To post or not to post?: teasing out tensions between privacy and social connectivity

Abstract

For many people around the world, the use of social media or social networking sites (SNS) has become an intimate part of their everyday experience. This digital space is abundant with information, stories, and pictures that which signal a larger moment of technological progress. Part of such progress is the increase in accessibility of technological devices, like the smart phone, across the globe. As more people have access to devices from which to interact with other people and to engage with, as well as contribute to, streams of information online the scope and reach of the internet has become seemingly infinite. As with any other historical advancement in technology, there is a corresponding societal impact of new technologies integrated into everyday life. However, such processes always bear with them implications for the power dynamics of a society and the way people come to be affected as a result. The steam train, electricity, phone lines, the first computers and the emergence of the internet were all inventions whose integration into life changed the landscape in which we lived. The world has once again seen a massive shift in its social and information landscape with the advancements in machine learning and algorithmic processing in which platforms like Facebook have not only become feasible but popular. SNS, like Facebook, form part of the social web. The term ‘social web’ refers to platforms designed to foster social connections through the sharing of various forms of information (What is Social Web? - Definition from Techopedia, 2020). I will argue that part of what has driven the popularity of the social web, and, SNS in particular, is its ability to fulfil a human desire for social connectivity – an end which we desire as not only part of our basic human needs but for the value it brings to both us as individuals and as part of larger society. However, the growing infrastructure and reach of SNS is not solely about the benefaction of collaboration and connection to society. In light of scandals such as the one concerning Cambridge Analytica1 in the 2016 US elections, it is gradually becoming clear to the public that whilst they may not be paying monetarily for use of SNS, they may be paying in far more dear ways through the surveillance of the personal information and data they generate as users. It is becoming clear is that the pervasiveness of surveillance online happens in obscure and covert ways. Platforms used for social connectivity pose a challenge to privacy and all that it could potentially safeguard. Thus, it is important to attempt to understand the implications of SNS given the mass popularity of sites like Facebook given its growing power to survey, analyse, and influence people. In this research I will endeavour to answer the question: as the social web becomes one of the predominant ways for people to stay connected with one another through platforms like Facebook, are we being forced to choose between our privacy and this form of social connection?