Since the beginning of social networking, the narrative has been that people want to share information about themselves, and as a result more and more information about people will be available online. People point to the rise of life style blogging and oversharing through Twitter as evidence of this phenomenon. However, as was pointed out by Ms. Mills and Mr. Yavitz, it seems likely the narrative has been blown out of proportion. The vast majority of people do not want the entire world to know when they have had a fight with their significant other or gotten sick from doing too many shots in Miami. These things are embarrassing, and sharing embarrassing things on the Internet can open one up to judgment by people they barely know who just happen to be their Facebook friends.
The hesitation to share things about one’s personal life on the Internet increases as soon as it is known that whatever is shared will be used by a sorority, a landlord, or an employer to exclude people from something. This leads to the profile whitewashing that was discussed by Mr. Yavitz and Ms. Mills. Instead of being honest about who they are through these mechanisms, thereby increasing the amount of information available to the potential excluder, the person makes a profile perhaps tailored to the excluder. Which is why law firms still require interviews with a person rather than just looking at their Facebook profile. It is harder to whitewash your personality in person (though, as Strahilivitz pointed out, it happens frequently) than to just make up a new, appealing one on the Internet.
In the long run, this seems bad for Internet culture. While it would be nice if we lived in the world that Mr. Luzzatto advocates where no one wants to be a part of a group that would not accept them for the special little snowflake they are, it seems likely at least for the foreseeable future that life will continue to be a conflict rather than coordination game. Because, whether we like it or not, we do care about exclusion. While there may be some groups, like the KKK, that most people are happy to be excluded from, for the most part people don’t like being told they are not good enough for an exclusive group. And as soon as these groups start using the Internet as a mechanism to assist in the exclusion, people will begin tailoring their Internet persona in order to be accepted. I think back to the early days of Facebook when I was much more willing to profess my random thoughts and post random pictures. However, now that I know people will be looking at Facebook to judge me as a “professional” I have had to curb some of the things I share. I think many people have had similar experiences. As a result, the mere fact that Facebook is used as an excluding tool has made it more difficult for it to be used as it was original intended. Which is bad for an Internet culture that values more and more information, as well as bad for Facebook, which relies on the information generated by its users to tailor its advertisements.
I really do hope that eventually we achieve a culture that allows people to be open and honest about who they are without fear of reproach from general society. I think the Internet can be a tool for moving us toward this Utopia. But we need to see it as a tool, and not the end game. Just because people can share things about themselves doesn’t mean they will. And just because they share doesn’t mean they are honest when doing it.
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