Embracing a Culture of Connectivity

I really enjoyed Danah Boyd's speech on the use of social media. I found that she was able to accurately articulate my own pre-existing sentiments about social media, particularly Facebook. I especially liked her discussion of privacy. Her definition resounded with me: "Privacy is having social control over a situation . . . and agency to assert social control." If I were to include too many individuals from different contexts or to keep my privacy settings too open, I would feel as if I had lost this "social control" within my personal social media world. For example, I would not want my family to be receiving the same information via social media as my friends. This does not mean that I am doing anything irresponsible or even that I am lying to either group. I simply want to be able to exert control and have a better understanding of each groups' perception of me through my online presence. By keeping them separate, I am able to easily highlight the aspects of my life that matter most to each group.