Privacy

To me private messages/DM’s/ and other forms of other personal messages are what I consider private on social media. I can control who sees what and what appears on my profiles via privacy settings, but I do realize that anything I post can get out to other people so I don’t post anything that could harm me in the long run since this information is truly private. In saying this I agree with danah’s statement that us teenagers post with the assumption that it will be public and so we keep private info confined to messages or other forms of communication not related to social media. Privacy does change for me depending on the site I’m using. For example on Twitter and Facebook I watch what I post more carefully since there is a potential for many people to be able to view what I say, but on sites such as Instagram and especially Tumblr I have more control over who sees my posts so I feel as if they are more “private” and I have more freedom to post what I like. Regarding Facebook’s mood manipulation study, I have no qualms with it. It IS their site that we are using and we probably agreed to be subjected to studies somewhere in the terms and agreements that none of us read. The study they conducted seems harmless enough and actually provides some interesting information on the human psyche, and honestly if someone’s mood is actually affected that greatly by seeing some sad advertisements to the point where they become sad or depressed then that is their problem, not Facebook’s. I believe that the study was beneficial and should not be considered an invasion of privacy.