Facebook Tracking Self-Censorship Could Help Us Learn About Today's Societal Workings
"...Facebook is reading the stuff that you’re not even writing! The hemming and hawing rose to a fever pitch in the form of a Care2 petition entitled “Facebook Stop Stalking Our Unposted Thoughts!.” The petition currently has 28,517 digital signatures. Here’s the thing: In the onrush of alarmism brought on by news of the NSA and LifeLock’s marketing team, we actually missed a really interesting study on human behavior and how it plays out on social media networks."
[http://gobrandgo.com/facebook-self-censorship/]
I agree with Ms. Ritchie about the fact that society has missed out on a major behavioral lesson. By creating a petition such as the one she explains in her article about Facebook tracking individuals' self-censorship, and being against this data collection, we are unable to learn about the patterns and norms of the users of Facebook and networks like it. By Facebook tracking the information that individuals choose to not post at the last minute, they learn numerous facts about the users and can form theories/information centered around individuals within society today. The information that we do choose to make "public" is already tracked and has had studies done on it, but by typing an idea or thought into a bar, the individual is choosing to put their idea or thought out there with the possibility that someone else may see it. By looking specifically at what users choose NOT to post at the last minute, we could learn a lot about what people think about their extended selves (Belk) and own narratives (Lyotard), and how they view themselves in these settings and within these positions. Further down on this page I specifically go into detail and where I stand with Facebook tracking self-censorship, and what I feel needs to be done about this happening. By following the ideas that I shared, I feel that Facebook could help us learn a lot more about ourselves (as a society) than we already understand from previous studies, and could help us to have a more open sharing place.