanding and characteristics, which may burden my interpretation of the sources and their original contextual meaning and settings (Moon 2008, p. 78). In reflexively recognising my preconceived beliefs and attitudes towards, and in response to, data as a user of social media myself, and my personal interest in the area of privacy rights as a law student, it was important they did not hinder my interpretation and selection of sources as well as my communication of their evidence. In order to maintain social responsibility and ethical research standards, I engaged in secondary source analysis to substantiate my own opinions and evaluations. I also acknowledge that while the privacy implications in my research have a direct impact on me, they may not affect others in the same manner. In utilising these reflexive approaches, I allowed the data and content to dictate my analysis and development of my research and the direction of my digital story.
Given the explosion in social media sites and users, and its continual growth, and as an active user of social media myself, I think it is important that we as users are aware of the implications of our social media use on our own minds and bodies. The very social and personal nature and purpose of social media in; ‘fostering identity through creating ones own individual profile, emphasising relationships through formation of contact and building community by allowing users to make a place for themselves among their peers’ (Grimmelman, 2009), means it is crucial that shortcomings in the protection of privacy are researched and understood further. This digital story can be used to help people renegotiate notions of public and private spheres. It can get people to look deeper into their social media use and think about the way in which it impacts upon their physical, mental and emotional autonomy. In recognising the positive outcomes of social media in self-formation and community building, it is not realistic for people to stop using these sites. Rather, it is more beneficial for users to be aware of how such use does impact upon privacy and individual autonomy and allows for a more informed and guided approach to finding their place in the semi-public sphere of social media (Strauss & Nentwich 2013, p. 726).
References:
Grimmelman, J 2009, ‘Saving Facebook’, 94 IOWA L. REV. 1137, 1139-40
Livingstone, S.M., 2005. ‘In Defense of Privacy: Mediating the Public/Private Boundary at Home’ in Livingstone (ed.), Audiences and publics: When cultural engagement matters for the public sphere (Vol. 2) Intellect Books, pp. 163-185
Moon, T 2008, ‘Reflexivity and Its Usefulness When Conducting A Secondary Analysis of Existing Data’ Psychology & Society, vol. 1(7) pp. 77-83
Strauß, S. and Nentwich, M., 2013. Social network sites, privacy and the blurring boundary between public and private spaces. Science and Public Policy, p.sct072
Vivienne, S & Burgess, J 2013, ‘The remediation of the personal photograph and the politics of self-representation in digital storytelling’, Journal of Material Culture, vol.18, no. 3, pp. 279-298
ruth brook 