My friend Kevin Donovan sent me a link (thanks Kevin) to this post (by Fred Stutzman) criticizing a NYTimes article (by Randall Stross) about how Facebook is affecting privacy boundaries for different age groups.
Personally I think the post is a bit too harsh on the NYTimes article (along with Michael Zimmer‘s), but provides excellent data points in his criticism.
Stutzman quotes some excellent data (see his post for references):
Stross simply has this one wrong. Instead of misguided intuition, let’s look at the numbers. In the Summer/Fall of 2008, Jacob Kramer-Duffield and I ran a survey of undergraduate Facebook users. We employed a list-based simple random sample, with 494 respondents. When asked the question Have you changed the default Facebook privacy settings to give yourself enhanced privacy in Facebook?, 72.47% responded “Yes.” To the question Based on your Facebook privacy settings choices, who do you allow to see your Facebook profile?, 50% answered “Only my Facebook friends.” (1)
It’s good to see that Facebook users are beginning to learn how to use the many settings Facebook gives them to control their privacy, such that the percentages have changed dramatically. It had been weird to see so many Facebook users unresponsive to the privacy tools given to them.
I also liked Stutzman’s final comments:
First, Facebook defaults have changed over the years, so a default now may have been a modification in the past. Second, Facebook’s audience is increasingly international, so we must remember that norms will vary significantly across nations and cultures. Third, privacy is not in Facebook’s business interests. Less privacy = more content, so it may not be in Facebook’s interest to craft a privacy statistic that reflects current norms.
But Stutzman concludes with this:
Young people didn’t simply decide to give up privacy. Rather, the studies show that social network sites, in their early iterations, created a very meaningful sense of close community. Young people disclosed not because attitudes about privacy instantly and simultaneously changed, but because they felt very comfortable with their audience.
Hmm. It seems as though Randall Stross was just saying that older people do not take as freely to sharing their lives publicly as younger people would. Is that horribly wrong to say? While there is more resistance among older people, sure, many will eventually adapt (I’ve been getting my dad to share more online).
But generational memory and identity are hard to break; try as we might, there will be many of the older generations who will just never change, and will never want to share online. They grew up in a different world, and it sticks with them. I’m not saying Stutzman is wrong — I would just like to see him add generational memory to the study of old vs. young people. I’d argue that kids these days are being wired to accept a future flesh/digital hybrid world…one where a radical transparency and accountability system exists and there is little privacy except for the most intimate parts of our lives.