Annotated Bibliography: Social Media and Privacy

Bazarova, N.N. and Choi, Y.H., 2014. Selfdisclosure in social media: Extending the functional approach to disclosure motivations and characteristics on social network sites. Journal of Communication, 64(4), pp.635-657.

In this article, Bazarova and Choi sought to establish what motivates social media users to post on social media networks. The researchers used online surveys and secondary data to collect the relevant data. This study revealed a significant number of reasons for posting on social media. Most of the users admitted to having disclosed private information on social media more than five times. This research will be relevant to my research topic since it has information that will be useful in determining the level of privacy on social media and the motivations behind the lack of it. The authors of this study, however, limited their scope to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram users yet there are other social media platforms such as Pinterest, Google Plus, Tumblr, and others. Nevertheless, it will be one of my main sources since it has a lot of information on the motivations behind the posting of private information on social media.

Clark, J. (2010). Social media and privacy. Air Medical Journal, 29(3), pp.104-107.

In this article, Clark investigated the extent to which the social media limits one's privacy. In the study, Clark used both oral interviews and online questionnaires to collect data. The main aim of the survey was to establish the influence of social media on personal privacy. The findings supported the author's research hypothesis which stated that the social media limits an individual's privacy due to the amount of indiscriminate information that the users post. This article will be very useful to my topic, social media and privacy since Clark proposes that whenever one thinks of the social media, they should put the issue of privacy into consideration. The main limitation of Clark's study is that the sampling process was not adequate since it only comprised of young people aged 18-25. Thus, since there are other people, both under and above this age bracket, who use the social media, this article will be a supplementary source of information for my research.

Millham, M. and Atkin, D. (2016). Managing the virtual boundaries: Online social networks, disclosure, and privacy behaviors. New Media & Society, p.146144481665446.

In this article, the researchers, Millham and Atkin, sought to investigate the behavior of social media users in relation to their privacy. The researchers observed the behavior of a well-selected sample of social media users in addition to the administration of online surveys to collect data. Since their focus was on the management of boundaries on social media, they focused on the types of messages posted by social media users. This article will be critical to my research since, as the authors suggest, the management of virtual boundaries is a major issue of concern for any researcher investigating the aspect of privacy on social media. The main limitation of this article was that the period of observation was limited to six months although this does not discredit the data that the authors were able to collect. Therefore, the article will be a major source of information for my study.

Trepte, S. (2015). Social media, privacy, and self-disclosure: the turbulence caused by social medias affordances. Social Media + Society, 1(1), p.205630511557868.

In this article, Trepte looks into the impact of social media on individuals. The author focuses on the negative effects of personal disclosure and posting too much private information on social media. The researcher uses oral and online interviews to collect data on the impact of social media on the privacy of individuals. Additionally, the author uses data from social media networks to come up with a simplified format of the turbulent effects of social media addiction on individual privacy. The information in this article is relevant and very useful in my research topic. Although the author has limited the research to the negative impact of social media, the source will provide me with a lot of information on the impact of self-disclosure on social media. I will, therefore, use it as a major source.

Tsay-Vogel, M., Shanahan, J. and Signorielli, N. (2016). Social media cultivating perceptions of privacy: A 5-year analysis of privacy attitudes and self-disclosure behaviors among Facebook users. New Media & Society, p.146144481666073.

In this article, the authors, Tsay-Vogel, Shanahan and Signorielli analyze the aspect of privacy in relation to social media. The researchers carry out a longitudinal analysis to determine the attitude of social media users towards privacy during self-disclosure on Facebook over a five year period. The main focus of the study is the perceptions of the aspect of Facebook users of all age brackets. This article will be especially useful for my research topic since the authors have proposed a relationship between an individual's sense of privacy and their behavior on social media. The major limitation of this article is that the researchers only concentrated on Facebook which is not the only social media platform. However, the information provided by this article is invaluable to my research topic. I will, therefore, use it as one of my major sources.

References

Bazarova, N.N. and Choi, Y.H., 2014. Selfdisclosure in social media: Extending the functional approach to disclosure motivations and characteristics on social network sites. Journal of Communication, 64(4), pp.635-657.

Clark, J. (2010). Social media and privacy. Air Medical Journal, 29(3), pp.104-107.

Millham, M. and Atkin, D. (2016). Managing the virtual boundaries: Online social networks, disclosure, and privacy behaviors. New Media & Society, p.146144481665446.

Trepte, S. (2015). Social media, privacy, and self-disclosure: the turbulence caused by social medias affordances. Social Media + Society, 1(1), p.205630511557868.

Tsay-Vogel, M., Shanahan, J. and Signorielli, N. (2016). Social media cultivating perceptions of privacy: A 5-year analysis of privacy attitudes and self-disclosure behaviors among Facebook users. New Media & Society, p.146144481666073.