The Story
The Consequences of Online Social Networking
Privacy is a commodity that has become more and more elusive today than ever before. This phenomenon is the result of a number of things. Legislation created (ostensibly) for our personal safety (the Patriot Act) and widespread public demand for institutional (and, as a progression, individual) transparency/openness come to mind. But our loss of privacy correlates most indubitably with the evolution of technology and its consequent extension into the realms of surveillance and, more recently, social networking.
The current twisted infrastructure of immature digital social networking websites (the Facebook/ Myspace/ Blogging/ Instant Messaging phenomenon) is a development for which social scientists can offer little explanation. They have proliferated so quickly, and academia has stalled in reacting. Of course, it takes years for experts to conduct and then sort through mountains of research and data to come up with definitive explanations for these types of fast-occurring phenomena. This leaves two important questions unanswered for the moment. First, why are so many people so quick to release such personal information for the world to see? Second, what will be the consequences of allowing such a massive network loaded with sensitive information to proliferate without regulation so quickly?
Since academias unwitting pension for sluggishness has left these questions unanswered, the answers to these questions are fodder for hearsay and unsupported (that is, evidence-less) conjecture.
So why are we so readily willing to release such personal and sensitive information (our home addresses, our phone numbers, where we can be found at which times, etc.) for the world to see? Why do we post half-naked pictures of ourselves suffering from the onset of borderline alcohol poisoning? Why do we compose rambling monologues about our personal relationships/ hook-ups/ significant others and then post them publicly?
Of course I can offer no definitive answer to these psychological questions, only suggestions grounded in social sciences and cultural theory (because a Literary and Cultural Studies major has got to be good for something, right?). Its easy to propose that we post our personal information as the result of innate desires to be viewed, observed, empathized with, laughed-at/with and admired. (Purely) sensibly speaking, I suspect that this is the case. Most of the time. Of course a disclaimer belongs here. This is by no means an academic explanation. Just hearsay.
I mean, I can also suggest something really academic-sounding like, "the daunting postmodern super-structural hierarchy has imposed its hegemony on our lives to such an extent that we have succumbed to the digital medium, relinquishing our own privacies and pedantic thoughts and desires to this faceless beast of digital simulacra…" But Id be full of shit to make such a profound accusation without pragmatic evidence/research to back it up (…so I guess that means that Im full of shit).
The only definitive claims that I can make at this point come from case studies, and this is only regarding the latter of the two overriding questions ("What are the consequences of these digital social networks?").
This past November, seven University of Tennessee (Chattanooga) football players were first implicated in the rape of an 18 year-old by a posting on her Facebook wall. This past September, a man from San Diego was convicted of the sexual assault of a 15 year-old stemming from a relationship that had started on MySpace. Underage students have been expelled form various universities for posting pictures of themselves drinking, drunk, high, stoned, streaking, etc. Applicants have been denied employment because employers have scoped illicit content on potential workers profiles. The list goes on and on.
Unless youve been living under a rock for the past few years, youre privy to a whole slough of juicy Facebook/MySpace horror stories. The sheer volume of digital-friend-network-related information available for exploitation is absurd.
The solution to this dilemma of over-availability of personal/sensitive information is (or at least seems) simple and blaringly apparent: the information that you post online is (for the most part) voluntary. So dont post it.
You all know folks who adamantly reject the online friend networking phenomenon and perhaps theyre on to something. The chances of meeting anybody worthwhile online are, frankly, pretty damn slim. Theyre certainly no better than those youll experience in real life.
Id be a hypocrite to suggest removing yourself from digital social networks entirely (half of you readers are probably my Facebook friends). What I am suggesting is to censor yourself and to use restraint when toying with the still fragile, fairly unregulated digital medium.
Because the person scoping that picture of you passed out naked and Sharpied in your bathtub isnt that hot girl or guy from your Econ class. Its that eerie unknown stalker, anxiously awaiting the next time he or she catches you stumbling home from a four-hour beer pong tournament for his or her opportunity to do god-knows-what to you. Or its your future would-be boss. Either way, youre better off reserving those compromising pictures and information for close friends and less public mediums.
Mark Hillinger is a staff columnist for the DSJ. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the entire staff.