• In this assignment from CPMS101 in the spring 2020 semester, we were asked to read and reflect on an article about the “Privacy Paradox,” which is a popular phenomenon regarding social media and privacy. This assignment was incredibly interesting, and it involved a fair amount of self reflection about myself and society as a whole. Furthermore, this topic is also very prevalent today with the rise and takeover of social media and the internet, and it is something every internet user should understand. Additionally, I was able to easily relate to the topic, and therefore was able to produce a deeper and thoughtful reflection in the assignment.
Sophie Vaccaro
Ms. Burns
CPMS101
10 March 2020
The Privacy Paradox
The ‘privacy paradox,’ as discussed in the article by Hargittai and Marwick, focuses on the idea that the younger generation seems to supposedly care about privacy online, whilst also simultaneously sharing private information about themselves on social media. It exhibits the contradictory nature of the attitudes and actions of young adults on the internet. The authors of the article interviewed and questioned several college aged students about their own personal view about privacy on the internet, and I could relate their experiences to both my own and the experiences of my friends.
Personally, I am aware that anything I post on the internet and social media will remain there forever and could be potentially seen by anyone, even if I don’t intend for them to. Even though this does seem to be a scary thought, it is something that I along with the majority of my friends accept and understand that it is just an aspect of social media. If there is something that I truly don’t want to be seen by a majority of people, then I won’t post it to begin with. One way I do try to control who is able to see my social media is by setting all of my accounts to private and only accepting people that I have either met in person or know of, while not letting strangers that I don’t know follow me. Also, if one of my friends posts something of me that I don’t want online, I will either ask them to delete it or untag myself from the post, and I know my friends also take similar privacy measures. While I do agree that sometimes privacy settings can be tricky to understand, I think that overall the young generation does have a better grasp on these settings than the older generation.
One manner in which I do see the privacy paradox among my peers is through the usage of ‘private’ instagram accounts, also known as ‘finstas’, and private snapchat stories. The main reason why these accounts are created is so that people have a means of sharing private information only with close friends through social media. However, as I have seen, the content posted on these accounts can spread beyond one’s private circle. It can easily be screenshotted and sent to others who weren’t originally meant to see it. This is why I don’t have a private Instagram, as I have seen how hurt and upset some of my friends have been after private details about their lives have been exposed to a large number of people, even including strangers. Even though one can’t imagine telling personal details to a room of 80 people, they still feel comfortable sharing it to their 80 followers on their ‘finsta,’ which demonstrates the privacy paradox. As a result, I have seen a few of my friends start to become extra careful as to what they put on these accounts.
Additionally, I think this general lack of concern and knowledge stems from being the first generation growing up with internet and social media. As time goes on, we are becoming more enlightened as to how our oversharing can negatively affect us and adjust our actions accordingly. Right now, we have little information of how this could influence us in the long run, but soon we will be the example for future generations. Unfortunately, this is an inevitable characteristic of social media, and is something that I along with a large number of my peers just simply recognize and accept.
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