Chapter 2 CMC in PR, by Wright & Webb

Jeffrey Child’s chapter deals with the myriad of issues dealing with privacy management.  The initial example is if a pluralistic entity such as a family owns content and decides to make it public on the internet, does the individual depicted in the content have the right to restrict access or all together remove it? Childs references Boyd and Ellison’s criteria of a SNS; constructing of a profile that can be restricted, inclusion of desired audience, and viewership of desired audience of content or material. Adolescents  demonstrate more privacy than older adults. Yet adults learn from adolescent the procedures for maintaining privacy in SNS. Child’s delineates several outlines of communication privacy management that helps us understand effective management practices rules, disclosure, and context.  Some excerpts dealing with  privacy management include, people equate privacy information with personal ownership, thus it is a commodity of access to privilege. Boundaries of permeability, ownership, practices, disclosure, and contexts all are important facets of SNS.

My thoughts

Young adults demonstrate more privacy than older adults which may correspond with Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development; Fidelity, identity versus role confusion.  Adolescents are concerned how they appear to others. Could the privacy issues and allowance of personal information these individuals allow and restrict be a corresponding moniker “identity confusion” that Erikson described?  He stated that young people “are confronted by the need to re-establish boundaries for themselves and do this in the face of an often potentially hostile world“ and commitments are being asked for before their own identities have formed.  

Also in this second chapter it was mentioned when young adults move away from family rules and practiced boundaries it is called “deindividualization”. Similarly Erikson described this process in similar fashion referred to as  Intimacy versus Isolation (young adults, 19 to 40), and specifically an interesting distinction called  “distantiation” the readiness to isolate and if needed, defend against encroachment in relationships if deemed unwanted.   

Current events

Privacy in the classroom over the years has become more stringent. This is due to the numerous litigations over the years about guardianship and visitations among divorced individuals. Our district does have a wordpress license so we are encouraged to create in their domain.  As an art teacher I cannot put names on students artwork if it is hung in the classroom or in the hallways. Moreover any artwork photographed and displayed on the school districts website can only have first name, no grade level, or class information. Rules about my having a blog independent of the school district is also frowned upon.  Most young students now understand these current trends in privacy and do not ask why names are not included as pertinent information. The artwork alone is now a signature of the individual from now on, only known to the individual if he or she declares ownership.