After reading “Will Your College Be Covered in Virtual Graffiti?” on the Chronicle of Higher Ed, it reminded me of how behind the times some schools are. In one sentence, here’s why:
The notion of privacy has been all but thrown out the window by digital natives.
The article in the Chronicle is a great piece on how Foursquare is quickly becoming a popular way for students and others to essentially gossip and pass notes about things like classes, professors, etc. online. There is even the ability to do so anonymously. This reminds me of the ol’ Dailyjolt that was popular at my alma mater. There is a part of the article that really caught my eye (for more reasons than the fact that I attend Harvard):
Perry Hewitt, digital-communications director at Harvard, says privacy is a serious issue. She also points out that similar sky-is-falling predictions were raised when the answering machine was introduced. “It would be naïve to say that there are no risks associated with these behaviors,” she says. “But it would be similarly naïve to say that until we can eradicate risk, we cannot participate.”
Others point out that the technology could have a dark side. Some see it as a boon for stalkers. The satirical Web site Please Rob Me points to another problem. By alerting the world that you just got to a party, you might also be alerting a burglar that you aren’t home.
While I agree with Hewitt that it’s pointless to try to remove all risk before participating, the bigger question about privacy is not whether or not it’s safe. Digital natives, a term coined by Harvard Law Professor John Palfrey (get the book here), are the younger generation who was born with a smartphone in their hand. They’ve also never put that phone down and probably never will. This group, as you may or may not have noticed, is not the group fighting for privacy rights, not using the latest and greatest social networking system (Foursquare, Twitter, Gowalla, etc.) because they feel their rights are violated. Let’s face it, students and other digital natives press AGREE to that Terms & Conditions that pops up on websites so fast it’ll make lawyer’s head spin.So while there is a fervent debate on and offline about the privacy issues surrounding Foursquare and other networks, the debate appears to be happening amongst an older generation or at least the digital immigrants.
I’ll concede that there is a bit of tumult and angst about whenever Facebook decides to change its design and adjust where things are. That anger always dies down and the army of users continue to use Facebook and just get accustomed to a new layout. Other than that, there has been very little unrest amongst digital natives about systems like Foursquare. It’s still an opt-in network, after all. That means you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to. The news out of Facebook’s f8 conference however has me a bit uneasy (the digital immigrant in me) as apparently the new Graph Protocol is opt-out, meaning everyone will be able to see what you like and do online and you have to tell Facebook that you don’t want that. Stay tuned for more!
