Andrea Miranda

Miranda 1

Professor Serviss
CTW Mon/Wed 5:25-7:210
28 October 2015
Is Social Media Taking Away our Privacy?
In Thompsons article, Brave New World of Digital Intimacy, he argues that social media
has changed the lives of present-day society by taking away privacy. This is no surprise because
Thompson, a Canadian journalist and blogger, specializes in writing about digital technology and
its impact on society. He presents to us this idea of lacking privacy by interviewing many
journalists and everyday people to understand how the influence of social media has impacted
their lives. His article was written in 2008, just about two years after the creation of Facebook by
a Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg. Thompsons article is about how social media is affecting
privacy, but his ideas suggest that privacy can be both a beneficial and harmful thing. He first
presents the idea that the element of privacy has declined by introducing Facebook and the birth
of its News Feed. Thompson historicizes Zuckerbergs creation of the News Feed to illustrate
how tensions around privacy arose around Facebook. We should understand Thompsons article
as primarily about privacy because the discussion of digital intimacy reveals that social media
can bring society closer. According to Thompsons history, college age users initially resisted the
News Feed calling it (#). Yet, these same users eventually grew to love this fascinating
new feature; Thompson explains that the News Feed gave students more to talk about, making
them feel more connected with one another. Thompson DOES WHAT to create this history and
imply that News Feed was really significant. However, even though this new feature was a
booming success, Thompson declares this the end of privacy. Here are some ways in which
Thompson encourages us to embrace the power of social media, and some ways in which we
should become aware of how much we use the power of social media.

Miranda 2
Thompson argues that the lack of privacy that began with the introduction of the News
Feed was essential to society by personalizing the concept that we can all be connected with our
friends and family through this new feature. As mentioned above, people did not like the idea of
the News Feed in the beginning. So why did it bring so much success after only a few days?
Well, as Thompson argues in his article, Facebook users experience an effect called ambient
awareness as a result of this News Feed. Ambient awareness, a term coined by many social
scientists, is very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through
the little things he does-body language, sighs, stray comments-out of the corner of your eye
(Thompson, 123). Thompson wants to point out to his readers that while we may think that these
little updates mean nothing, they are actually bringing intimacy between those on the social site.
In other words, users didnt think they wanted to know what everyone was up to, but because of
ambient awareness, they began to feel a growth of intimacy with others. Very much like
Facebook, Twitter became a sort of mini News Feed. Twitter allows for frequent little updates
on what one is doing. In essence, it is like blogging, yet on a much molecular level. One of
Thompsons interviewees, Alex Beam, a columnist, shared his thoughts over Twitter saying,
Who really cares what I am doing, every hour of the day? Even I dont care (Thompson,
124). Beam points out that he did not think he would care about reading virtually meaningless
texts. Thompson uses Beams interview as a way of explaining that even though Twitter had
meaningless little updates, as a whole they were significant. Thompson argues that just like
Facebooks News Feed, people were skeptical about Twitter at first. They questioned why they
would want to read about the idea of constant, pointless updates on their screens. However, it
wasnt long before Twitter became popular as well. Ben Haley, a 39-year old documentation
specialist Thompson interviewed, mentioned that when he first heard about Twitter, he thought it

Miranda 3
was a silly idea. However, he gave it a try and found himself checking for updates several times a
day. Haley pointed out that he was beginning to sense the rhythms of his friends lives in a way
he never had before (Thompson, 125). Thompson makes his readers think that one little update
on Twitter is meaningless, yet also points out that when taken as a whole over time, all the little
updates paint a nice portrait of everyones friends and familys lives. In other words, alone,
Thompson argues that the updates are useless in isolation, but together they are significant.
Haleys interview becomes concrete evidence for this phenomena; Thompson presents Haleys
idea that the little posts benefitted him and his friends because whenever he saw that they were
out doing something, he could meet up with them. He became virtually and physically closer to
is friends and family members. Because of this presentation of ambient awareness as part of
Haleys life, readers begin to recognize how ambient awareness works. Users begin to feel closer
to those digitally around them, almost as if they are physically together. Thompsons arguments,
delivered through Haley, begins to make readers feel the impact of ambient awareness; we are
beginning to feel closer to others without having to physically be in front of them.
Sharing this new 21st century conception of connectivity is part of Thompsons purpose in
this article. Thompson uses the example of mobile phones to prove his point. Thompson uses his
interview with Mizuko Ito to introduce Itos idea of co-presence via cell phones. Ito observes
that
lovers who were working in different cities would send text messages back and
forth all night-tiny updates like enjoying a glass of wine nowthey were doing
it partly because talking for hours on mobile phones isnt very comfortablethe
little Ping-Pong messages felt even more intimate than a phone call. (Thompson,
126)

Miranda 4
****** WHAT IS THOMPSON DOING BY SHARING ITOs WORDS? Thompson draws on
Itos emotionally charged example to point out that mobile phones impact our lives because they
give us a short update into the life of whoever we are texting or talking to, even if it does take
away some privacy. Because most importantly, Thompson wants us to transform our worries
about a lack of privacy into a more positive perspective; Thompson presents interviews with
multiple people to help us see how beneficial the resulting connectivity is for our lives. In these
ways Thompson encourages the use of social media to bring us closer.
Facebooks News Feed and Twitter brought many positive aspects to society, however,
there are some downsides to this new lack of privacy on social websites. Thompson argues that
while privacy may be beneficial in some cases, the use of social media can be abused. Many
people began to feel closer to others through social media. The more friends you have, the more
people one can essentially keep in contact with. However, in Thompsons article, he introduces
Robin Dunbars theory of the Dunbar number. Dunbar puts it himself, it is a hard-wired upper
limit on the number of people he or she can personally know at one time (Thompson, 129).
Thompson introduces this theory to help us understand that even if we are Facebook friends
with so many people, we are incapable of truly knowing more than about 150 people. That
number is significantly lower than the amount many people have on Facebook. So how much
closer can Facebook bring us to others? Well, Facebook is all about this idea of weak ties, as
Thompson mentions. Weak ties means we dont really get to know someone, we can only
observe them. Thompson uses the idea of weak ties to help us understand that while we may all
be connected, our connections can be significantly weak if we dont take the chance to truly now
the person. When Thompson interviewed Caterina Fake, a founder of Flickr, he described her
experience saying the sheer ease of following her friends updates online has made her

Miranda 5
occasionally lazy about actually taking the time to visit them in person (Thompson, 132).
Constantly keeping in touch with people doesnt necessarily mean keeping in touch with them in
person. He uses Fakes interview to help us understand just how distant we can become when we
feel that we can just contact someone digitally.
Thompson has us thinking: so what would it be like if we were to lose touch with people
over Facebook for a period of time? Thompson overheard a young woman complaining about the
downsides of going virtually MIA. She described the experience horrendously. People she didnt
even talk to were posting ugly pictures of her and she had to witness the painful experience of
seeing her ex engage himself in a new relationship. She felt the need to be on Facebook just to
monitor was was being said about her (Thompson, 133). The downside of ambient awareness is
that it brings back the dynamics of small-town life, where everybody knows your business
(Thompson, 133). Thompson uses this womans example to argue that the use of Facebook can
be emotionally harming. He makes it personal by adding her story of her ex-boyfriend, because
no one wants to see an ex with another person.
He introduces a similar concept by interviewing Zeynep Tufekci, a sociologist at the
University of Maryland. She admitted to Thompson that there were many incidents in which
athletes broke the no-drinking rule at parties and pictures of them would be posted on Facebook.
Therefore, parties were forced to ban all camera phones to preserve the privacy. Tufecki
mentions that the current generation is never unconnected. Theyre never losing touch with their
friendsits identity-constraining (Thompson 134). Here, Thompson presents the idea that
having so many connections online has more of a negative connotation than previously seen.
This is almost contradictory to what Thompson was saying earlier. However, he makes this claim
because he wants to let the reader know that we need to be aware of the dangers of social media.

Miranda 6
Lack of privacy can damage ones reputation and it doesnt necessarily mean we feel closer to
one another.
So why is all of this privacy issue matter? How does it affect us? These are two very
important questions that Thompson addresses in his hidden text. Thompson wants us to believe
that while social media is an essential part of our lives, it is also important to understand when
and how to use it to our benefits and learn not to become addicted to these social media sites. I
believe it is important to grasp the idea of using Facebook and Twitter to stay interconnected
with others, but not let the sites consume us and make us feel that we have to be online 24/7.
Thompsons arguments matter because he argues that it is todays actions that will shape the
future. People need to be aware that in the future social media is going to have an immense
impact on society. Generations born in the 20th century are born into a society where they feel it
is normal to simply chat with a friend and dont feel the need to physically see that person. We
want to know what is going on with others because when we dont, we feel that something is
missing. This concept is very different than hundreds of years ago, where only pen and paper
existed. Even though Thompson brought both positive and negative arguments about privacy, the
lack of privacy is still something that is new to society. Social media is a whole new world,
different than reality, and as a member of it we must learn to protect it. Thompson wants us to
know that a lack of privacy can be beneficial to staying in the loop, but it can lead to hurt
feelings and stressful incidents. While he may be presenting to us the idea that privacy can be
both good and bad, we should interpret his argument on a more personal level by learning to stay
connected with others, but not letting social media consume us.

Miranda 7

Works Cited
Thompson,Clive."BraveNewWorldofDigitalIntimacy."TheNewYorkTimes.TheNewYork
Times,06Sept.2008.Web.20Oct.2015.