لخّصلي

Over the past couple of decades, there has been a large rise of mobile phones, and
subsequently the rise of social media platforms. While there are numerous studies pertaining to
the use of mobile phones, there is limited research on the use of these platforms and attitudes
surrounding them. The emergence of these platforms that allow for greater connectivity between
individuals has also brought with it, an increase in safety and privacy concerns. Many social
media platforms outline their intentions with user information and privacy interests in their terms
of service agreements; however, as many of these agreements are pages long and difficult to
understand, the majority of users don’t take the time to read them.
The purpose of this study was to see if increased awareness of privacy risks on social
media influence one’s concerns or attitudes when it comes to decisions regarding safety and
overall privacy on social media. Topics covered and addressed include the rise of social media
and usage, overall privacy on social media, self-disclosure motivations, etc., and how these
overlap with one another. This study explored how college students at a private, faith-based,
Midwestern school use social media and similarly, how concerns over privacy affect such use.
How does network size affect individuals’ posts? How do concerns of online privacy change
with increased awareness of how data is collected and used? These are a couple of questions this
study hopes to answer. A pre-test and post-test will be utilized in the study to measure if there is
significant change in one's privacy concerns and attitudes towards social media after viewing a
video on online safety and privacy risks.
In a world that is becoming increasingly technology based, protecting one’s privacy will
only grow more important. By studying this aspect of privacy in social media use, more can be
learned about concerns regarding social media and behaviors.
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Baldwin et al.: Social Media Use and Awareness of Privacy Concerns
Published by DigitalCommons@CSP, 2023
LITERATURE REVIEW
Rise of Social Media & Usage
Social media platforms are applications that allow users to interact with each other on a
digital level. Social media differs from traditional media channels in that users, or consumers,
can also be producers of information. Over the course of the past two decades, Internet usage,
specifically social media usage, has been on the rise (Hollenbaugh, 2019). According to Pew
Research Center, in 2005, only 5% of U.S adults used social media. That percentage increased to
69% by the end of 2016 (Pew Research Center, 2017). Despite an overall increase in usage,
certain groups of people are more likely to use social media platforms and practice certain online
behaviors. One of these groups are younger individuals who are digital or social media natives.
Digital natives are defined as “individuals whose childhoods were surrounded by advancing
technologies, screens, pushing of buttons, and social networking sites” (Hollenbaugh, 2019). An
annual survey conducted by Pew Research (2014) found that, “Social media natives are more
likely to use multiple social media applications than older digital natives and digital immigrants.
Members of older generations are both more aware and concerned of potential privacy problems,
which then similarly leads them to use social media platforms at a lower rate” (Cain & Imre,
2021, p. 2706).
Privacy on Social Media
Online privacy, or privacy of information shared online is defined as, “the claim of
individuals, groups, or institutions to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent
information about them is communicated to others” (Cain & Imre, 2021, p. 2707). Because
information-sharing is the basis of social media participation, the rise of social media use also
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54416/HQWT8424
brings the rise of privacy concerns (Agosto & Abbas, 2017). Through focus groups and
questionnaires, a study conducted using eighteen and nineteen year old public high school
students found that older teenagers are less concerned with online safety and more concerned
with online privacy (Agosto & Abbas, 2017). This finding relates to a separate study where
participants were recruited to complete an online survey via an invitation posted on Amazon’s
Mechanical Turk’s website. Participants were given statements regarding preferences on privacy
and intensity of social media use and were asked to indicate their level of agreement on a
numeric scale. Findings from this study “support that concerns over control, collection, and
access to personal information are associated with decreased intensity of social media use” (Cain
& Imre, 2021, p. 2706). In other words, the more concerned one is about the privacy of their
information, the less intensely they will use social media platforms. Since Agosto & Abbas
[2017] indicate that teenagers are more concerned with online privacy than online safety,
findings from Cain & Imre [2021] should indicate that, because of these higher privacy concerns,
these individuals would decrease the intensity of their usage. However, this is not the case, as
external factors, such as peer influence, can pressure individuals to disclose personal information
and participate on social media (Agosto & Abbas, 2017). A separate study examined the
differences between cultures in terms of privacy and self-disclosures on Twitter. Using data from
Twitter’s Application Programming Interfaces, this study collected information from ~3.3
million valid Twitter accounts. This information included privacy protection settings, location
settings, frequency of usage, age when the Twitter account was created, and network size (how
many followers & how many following). Findings from this study support that users with higher
levels of usage were more aware of information accessibility, and more likely to self-disclose if
they had privacy protections enabled (Liang, Shen & Fu, 2017).
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Baldwin et al.: Social Media Use and Awareness of Privacy Concerns
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Factors That Influence Decision Making
In today's day and age, we are more surrounded by technology than we ever have been,
and there are numerous factors that can sway our thinking and behaviors. The study of college
students and their amounts of personal privacy protection behavior was an analysis of their
privacy settings displayed in an online social network. “Private profiles may reflect a particularly
strong discrepancy between online and other ‘public’ performances; a particularly strong
sensitivity to any such discrepancy; or a general tendency towards role compartmentalization,
even if the roles are compatible. Each of these possibilities, however, suggests a particular
cultural disposition” (Kaufman at el, n.p). The goal and purpose of getting specific information
was to find out the participant’s definition of privacy, and what the possible motivations for
creating a private profile could be. The research found that if participants are surrounded by
peers who have private accounts, they will also choose to have a private profile. The research
was successful in its findings that other influences such as peer influence have a direct impact on
the privacy decisions of college students. However, peer influence isn’t the only influence that
affects one's attitudes towards online decision making.
Self Disclosure and Disclosure Motivations
Social media technologies have opened new possibilities for sharing personal information
with online networks, and millions of people routinely self-disclose personal information on
social network sites (SNSs).When you decide to create an online profile, there are various
decisions as to the levels of self disclosed information that you want visible, or not visible to the
public. There are also a variety of disclosure motivations, such as the people we surround
ourselves with in life. How our peers think and view these challenges oftentimes shapes our own
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views. Research was conducted to try to find answers for why people disclose the things they do,
and why they decided to share things as well. The purpose of the study is to see if people post
greater social validation goals in nondirected status updates compared to directed wall posts and
private messages. The article examines starting point beliefs as well as different audiences
people create on their social media sites. “This article introduces the functional model of selfdisclosure on social network sites by integrating a functional theory of self-disclosure and
research on audience representations as situational cues for activating interpersonal goals” (Choi,
2014). We all have reasons why we post, and this article examines that logic and way of thinking
in order to try and dig deeper into the reasoning behind these decisions. Since everyone has their
own definition of privacy, there is going to be a very wide range of opinions and beliefs, so it
becomes extremely important to cast a wide net in hopes of uncovering answers to why people
make the decisions that they do regarding online privacy and disclosing certain amounts of
information. Kaufman’s research (2008) draws on the protection motivation theory to investigate
privacy protective behavior online. They tested the hypothesis that higher levels of perceived
severity of online privacy threat will lead to more protective behavior. The results supported the
hypothesis that there is indeed a self-reported protective behavior. “Given the relationship
between use and privacy concerns, leaving privacy concerns unaddressed might also lead to a
reduction of use if these concerns continue to grow among users” (Cain, Imre, 2021).
Challenges for Online Privacy
With many social media and online shopping sites utilizing cookies, users are now more
fearful of their own private data being used by corporations to make more profit (Pierson, J. and
Heyman, R. 2011). With the utilization of these web data collectors, users struggle to find a way
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to keep their privacy safe from others. This concern draws from a lack of awareness, when a tech
company collects data through cookies, the user is usually unaware that their data is being
collected (Lavin M. 2016). Users have also found the collection of private data to be intrusive,
they find themselves being constantly recommended different sites and products (Pierson, J. and
Heyman, R. 2011). This starts to hinder the flow of self-communication through social media if
most discussions and posts are centered around promoting products (Pierson, J. and Heyman, R.
2011).
Another challenge for privacy is the fast paced time that we live in, the digital age is ever
changing and rapidly changing, and is as tempting as ever, so as much as we can do to limit
temptation and not conform to what peers and those around us are doing, the better that will be.
As previously mentioned in the Lewis study, peers and parents are at the top of the list for
influences, but there are also challenges presented by these groups. We are most likely to
conform to our surroundings when it comes to privacy as a whole, and when it comes to
individualized decisions and privacy preferences.
HYPOTHESES
When considering people’s social media habits, privacy is often taken a backseat in favor
of social interactions with other users. In the study of motivations for online privacy protection
behavior (Boerman, S, C. 2021), it was shown that users' confidence in online privacy is mixed.
The focus of this study will be to observe if there is a change in attitudes regarding privacy after
watching a short video about how users data is collected from social media and online activity as
well as potential risks.
H1: There will be a change in attitudes or concerns about privacy online after watching
a short video about how their information is collected and used.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54416/HQWT8424
Research suggests that many social media users are unaware of privacy protections and
how these platforms collect and use personal information. Terms of service agreements are often
lengthy and complicated to read, so many users agree to the terms of usage without fully
understanding the contracts. Increased knowledge and awareness of how users’ information is
being used will lead to a change in concern or attitudes about privacy.
H2: Individuals with larger social media networks will protect their profiles and disclose
less private information.
As social media continues to grow more easily accessible to users across the globe,
concern over self disclosure in posts has become a prevalent issue. In a global study of privacy
protection and self-disclosure (Liang, Shen & Fu, 2017), data suggests that cultural variations of
privacy settings and self-disclosure differed by society. Individuals from more collectivist
cultures tend to disclose more, however, those from more individualistic cultures or those with
smaller network sizes tend to disclose less. A larger network usually implies a less familiar
audience and thus is associated with higher privacy risks. So, individuals with larger networks
will disclose less private information and likely have a private account.
METHODS
Participants
The units of analysis for our research study are students attending a small, private faithbased (Lutheran) university in the midwest. Besides the requirement of attendance, there were no
other demographic factors like age, race, ethnicity, gender, etc., that were required for
participation. There were no incentives used to motivate participants. Our research focuses on
social media use and its surrounding privacy concerns. In order to garner as many responses as
possible, the researchers used SurveyMonkey to create our survey and a link to send via email to
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Baldwin et al.: Social Media Use and Awareness of Privacy Concerns
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all undergraduate students at the university. Of the 1,286 emails that were sent out, 50 responses
were received. However, only 39 participants completed the entirety of the survey, giving the
researchers a response rate of