The Costs of Bonding: Negotiating Personal Information Disclosure Among Millennials and Boomers on Facebook
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The costs of bonding: negotiating personal information disclosure among Millennials and Boomers on Facebook by Jonathan Callegher A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2013 © Jonathan Callegher 2013 AUTHOR’S DECLARATION I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii ABSTRACT Since early 2010, Facebook.com, the world’s most popular social network site (SNS), has come under a storm of media criticism over the commercial use of its users’ personal information. Yet even as more became known about the fact that Facebook sells publicly shared information to companies for advertising purposes, two years later the SNS amassed one billion members in October 2012. Based on in-depth interviews 30 Millennials (18 to 32-year olds) and 10 Boomers (48 to 58-year olds) that are daily users of Facebook, this dissertation provides a qualitative analysis of attitudes toward privacy and personal information disclosure on Facebook. What steps—if any—are being taken by users to regulate their personal information disclosure? How do users feel about the website selling their personal information to advertisers? What are the benefits of using Facebook and do they outweigh the risks of having one’s information used for commercial purposes? Or is it even seen as a risk at all? What are the sociological implications of users’ answers to these questions? I challenge prevailing conclusions that the intensity of Facebook use is associated with higher levels of social capital and that Facebook is especially useful for maintaining and building bridging ties to one’s acquaintances. On the contrary, among Millennials in my study, the website is used for maintaining bonding ties between close friends and family members, not bridging ties between acquaintances; that the maintaining of bridging social capital is by comparison merely a passive benefit. As well, while the Boomers in my study use Facebook to maintain bridging ties, maintaining social capital is not a consideration. In arriving at this conclusion, I thematically broke out the benefits of using Facebook as Facebook is my life online, Facebook is my primary connection to others, and Facebook is a convenient communication and information tool. As well, the perceived risks of using Facebook involve a lack of privacy and, to a lesser extent, issues of control. For the Millennials and Boomers in my study, the practical benefits of using Facebook outweigh the perceived risks, and the perception of control on the user’s part is a key factor in rationalizing their ongoing use of the website. As a practical application of my findings, I propose how the marketing research industry might apply these findings toward learning more about consumers. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to extend my sincere gratitude to Lorne Dawson for his guidance and support over the past six and a half years. I have never left a meeting with him without feeling inspired, encouraged, and grateful. Having made a number of academic and career changes throughout my time in the program, my path to completion was not a linear one. Yet at every turn Lorne was patient, understanding, and appreciative of the bigger picture, and I could not be more pleased with how it all turned out. I am also very grateful to my other committee members—John Goyder, Douglas Cowan, Aimée Morrison, and Anabel Quan-Haase, for their time and constructive criticism. As well, this dissertation could not have been written without the participation of my 40 respondents, who generously gave of their time to provide the data that resulted in the important themes identified herein. I am enormously thankful for my mother and father and their enduring support of my decisions—academic or otherwise, and for the early sacrifices they made to ensure that I would focus on post-secondary education without the burden of financial debt. They are my role models in countless ways. I am also thankful for my sister, who always believed in me and of whom I could not be more proud. Finally, I am grateful to the University of Waterloo for being the place at which I not only met wonderful friends, but also my wife, Irina, to whom this dissertation is unreservedly dedicated. The PhD program has been a constant throughout our entire relationship, and she has been my support system, my copy editor, and my best friend. Whatever challenge comes next, I cannot imagine taking it on with anyone else but her. iv DEDICATION To Irina v TABLE OF CONTENTS AUTHOR’S DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iv DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................ v CHAPTER 1: SETTING THE SCENE .......................................................................................... 1 The end of privacy? ..................................................................................................................... 9 “You can’t have a thousand friends.”........................................................................................ 12 Working hypothesis................................................................................................................... 15 “Maintained social capital” ................................................................................................... 15 Review of the literature on Technology and Society, SNSs, Facebook, and Privacy ............... 20 Continuum: the evolution of society with technology........................................................... 20 The Internet utopians and dystopians .................................................................................... 23 From MUDs to SNSs ............................................................................................................. 28 Facebook.com ........................................................................................................................ 32 Facebook and the changing nature of privacy ....................................................................... 34 Canada and the safeguarding of privacy online ..................................................................... 41 Facebook as a place to see and be seen ................................................................................. 42 Unintentional broadcasting on Facebook .............................................................................. 48 The commercial use of member data by Facebook ............................................................... 50 Attitudes toward the commercial use of member data .......................................................... 54 DATA AND METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................. 56 Recruitment ............................................................................................................................... 56 Sample description .................................................................................................................... 57 Millennials ............................................................................................................................. 57 Boomers ................................................................................................................................. 58 Table 1.0 – Respondent Breakdown: Millennials ..................................................................... 60 Table 2.0 – Respondent Breakdown: Boomers ......................................................................... 61 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 61 Stage 1: Review of respondent’s Profile ............................................................................... 61 Stage 2: In-depth interviews .................................................................................................. 63 Analysis of interviews ............................................................................................................... 66 Analysis of data on Millennials ............................................................................................. 68 vi Analysis of data on Boomers ................................................................................................. 72 CHAPTER 2: THE BENEFITS OF USING FACEBOOK .......................................................... 73 FACEBOOK IS MY LIFE ONLINE ............................................................................................ 73 Facebook as an extension of everyday life................................................................................ 73 Social sharing: acknowledging and being acknowledged ......................................................... 82 Narcissism… or openness? ......................................................................................................