Social Privacy in Networked Publics: Teens’ Attitudes, Practices, and Strategies

There’s a widespread myth that American teenagers don’t care about privacy. The logic is simple: Why else would teenagers share so much on Facebook and Twitter and YouTube? There is little doubt that many – but not all – American teens have embraced many popular social media services. And there is little doubt that those who have are posting photos, sharing links, updating status messages, and commenting on each other’s posts. Yet, as Waffles explains above, participation in such networked publics does not imply that today’s teens have rejected privacy as a value. All teens have a sense of privacy, although their definitions of privacy vary widely. Their practices in networked publics are shaped by their interpretation of the social situation, their attitudes towards privacy and publicity, and their ability to navigate the technological and social environment. As such, they develop intricate strategies to achieve privacy goals. Their practices demonstrate privacy as a social norm that is achieved through a wide array of social practices configured by structural conditions. How teens approach privacy challenges the ways in which privacy is currently conceptualized, discussed, and regulated.This paper examines how teens understand privacy and what strategies they take in their efforts to achieve social privacy. We describe both teens’ practices and the structural conditions in which they are embedded, highlighting the ways in which privacy, as it plays out in everyday life, is related more to agency and the ability to control a social situation than particular properties of information. Finally, we discuss the implications of teens’ practices, revealing the importance of social norms as a regulatory force.