There’s a video clip of Twitter on CSI that has been making its rounds. I don’t watch the show (I watch very little television), but the scene features the dialogue between two detectives as they search the Twitter account of a homicide victim.
From the Clip:
Detective 1 – “Some people just don’t value privacy.”
Detective 2 – “They don’t expect privacy. They value openness.”
As I’m preparing for a digital citizenship/media literacy presentation with Dean Shareski tomorrow, I’ve been thinking about how differently youth may view privacy vs. openness. With social networks, blogging and services like Twitter, we are certainly seeing a distinct change. There is not much to the transaction above, but in some ways, it may help people glimpse differing views on issues of personal privacy and openness.
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Alec, I believe many youth are confused about privacy vs. openness depending on their age and the experience in terms of who they have learned from. They value the openness, it is something many have grown up with yet I am not sure they understand openness in terms of the impact it has. I know in my district students use social networking and defend their usage, yet are angry when someone posts something inappropriate about themselves or friends, adults see, there are consequences for their postings. They see the consequences for inappropriate behavior as an intrusion by an adult looking at what they consider “their” private space. I do not believe they understand public vs. private, personal vs. professional, because in my experience they are learning about these tools from someone their own age. Their parents for the most part have no idea what social networking is and therefore are not in a position to model appropriate use, and in my situation my teachers don’t understand it either. If you and Dean are going to share any of your presentation I would be interested in what you are going to cover today. I have an opportunity to present to parents in my district in January and am planning on speaking about digital citizenship as well. Thanks for the post.
Robin,
Thanks for this thoughtful comment. I agree with you that students don’t really understand either (privacy or openness). In most cases, neither do adults.
In my own head, I’ve come a long way to understanding the concept of openness. I am probably much more open in my posting of online material than most people I know (i.e., colleagues). It may seem a bit reckless, and there are times that I may compromise privacy in this. And certainly, even having a blog like this, leaves me open to attack, in ways that I cannot even think of. Yet my valuing openness remains constant, no matter what incidents may occur.
Yet as you caution, I think we must constantly balance our tendencies with privacy concerns. We must delve deeper into understand the implications of our online actions, and try to comprehend what effects they have on ourselves, others and on our place within the collective. I guess this is part of understand digital citizenship. To me, this is much more than following rules and regulations, and trying to protect our privacy. Rather, it must include ideas on how we (as individuals) can contribute to our wider society while maintaining safety and balance in our own lives.
This post wasn’t meant to get into all of that. More to come soon.
I’ve started a wiki re: Media Literacy (http://couros.wikispaces.com/Media+Literacy) and some of that will be used during our presentation. I assume Dean will want to Ustream a well.
Thanks for being part of the conversation. All the best.