Literary Review

Previous studies have been conducted regarding the relationship between privacy and social networking sites, all of which have come to the ultimate conclusion that privacy concerns do not lead to users’ withdrawal from the networking sites. Zeynep Tufekci from the University of Maryland conducted a study on 704 college students exploring the boundaries between public and private on the sites Facebook and MySpace (20). Tufekci concluded that there is “little to no relationship between online privacy concerns and information disclosure on online social networking sites” (20). Simply put, concerns for privacy did and do not lead to college students putting less information on Facebook or MySpace (Tufekci 20). Instead, college students adjusted their visibility, meaning who could see what (Tufekci 21). More importantly, Tufekci found that students are using “boundary mechanisms,” like how doors, walls and locks used in a physical realm, to keep certain people out (21). Summed up, the “MySpace Generation” is fighting to keep their “private space online…public to [their] friends, but private to [their] parents” (Lingstone 405). Which such a sharp division, the ability to maintain such a dynamic appears to be doomed for ultimate struggle.

With this concern to keep certain people out in conjunction with the relative ease with which an individual can access certain information, social sites like Facebook has created a new type of threat to privacy. Unlike the times of the past, these new “privacy threats” are result of “voluntary disclosure” (Tufekci 20). People no longer have to dig through your dumpster to steal your identity; they merely need access to your Facebook account to know all about you. Tufekci put it simply: “The kids want to be seen” (20). Tufekci argues that the central motivation for college students joining Facebook and MySpace is to “being seen by those we wish to be seen by, in ways we wish to be seen” (20). Therefore, current research has boiled down to college students’ fear of being seen on Facebook by “unwanted audiences” (Tufekci 24). This means that instead of worrying about an absolute stranger gaining access to their profile, they are more concerned that a parent, employer or teacher might be able to view their profile. Tufekci studied “unwanted audiences” such as future employers, potential romantic partners or government agencies (24). This paper is concerned with the new “unwanted audience” that is infiltrating Facebook: the college students’ parents.

Another scholar in the communication field, danah boyd, studied the notion of privacy on Facebook and deemed the relationship a “trainwreck.” In her article adequately titled “Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck,” boyd studied how the implementation of the News Feed feature on Facebook upset users idea of privacy. Like Tufekci, boyd points out that students are voluntarily providing such information but their “privacy” becomes compromised when it becomes corrugated and broadcast in an obvious manner (13). boyd argues that students maintain “security through obscurity,” meaning that when their information is out there but not blatantly mass broadcasted, their sense of security is not threatened (15). It is an important characteristic that Facebook has been referred to as a “gray zone” between “secrets” and “purposely broadcasted info” (boyd 18). boyd exposed that news feeds disrupted the social dynamics, making Facebook no longer a comfortable “gray zone” but rather a place of vulnerability (18). Parents’ addition to Facebook has bulldozed that idea of a “grey zone,” as whatever a student puts on his or her profile is conceived by their parents as purposely broadcasted info, placing students in a position of vulnerability to parental judgment.

One important thing that boyd points out is that blocking certain data from others makes the person suspicious (16). The default on Facebook is “hyperpublic,” so therefore you have to block certain things from certain people if you want to maintain privacy (boyd 16). If certain information is obviously missing from your profile, one is naturally going to ask, “What do you have to hide?” (boyd 16). This inherent suspicion will have an important role in the relationship between parents and their children on Facebook.