ALL QUIET ON THE FACEBOOK FRONT: TEENS’ NEGOTIATION OF SOCIAL AND MOBILE MEDIA PRIVACY

Abstract

At a time when teens increasingly communicate via mobile and social media, it is not a surprise they are willing to share incredibly personal information with their peers, yet this should not be misinterpreted as a disregard for social privacy (boyd; 2014; boyd and Marwick, 2011). Research evidences that teens care deeply about their privacy (boyd, 2014; Harris, 2010, Marwick, Diaz, and Palfrey, 2011; Youn, 2009). This paper focuses on the unique challenges low-income teens face in mitigating social and mobile privacy. Due to financial constraints, low-income teens often have precarious access to technology, which leads to an economy of sharing. Additionally, compared to adults, teens ( and in particular low- income teens) are subjected to greater surveillance (Kelly, 2000, 2003), thus further complicating privacy management. As such, this paper asks: how do low-income teens mitigate reduced privacy levels in and through mobile technologies and social media?