Social Media Musings
Last week I was invited to participate/share in a panel discussion about privacy in social media sites. Each panelist represented different academians involved in various areas of the university, and we were each to share our personal experiences and observations as part of the discussion. My first social media experience was with Facebook, and I joined the site because I was writing a paper on ethos and social media. My question was: How do students establish their ethos on Facebook and do they see their representation of themselves as an extension of themselves or separate? This initiation into Facebook took place in the fall of 2006 as I was beginning my first course in a graduate program in Technical Communication & Rhetoric.
Back to the panel discussion. As each participant shared, I was reminded that we carry our own unique traits, experiences, and personalities into our social media presence. Where one person might accept any friend requests, others want to know the person face to face before they engage in a cyber friendship. I was also reminded of the importance of understanding privacy rights (or lack of them) and entering into these sites responsibly. The only time I truly feel a generational gap with my students is when we discuss privacy. My students don’t seem as focused and absorbed by the need for privacy as many of my adult peers seem to be. Carried one general further, my parents’ generation is much more concerned with privacy than we are. Recognizing that generalizations are dangerous, these have been my perceptions as I have spoken to students.
At a time when individuals are negotiating their online identities, privacy obstacles, and decisions as to join or not join, we’re also seeing corporations entering into social media sites for storefront appearances. One corporate executive whose dissertation are is corporate social media has posed some interesting questions and information that have helped introduce me to the challenges of social media in the corporate arena.
Debra, I worry about privacy also; and yes, I agree that it is absolutely a generational thing. My students put unbelievable pictures and so forth on their facebook sites and don’t think twice about it. On Nightline about one month ago, Cynthia McFadden and Martin Basheer discussed this very topic: privacy and our young college students. Many companies–as we all know–avail themselves to the students’ Facebook pages to “learn more about them as people,” and boy do they learn something! On many occasions, my very BU students have told me about “embarrassing pics/stories” that they “wished they would have erased” on FBook. Oops! Too late! It is absolutely too late AFTER Dell or IBM has dropped you from their interview list! We have talked about this in class when discussing change in America in general. What an interesting topic.
Perhaps it is an experience thing. Today’s kids don’t yet realize the importance of keeping at least some parts of your life private … just as they think currently they’re invulnerable, whether driving after a “couple of drinks” or just jay-walking on the campus while they’re totally absorbed in their cell phone or iPod. The older I get, the more vulnerable I realize I am, alas.
From what I’ve seen, today’s teenagers seem to be using more privacy options than many people my age (23). When I first got on Facebook as a freshman, if someone was in your Baylor network, you could see their information. When they created the option for more privacy, most people didn’t care enough to go change their settings. But now, with a lot of younger people I can see little to no information on their pages unless I am their friend.
My theory is that instant messengers and Myspace and Facebook came out so quickly that parents weren’t sure how to deal with them. They weren’t aware of who all their children were interacting with online, and so they couldn’t guide them toward a good, healthy use of these new things. Once that initial shock was gone, parents learned more about the dangers and how to protect their kids using privacy features. And they seem to be catching on. I could be wrong, but that just seems to be the trend from my observations.