PRVCY

The internet is a powerful medium for communication.  One result of being able to share information on a global level has been the emergence of Social Networking Sites.

Social network sites are defined as websites that allow participants to construct a public or semi-public profile within the system, that formally articulate their relationship to other users in a way that is visible to anyone who can access their profile.

While the internet & social networking sites did not create the concept of social networks, they are however very useful in fashioning the analytic constructs necessary for understanding the social dynamics of groups.

Human beings today between the ages of 19 & 30 years old, are arguably the first generation to have an almost ubiquitous grasp of the internet, partly due to the fact that they were raised during the emergence of the affordable personal computer.

“Not to mention the surge of people in this demographic in pursuit of Higher Education.”

As with most emerging concepts, the generation of human beings born & raised during & before the concept’s emergence are the best prepared to handle the concept.

Human Being’s between the age of 19 & 23 are arguably the most familiar with Social networking and coincidentally this is the widely accepted period of time in human development in which the fundamentals of personal taste in music, clothing, partners and personal concepts are developed.

Children born at the onset of the personal computer or afterwards are thereby much better equipped to navigate the Social Networking Sites.

Simply said they’re developing their identity.  However, just as the personal identity is emerging, human beings at this point in their development begin to take on other social identities: that of an employer, a spouse, and/or a parent.

“You land a job, you get married or you go half on a baby…”

Now combine such an important period of a human’s life with the emergence of a quasi-public, visual representation of their social and professional networks updated in real time, accessible from practically anywhere on the planet — and the process seems to become a great deal more complicated.  Getting approval or detraction from one’s peers has increased in frequency almost to the point in which a concern for one’s image overshadows one’s desire to live.

As the human being progresses and reaches a point somewhere in between 23 & 30 years of age, they reach a learning stage that is a basically a long period of conflict and resolution between the individual and overlaying social identities.

“Your job affects your social life, your spouse affects you social life or your baby doesn’t like bar-hopping…”

It is from this newly formed sense of Identity that individuals also develop their emotional & social boundaries.

So how does being a member of digital social network this period of development affect one’s sense of privacy?

How does the creation of a public profile affect’s one’s self-perception?
Do we raise the privacy settings and shut people out in order to protect who we are?  What image are we protecting?  Our true image or our desired image?

In preparation for this project/exploration I dissected my social network and sequestered video responses to a few questions dealing with privacy, from several members of my social network.

I assured every member of the project that I would apply a mosaic effect to the visual track and an audio filter to the audio track, thereby protecting their identity and simultaneously allowing me to observe their feelings on privacy from two perspectives:

1) The content on the interviews: What they said in their digital interviews; Did they appear nervous?  Did they look overly concerned with their appearance?

and

2) How they reacted to the idea of recording themselves & answering the questions: Fear, embarassment, asking for added levels of privacy, or in some cases an outright refusal to even videotape themselves.

I made a decision early on in the beginning stages of the project to have the users record their own answers.

My only recommendations were that they record in a quiet environment with a solid color background.  I did this for 2 reasons, one technically I wanted to ensure clean audio and discernible image contrast; and 2 these recommendations, also forced the interviewee to sit in quiet surroundings, presumably alone and listen to themselves speak about a topic they are familiar with.

UPDATE: Link to a video excerpt from the video project.

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