Week 10 Reflection - Privacy and Facebook - emma b

Taraszow, T, Aristodemou, E, Shitta, G, Laouris, Y & Arsoy, A, (2010) International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, Disclosure of personal and contact information by young people in social networking sites: An analysis using Facebook™ profiles as an example, Vol. 6 Issue 1, p81-101, 21p

Availabe from: EBSCOhost - Accessed 07/10/2010

When taking part in a discussion in tutorials or in everyday life, you unconsciously put the discussion topic and ideas in the context of your own life, that makes the most sense to you. One of the most obvious connections for most of us in the tutorials is Facebook. Not all of us blog, but most of us have a Facebook account or are a member of some other social networking site. This article goes into detail about how young people (aged between 13 and 30) deal with the privacy issues in social networking sites, using Facebook as the prime example. The article is based on a study of what personal information young people put on their profiles, which is very interesting as it is a topic that comes up in most of our tutorial discussions and supports most of our opinions and ideas on the topic. The article goes into detail about the Facebook privacy policy “By default, members’ contact information and additional data – rarely available on other SNSs (e.g. personal interests, education, work) –was shown openly to every other member. Also, by default, members’ profiles were searchable and readable by any other member. As privacy settings were by default set to ‘public’ (meaning they became available to the public and did not include restricted access) and access to the profiles from any Internet user was very easily achieved, Facebook was a totally open site. “Facebook’s policy contradicted the current privacy laws that exist in all countries and offered access to its member’s private information to the general public” (Taraszow, Aristodemou, Shitta, Laouris & Arsoy, 2010). Other details such as teenage perception are discussed which I know is true of myself and many others. “Studies showed teenagers being generally worried about privacy issues and setting their profile to private, yet revealing private information to several hundred people in their friends’ list whom they have known only casually” (Taraszow, Aristodemou, Shitta, Laouris & Arsoy, 2010). This provides sound information on the debate of privacy on social networking sites and supports the idea of teenage knowledge of privacy when using Facebook. There is much debate about the privacy laws on social networking sites and this article and study is definitely an eye opener.

This scholarly article includes a study of 131 young people and their knowledge of privacy on social networking sites and what information they freely upload onto their profiles. It is a very current article and study written in 2010 so it is therefore completely up to date and a valid study. A very extensive reference page and appendix is included at the end of the article highlighting the amount of research and precision the authors have carried out. This shows that the article is well researched and cited correctly. It is interesting article and definitely makes you think about your own use of social networking sites and what information about yourself you are openly broadcasting online.

Just quickly would like to say that Self.Net as a unit has definitely opened my eyes to the power of the internet and what is involved and what is available on the World Wide Web. I must say that blogging - having never done it before - is a very interesting medium for expressing yourself and t be honest I find it quite therapeutic. I did find it a little bit overwhelming when I first starting to blog but now finding it simple and now understand those that blog and why as I did have a fairly stereotypically view of bloggers. I have enjoyed our discussions in tutorials which is great to study something you find interesting (doesnt always happen!). The digital world is one which im sure I will always be a part of and having a broader understanding of it has definitely helped and intrigued me.