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Creative Ramblings > Ramblings > Is social media responsible for our loss of privacy?

Is social media responsible for our loss of privacy?

4 Dec, 2012 Ramblings Social Media Permalink
social media privacy

secret 2: Relax (Photo credit: amysphere)

The other day, one of my favorite Facebook Fan Pages posted the following quote from Mashable’s CEO and founder, Pete Cashmore: “Privacy is dead, and social media holds the smoking gun.”

This statement bothers me. It bothers me because it attributes motives to the wrong culprit.

I often say that social media does not have a mind of its own. It is a concept invented by people. A concept that many have used as an excuse to evade their responsibilities.

You can only give up your privacy if you want to. After all, no one has ever forced you to share your personal information or every bit of your life on Facebook or Twitter.

“We all have a responsibility as social media users to understand that, when we reveal everything about ourselves… we are impoverishing ourselves. We are taking away the best part of ourselves… the internal mystery of what it requires to build personality.” -  Andrew Keen

Of course, there is nothing wrong with telling the world about our journeys. But we should also remember that the world is not our personal diary. Not everything is good or appropriate to publish.

The problem is that we have talked ourselves into believing that chit chat is better than silence, that quantity is better than quality.

After all, silence can be deafening. It forces us to face our fears, to think differently. The new perspectives and ideas that it allows us to share can change the status quo, and help create better relationships with people around us.

Now, my question is: Do we really want that?

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Creative Commons License
This article by Cendrine Marrouat is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

About The Author

Cendrine Marrouat is a journalist, blogger, content curator, author, and workshop facilitator located in Canada. She is the founder of two social media blogs: Social Media Slant and Creative Ramblings. On March 6, 2012, she released The Little Big eBook on Blogging: 40 Traffic Generation Tips, a comprehensive resource that provides bloggers of all levels with essential information and precise guidance to attract quality traffic to their blogs. She is currently working on an eBook on social media strategies that should be released before the end of 2013.
  • http://www.internetbillboards.net Tom George

    Cendrine as usual great insight into the deeper issues. Social media and the abundance of information, both public and private is creating a cultural change that may end up initially bringing about more harm then good. Our right to privacy is unwittingly being challenged on many levels. Many don’t realize the risks, and then again those who complain to much about privacy sometimes seem as if they have something to hide. Go figure…the times are a changing.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Thank you, Tom! I absolutely agree. It’s a two-edged sword.

  • http://cheznamastenancy.blogspot.com/ Nancy

    Of course, if you really want to keep something private, don’t share it on the Internet. But I also think that humans are tribal animals and that a lot of the chit chat is an attempt to connect. After all, urban life has destroyed many of the old modes of connection – family, religion, societal organizations like the Shriners, the Masons. There is not much left so we turn to the Internet, Facebook, My Space et al to alleviate our loneliness and to assure ourselves that there is somebody out there listening.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Hello Nancy,

      Very interesting insights, thank you!

      I agree with you on the fact that we are tribal animals and need to alleviate our loneliness. However, I think we also need to learn to share in positive ways, instead of just sharing for the sake of sharing.

  • http://www.f3designs.ca Faye Fossay

    I couldn’t agree with your post more Cendrine! “You can only give up your privacy if you want to. After all, no one has ever forced you to share your personal information or every bit of your life on Facebook or Twitter.” — this is so true! Great post!

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Thank you Faye!

  • http://jdobypr.com Jerry Doby

    Hi Cendrine,

    I am going to have to challenge your stance on this. What you have said in essence is the “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” However, without the availability of guns and the marketing efforts used by companies to make one feel more powerful because you have a gun…we might not have such an overwhelming number of them floating around.

    Social media is exactly the same as a gun in my opinion. We are told to make our voice heard…that is where it starts…then come the outlets enabling us to shout to the world…I exist and here is what I think and feel. Many who may be normal introverts or in the negative connotation, anti-social can feel freer to speak up and share their thoughts while hiding behind the anonymity of a user name.

    I agree that we are not FORCED in a literal sense to share everything with the world but the providers of outlets/social tools certainly make it easy. Also, with the social media alliances being forged across the net, many areas you want to access are members only and no longer offer direct signup but rather require you to sign in with one of your social media profiles. In my humble opinion that is being FIGURATIVELY forced to create and maintain one or more social media profiles.

    Earlier this fall, one of the Yahoo! Contributor Network employees posted in our contributor’s faceBook group that FB groups, even closed and secret groups may not be safe to post in as well because according to what I understand, FaceBook claims it owns your posts AND your fans if you have one of those pages as well.

    All-in-all, i believe social media networks are feeding on the need of people to be heard and are creating an addiciton akin to heroin or crack. They take your personal information and posts feeling free to share what they want of your life, after you have put it in a theoretical “common area” even when YOU don’t think it should be so.

    We can stop using the outlets (it’ll never happen) or we can discipline ourselves to revert to keeping our “mouths” shut and go back into our shells.

    I think I actually got angry there for a second when I even had to think about FaceBook! Sorry for “rambling” … no pun intended!

    Jerry

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Hello Jerry,

      You make very valuable points. And I definitely love the way you challenged my arguments!

      With that said, here is my response.

      Companies are run by human beings. Guns are created by human beings. Human beings create their own needs.

      It is not about preventing introverts and “anti-social” people from expressing themselves. It is about creating positive conversations about things that matter. Talking about your bowel movements or every details about your life is not the way to go.

      There are many ways to express yourself without having to resort to trite details about your everyday existence.

      “We are told to make our voice heard” – The “we” is other people. No one can tell us to do anything unless we make a conscious choice to obey.

      “We can stop using the outlets (it’ll never happen) or we can discipline ourselves to revert to keeping our “mouths” shut and go back into our shells.” – Not really. I don’t think it is the solution at all. We just have to understand the kind of legacy we are leaving behind us for our children and their children to see.

      Social media allows us to share our journeys, and it is a great thing. But human beings are masters at not paying attention to their behaviors as soon as they think that no one is looking.

      “I agree that we are not FORCED in a literal sense to share everything with the world but the providers of outlets/social tools certainly make it easy. Also, with the social media alliances being forged across the net, many areas you want to access are members only and no longer offer direct signup but rather require you to sign in with one of your social media profiles. In my humble opinion that is being FIGURATIVELY forced to create and maintain one or more social media profiles.” – Of course, you are absolutely right. However, it is up to you to either go with it or not join. And if you join, make sure that the initial profile from where everything starts has just the amount of information you are willing to share.

      Before the Internet, the Yellow Pages also had our information, unless we decided to make it private. However, if people really wanted to find you, they could. It’s the same problem. The only difference is the scale.

      We have been under scrutiny for a very long time, before we can even recollect. We prefer ignoring that fact and accuse social media of being a pioneer in the field.

      Thank you for stopping by, Jerry. Great comment!

      • http://www.jdobypr.com Jerry Doby

        Hi Cendrine,

        Your point is well taken and as you know, I respect your knowledge and outlook when it comes to social media. I agree we cannot blame the social media outlets themselves but rather the chains and images of psychological “social media” slavery…by that I mean, if you want to have your voice heard readily, you utilize the tools available and social media et. al., is creating an atmosphere that drives us to belong and share…to be a part of the global community, acting as if we are the best of friends in a cyber world.

        Your point about not needing to share details of your bowel movements had me on the floor laughing…there was some shock factor there with that type of comment coming from you!!! LOL

        Overall, I do agree that we do have the capacity to decide what is shared and what is not, and if we discipline ourselves to separate that which is acceptable for public consumption from that which is simply garbage everything will be alright.

        Respectfully submitted.

        JD

        • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

          Hello Jerry,

          I agree with you. To be able to share and get your voice heard, you need to use the social media tools available. You just have to be careful in the way we use them. I know that I would never put any information that I don’t want people to have access to there.

          Yes, I know the point about bowel movements is very funny. I had an acquaintance on FB who told us every time she was PMsing or similar things. That’s why I talked about it. LOL

          I also respect your knowledge and outlook. I actually like it when someone can disagree with me while allowing a great conversation to take place. People hate to be challenged in their own “territories”, when it’s all about opening new doors. So, thank you very much, Jerry!

  • http://nickkellet.com Nick Kellet

    For me this trend started when we began sharing lives vicariously via celebrity.

    We eagerly consume their lives. We idolize celebrity. We did this all before social media.

    And now suddenly we can share our own lives.

    I do think it’s wrong that we don’t filter, that we’ve come to believe quantity trumps quality, but it’s us who help drive down the standard.

    We’re the ones that watch reality TV

    We’re the ones who drive away quality.

    We’re the ones who make it ok to expect to know about other people’s dirty laundry.

    My sense is this has been a long time coming.

    The worse part of changing these norms will be hard. Reversing will be hard.

    And yes we are responsible.

    I hope I’m wrong.

    I agree with you I don’t think we want it,.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Absolutely, Nick! You stated it way better than me! Thank you.

  • http://www.tweakyourbiz.com Sian Phillips

    I completely agree with you Cendrine…..as always. Sometimes I see updates on Social Media that I think “eewww – didn’t really need to know that thanks.” I have to admit that I have done it once or twice but try to avoid as much as possible. For me it’s like airing your dirty laundry – why would anyone want to do that? Saying all that I do have a very personal post in the works but I believe that by sharing the post it will help other people faced with the same problem, so that’s a bit different I hope. But yes, privacy is what you make it – don’t say it on Social Media if you want to keep it private – pretty simple really. Thanks for sharing on Bizsugar.com.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Thank you, Sian!

      Well, there is definitely a difference between airing your dirty laundry and sharing stories that could help others.

      The former is stupid, the latter are needed. ;-)

  • http://tiroberts.com Ti Roberts

    Cendrine,

    I agree with you. How much a person reveals on social media is the sole discretion of the individual. I think that some markets benefit more from being more open and candid about their lives, but regardless of the market it’s up to that person. I’m a pretty open person in my marketing. I don’t mind sharing snippets of my live with my following. Now, would I let them in on what’s going on in my personal relationships with my spouse? Of course not. My market doesn’t really warrant that. However, someone who’s in the relationship and dating niche could potentially benefit from exposing this part of their life.

    I’m actually more inclined to believe that people who are more open with their lives do better in social media and have a much more loyal following than those who don’t. But, I would be choosy as to what parts of my life I’m open about.

    Again, great post and I appreciate you sharing it on BizSugar :)

    Ti

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Thank you, Ti!

      I absolutely agree with everything you said. Being open and candid doesn’t mean revealing everything. Revealing snippets of your life is a good thing, but there are things that people shouldn’t know.

  • http://www.sandyappleyard.com Sandy Appleyard

    I completely agree with this post. I’ve written a blog or two about the same topic. We all need to think before we post on social media. Use our platforms for what they are intended. Don’t replace actual personal contact with social media. Too often I see people of all ages sitting down and texting or posting things on their platform, and it is something very personal, inappropriate, or a topic that should be discussed further in person. That is where the trouble lies. Very well written post!

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Thank you very much, Sandy! I completely agree with you!

      Would you share the links to your articles on the topic?

      • http://www.sandyappleyard.com Sandy Appleyard

        Absolutely Cendrine, I’d be happy to! I was going to, but didn’t want it to seem like I was spamming :)

        http://www.sandyappleyard.com/category/self-help-blogs/why-do-we-all-live-and-die-through-facebook/

        http://www.sandyappleyard.com/2012/10/03/the-message-missed-when-we-e-connect/

        Thanks for inviting me to share!

        • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

          It is not spam, as long as you provide an introductory blurb to let others know why the content is relevant to the conversation. That’s a trick I learnt a long time ago. ;-)

          Your articles were fantastic. I left a comment under each of them.

          • http://www.sandyappleyard.com Sandy Appleyard

            Thanks very much Cendrine! At the risk of sounding mushy, you made my day!

          • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

            Then, making your day made mine as well. ;-)

            I started following you on G+ and Twitter. I look forward to reading more of your articles. Is it possible to subscribe to your blog?

  • http://www.geelongtriathloncoaching.com/ Emilia

    We must all be cautious of what we put online. With advanced searched engine technology your future can find out pretty much anything about you.

  • http://www.bidadarivillasubudbali.com/ Calra

    In this time and age, nothing seems to be private anymore. You can simply google someone you want to get to know. Google is like the private investigator rich people used to hire. Nevertheless if you want to keep something private, don’t post it. Plain and simple.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Well said!

  • http://springstreetdental.ca/ Stacey

    The idea as a whole made a perfect sense. Yes, I totally agree with your points.We decide whether we keep our privacy and make our lives an open book even to those who we know less information about. I hope more social networking users will be able to read this.