Child, J.T. & Starcher, S.C. (2016). Fuzzy Facebook privacy boundaries: Exploring mediated lurking, vague-booking, and Facebook privacy management. Computers in Human Behavior, 54. 483-490.
Citation
Child, J.T. & Starcher, S.C. (2016). Fuzzy Facebook privacy boundaries: Exploring mediated lurking, vague-booking, and Facebook privacy management. Computers in Human Behavior, 54. 483-490.
Annotation
Child and Starcher (2016) address the issues surrounding privacy on Facebook in their article. Conducting a study of 383 participants, they found that Facebook privacy management was related to concern regarding mediated lurking as well as using strategic ambiguity as a privacy measure. The use of strategic ambiguity was negatively correlated with privacy management on Facebook. Mediated lurking as a concern for users was more positively correlated with higher levels of privacy management. A gender difference was also identified with men utilizing strategic ambiguity more as a privacy measure than women.
This article did require a certain amount of close reading. There was some jargon used but it was explained along the way. This is definitely more of a technical report regarding the results of the study rather than an article for a magazine or typical person. There is some level of assumed knowledge, however, the authors do a good job at making sure jargon is explained and background knowledge is provided for those unfamiliar with this particular area. Overall the article was well written if a little dry. However, in light of the fact that this article does explain a psychological study, it makes sense that it would be more technical and full of jargon in the results section. The one section that could have used more expansion was the limitations and future research section. While the discussion section was well thought out, the last section seemed rushed and stilted. Seeing as this was some of the first research into this area of study I would have liked to see more speculation about the direction this work could go in the future. Unfortunately, I have a feeling the shortness of this section had to do with a specific word/page count implemented by the journal it was published in as well. In relation to the field of library and information science, I think this article is a good source of information that information professionals can pass on to library patrons or users. It also does a good job of showcasing the differences of privacy methods used by Facebook users.
Areas / Topics / Keywords
Privacy, Social Media, Ambiguity