Philippine E-Journals

Blurring Boundaries of Private and Public Spheres in Social Networking:Facebook Portrayal in Focus

Fe Monique F. Musni

Discipline: Social Science

 

Abstract:

The phenomenon of globalization has never been felt before than it istoday. The prime mover of this phenomenon is the Internet, and it is not anexaggeration to state that this form of media has revolutionized the access toinformation. This study examined the practices of selected college students whoreflect an overlapping of public and private spheres in their use of Facebook.Through this study, the need to look into the way privacy is viewed is addressed.This case study analyzed the experiences of the selected student-informants fromthe University of the Immaculate Conception (UIC) and reported their detailedviews. This is done to get a holistic picture of the blurring of social and privatespheres brought about by increased user self-disclosure. The study reveals thatthe informants still find privacy important but seem to take a background withtheir perception of absolute freedom when using social media, which seems tobe the point where the blurring of private and public spheres occurs. The resultsof the study also show that the role of the individual as gatekeeper and filter ofinformation is central to the content of social media, placing a high premium onmedia literacy of social media users.