This is a general presentation about social connections on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. It discusses unique qualities of these sites while sharing research and ideas regarding ways that users can increase their privacy and enhance their online self-presentation.

1. YOUR NETWORKED
WORLD
Stefanie Duguay, MSc.
Oxford Internet Institute (Alum)
Created Nov. 18, 2013
Connections,
SelfPresentation,
and Privacy in
the Age of
Social Media

2. WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
 It proliferates the number of weak social ties in your
network
 This increases your ‘social capital’ – your ability to
access:
 Novel information
 Resources
Photo courtesy of Arindam "mak" Ghosh

3. CONNECTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA
 Connections are formed and fortified through:
 Self-presentation (e.g. profiles, status updates)
 Publicly displayed relationships with others (e.g. wall posts,
tagging in photos)

4. WHO ARE YOUR CONNECTIONS?
 On sites like Facebook,
your connections can be
comprised of a wide array
of family, friends, and
acquaintances
 This is very dif ferent from
in-person settings with a
fixed audience
 Many people are not even
aware of all their
connections – try
NameGenWeb
https://apps.facebook.co
m/namegenweb

5. SOCIAL NETWORKING CHALLENGES
 Dif ficulty with privacy settings
 Personal information that you may not share with all your
contacts
 Leads to context collapse
Photo courtesy of Martin Cathrae

6. CHANGING PERCEPTIONS OF PRIVACY
 A shift from protecting personal information to ‘controlling
who knows what about you’ – privacy in context
 Extremely dif ficult in environments with reduced contexts
 But people still manage, how?
Image courtesy of g4ll4is

7. TARGETED MESSAGES
 People frequently post
messages that only some of
their connections will
understand or notice
 Academics call this ‘social
steganography’ – hiding social
messages in plain sight
 It works because:
 Language is symbolic
 Sometimes people do mind their
own business – “civil inattention”
Photo courtesy of Jim Bauer

8. REBUILDING CONTEXT
 Facebook’s popularity is decreasing because users are
starting to spread out their connections on dif ferent social
media sites
 People are being more selective about who they add as
connections
 Facebook ≠Twitter ≠ Tumblr ≠ Instagram
 Grouping connections using site features (e.g. Lists on
Facebook) is getting easier
Photo courtesy of Martin Pettitt

9. WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
 You can apply this knowledge to your own social
networking by:
 Getting a better idea of what your networks look like
 Making sure that you are comfortable with the overarching
self-presentation displayed by your profile and online
interactions
 Giving privacy settings a shot, especially lists
 Knowing your audience for certain posts and tailoring your
messages to them
 Using different social media sites for different purposes or
social groups

10. RELATED RESEARCH & REFERENCES
 S o c ia l N e t wor k i n g S i te s a n d S o c i a l C a p i t a l
E l l i s o n , N . B . , S t e i n f i e l d , C . , & L a m p e , C . ( 2 0 07 ) . T h e b e n e f i t s o f F a c e b o o k “ f r i e n d s ” : S o c i a l c a p i t a l
and college students’ use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated
Comunication , 1 2 (4), 1143-1168.
Vitak , J., & Ellison, N.B. (2012). ‘There’s a network out there you might as well tap’: Exploring the
benefits of and barrier s to exc hanging informational and suppor t -based resourc es on Fac ebook .
N e w M e d i a & S o c i e t y, 1 5 ( 2 ) , 2 4 3 - 2 5 9 .
 P r i va c y
L i v i n g s t o n e , S . ( 2 0 0 8 ) . Ta k i n g r i s k y o p p o r t u n i t i e s i n y o u t h f u l c o n t e n t c r e a t i o n : Te e n a g e r s ’ u s e o f
s o c i a l n e t w o r k i n g s i t e s f o r i n t i m a c y, p r i v a c y a n d s e l f - e x p r e s s i o n . N e w M e d i a & S o c i e t y, 1 0 ( 3 ) ,
3 9 3 - 41 1 .
N i s s e n b a u m , H . ( 2 0 0 9 ) . P r i v a c y i n c o n t e x t : Te c h n o l o g y, p o l i c y, a n d t h e i n t e g r i t y o f s o c i a l l i f e .
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
 C o n tex t C o l l a p s e & R e ac t i o n s
boyd, d. (2011). Social network sites as networked publics: Af fordances, dynamics, and
i m p l i c a t i o n s . I n Z . P a p a c h a r i s s i , A N e t w o r ke d S e l f : I d e n t i t y, C o m m u n i t y, a n d C u l t u r e o n S o c i a l
N e t w o r k S i t e s ( p p . 3 9 - 5 8 ) . N e w Yo r k : R o u t l e d g e .
boyd, d., & Mar wick , A . (2011). Social steganography: Privacy in networked publics. International
Communication Association , (Boston, MA). Retrieved from
h t t p : / / w w w . d a n a h . o r g / p a p e r s / 2 01 1 / S t e g a n o g r a p h y - I C AVe r s i o n . p d f
Hogan, B. (2010). The presentation of the self in the age of social media: Distinguishing
p e r f o r m a n c e s a n d e x h i b i t i o n s o n l i n e . B u l l e t i n o f S c i e n c e , Te c h n o l o g y & S o c i e t y, 3 0 ( 6 ) , 3 7 7 - 3 8 6 .
M a r w i c k , A . E . , & b o y d , d . ( 2 0 1 1 ) . I t w e e t h o n e s t l y, I t w e e t p a s s i o n a t e l y : Tw i t t e r u s e r s , c o n t e x t
c o l l a p s e , a n d t h e i m a g i n e d a u d i e n c e . N e w M e d i a & S o c i e t y, 1 3 ( 1 ) , 1 1 4 - 1 3 3

11. QUESTIONS?
THANK YOU!
stefanieduguay.com
@DugStef
Note: The views expressed in
this presentation are my own
and are based on my research
and the research referenced. My
views do not reflect the views of
my employer.