A repost from my other blog, WebnographY, where I track changing attitudes and past research on online social networking. I thought it a pertinent topic for Iggli, as well. Enjoy 
The following was initially a comment on danah boyd's recent post discussing Facebook's "slippery slope" of betraying its users, most recently with Project Beacon. Please share your thoughts if you have them!
"Trusting
Facebook users" are generally older folk- I think they're more open to
publicizing their online profiles because they're seeking to make
connections, they're gaining from the public exposure and excited by
all the novel possibilities. My ethnography of social networking sites
primarily re/presents the voices of college students- particularly
veteran Facebook users. The site started out as being a great little
niche environment, so people could exchange intimate messages and
upload photos from that crazy party where everyone was on a ton of
drugs and so on. Then it opened up, everyone was pissed, and that's
when attitudes toward Facebook started to shift.
Most
first-generation Facebookers have some degree of distrust/disgust for
the site, often a great deal of it. Yet they continue to use it because
it's become so firmly integrated into campus social life- it's a way to
easily invite people to parties and share photos from said parties, to
visually organize one's social network and keep track of alumni and old
high school buddies, to find out the sexuality or relationship status
of that boy you've been admiring from afar. It's crucial. If you're not
on Facebook, you're going to be somewhat out of the loop.
Such
important social practices generally take precedence over the egregious
invasions of privacy that most are highly suspicious of. The trend is
not abandoning Facebook- it's far too useful. However, the site's
reputation is definitely tainted, and some Facebookers are using the
site to form or join groups that promote awareness of Facebook's
privacy policies and petition for change. Most, however, are simply
becoming more savvy and protective of their online personas; it's
become increasingly common for me to be unable to access the profiles
of those I'm not friends with because of that practice. Others have
simply taken to deleting much of their profiles, leaving just an e-mail
address, a witty or ironic comment, and maybe a funny picture. There's
also a huge trend to apathetically accept that nothing can be done
about it, much like how a lot of young people feel about our government.
Again,
these are just observations of the changing attitudes among a specific
subset of Facebook users. They know what's going on (though I would say
that only the Tech-savvy blog-readers have even heard about Project
Beacon- but they know their information is being used for capitalist
endeavors), they're disgruntled that so much of what they do on
Facebook is publicly broadcast and forever archived. Regardless of how
they talk about it, however, they're still using it regularly for
everyday social practices. For many, it's become as habitual to check
Facebook as it is to check e-mail.
