A friend of mine has a theory about why social media has been embraced so enthusiastically as a “tell-out” medium in which people voluntarily and happily disclose incredible amounts of details about their personal and professional lives.
He believes a lot of social media activity – tweets, updates, check-ins, blog posts, photos, videos, etc. – is driven by anxiety. Many people are simply anxious about not being heard, recognized or acknowledged. As a result, they turn to social media to tell the world what they’re doing, thinking, eating and feeling to ease this anxiousness.
It explains why so much social media activity is “me, me, me”, which, in turn, goes a long way in explaining why people feel the need to disclose so many personal and professional details that are really of interest to so few people. How to explain why people spend so much time on Twitter, Facebook, etc. offering a running commentary of their day-to-day existences.
This “tell-all” phenomena provides some context to Facebook’s decision earlier this week to turn itself and more of the data of its users into a public forum that can be searched and indexed by third-party applications. What was once a private network that provided users a place to share things with friends and family is now a public one, which offers far more benefits to Facebook (more page views, more advertising) than its 400 million users.
While Facebook’s “public-ness” is both fascinating and troubling, it’s far more interesting when you take into account all information that its users disclose. If we weren’t so public, the concerns about Facebook’s public-ness would be far less of an issue.
I should make it clear that increasingly all of us are leading digitally public lives to one degree or another. As a digital creature, there’s certainly a lot of information online about myself. But I have tried to make a concerted effort to maintain a healthy distance between public and private. There are many things in my professional life that don’t need to be public, and there are many things in personal life that should private.
In many ways, however, this isn’t the way that digitally-engaged people are leading their lives. The gap between public and private has dramatically shrunk to the point where it’s difficult to tell between the two.
As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, Facebook’s changes have put the spotlight on the fact we’ve reached a fork in the privacy road – either we go down the path of full disclosure or veer towards a path of public-private balance. My sense is the public-private path won’t be embraced until more people realized the downside of leading tell-all lives.
For more thoughts about Facebook’s changes, check out:
-blog post from Simple Thoughts
-Mathew Ingram’s post on GigaOM about how to block the changes made by Facebook.
- Phil Baumann’s “Facebook’s Hidden Hate Button”.
- The National Post’s Matt Hartley has an article looking at the work done by Canada’s privacy boss, Jennifer Stoddart, in making Facebook address privacy issues.
What do you think? Are you concerned about being overly public?
Mark
the primary public online are 15 to 40 yr olds. It’s natural that this audience is not yet comfortable in their skin. They’re not actualized if you want to talk Maslows hierarchy of needs. And social media won’t get them to the top of that pyramid without real world accomplishments. Kids, money, real world status. No amount of hand wringing will get you there. Cold hard work, focus and pure drive will.
That’s what our elders know. And why they look down on the younger generation fascination with self. It’s selfish. But we all grow out of it eventually. Whether we like it or not.
Alex,
Good points.
Thanks for the comment!
I totally agree on the anxiety driven “social”, or to be more accurate – oversharing media model.
Nice post, Mark.
I think social media is driving in part by anxiety but there are many other factors driving its use too.
But I do think that we are increasingly being drawn – regardless of age group anymore I believe – into the stream.
@Alex makes a good point, but I believe that social software is infiltrating into all groups – from children to “elders”. Some are using these media purposefully and productively, while others are perhaps using them like a sort of drug to ease their anxieties or boredom or something else.
@Phil,
That’s an interesting observation about different audiences using the tools quite differently from each other. There is an issue with the tools though — people that use the tools productively, probably don’t spew out tons and tons of stuff every day about breakfasts and beautiful sunsets, but the tools are not set up in a way to bring what’s interesting to you to the forefront. All we have are “views” of data by keyword, list or other manual grouping. I have experimented with lists as well and find I simply don’t have the time to use them effectively and go back to just “dipping into the pool” for a quick fix.
I wish there was a way to effectively promote certain users and refine your newsstreams from different social media tools effectively.
information is a value for everyone. There are many reasons to publish data about ourselves online, the fact that some of us are addicted to some ego-research-by-over-posting doesn’t mean that this could be the main driver.
Thought provoking post. “Social Media Driven by Anxiety”, I never thought of it like that, but now that I think about it, it’s definitely true, especially on facebook. You update your status and your complaining or happy or excited and want other people to know or comment on it. I’m not worried about being to public as I am just fed up with all these pointless status updates. That’s why I am a bigger fan of twitter because I see more people trying to find out about the “you” and not just telling you about “I”
I keep my settings on Facebook very private and I only add people I actually know. So I think people also need to keep in mind that their privacy settings are a choice.
People forget about why it was started in the first place. College students meeting other students and being able to keep in contact with the people who moved away from their friends. I’m not saying I disagree with this article or think that everyone should share every excruciating detail in their status.
I’m just saying let’s not forget it’s original purpose of a way to share your life with friends and people you wouldn’t normally be able to stay connected to. So sharing those status updates of what you’re doing this weekend and things you are looking forward to is all a part of that world.
It’s natural that this audience is not yet comfortable in their skin. They’re not actualized if you want to talk Maslows hierarchy of needs.College students meeting other students and being able to keep in contact with the people who moved away from their friends.I should make it clear that increasingly all of us are leading digitally public lives to one degree or another. As a digital creature, there’s certainly a lot of information online about myself. But I have tried to make a concerted effort to maintain a healthy distance between public and private. There are many things in my professional life that don’t need to be public, and there are many things in personal life that should private.