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Popularity Trumps Privacy For Many On Facebook
Hugh Pickens writes "A recent study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science found that adults have almost as much need for being popular on Facebook as teenagers do, and people who crave acceptance are more likely to share personal information, says Emily Christofides, lead author of the study. 'If you're someone who has your privacy settings set quite high — you don't post your birthday, you don't post what's going on in your life — you're not giving other people the opportunity to comment on those things,' says Christofides. 'You're going to find that there's less going on on your page, and you may actually feel less popular as a result.' The study also found that those with higher self-esteem are more likely to protect their personal information."
This is also why Google+ will fail unless they get these types of people in.. And the majority of Google+'s users, those who tried to escape all the games and these users there, will be surprised. However, a social network is dead if no one is saying or sharing anything.
Google+ vs. Facebook, and why Google+ will fail
I use Facebook daily, but I only have minimal ID info in my profile. I don't play any FB games or take any FB quizzes... basically anything that wants to access my personal info is routinely blocked. I treat FB more like a blog, I post links to some things I'm reading, and occasionally "like" or comment on friends' posts.
How "safe" (or un-) am I if I follow these rules?
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
Those with no Facebook profile have the highest self esteem.
Hey, how's it going?
I agree with you, that the concept of privacy for our day to day actions is dead. However, until the rest of the world catches up in a moral and ethical sense, it still pays to put the effort into keeping things you want private to be private.
Should it really matter to my boss if I sleep around/get hammered/love comic books? No, but there are enough self appointed moral guardians and just general 'holier than thou' (and the nearly bad 'cooler than thou') that posting any of those things can damage your career. Until society realizes that any non-harmful behavior should, by default be acceptable it's best if you do your best, even if it won't be 100% effective, to hide the inane details of your life as much as possible.
From the conclusion:
"Self-esteem increases with age, and those with a higher self-esteem are more likely to protect their personal information".
So it says those "are more likely" but not that "self-esteem causes". In other words, this sentence is made to sound like there is a connection, but avoids claiming there is a causal one. It is only saying "with age people are more private". Well, that directly contradicts "kids and adults are similar."
Secondly, this is an online survey. What kind of online user fills out online surveys these days anyway? Did they enter thinking they'd "win" a free iPad? Savvy adults rarely do surveys, or facebook surveys for that matter.
Thirdly, the study doesn't consider the subject's understanding of facebook, the default settings or how to change settings on facebook. Do they know their faces appear on sites they Like if the sites adds a facebook widget? Or that Everyone can see their friends and photos by default? Or how facebook shares their information?
This study SUCKS.
I find this interesting as I subscribe to the exact opposite thought process. I am an extremely confident individual who has almost no feeling of need to justify myself to others. I could care less about what people that I don't care about think of me and I don't really care to be close to people who don't like me (though I do try to be likeable as I don't want to intentionally upset people). I could care less what people know about me and have no issue with info about me being public information. I'd rather the information be out there for people who want to find it than not have it available for people who need to find it. I don't obsess over posting every detail of my life, but I also see no reason to conceal details of my life that I do feel like commenting on.
You seem to talk about yourself a lot.
"Flame away, I wear asbestos underwear"