This morning, before I drove off to my first class of the day, my mom told me some startling news about my sister: she had been sent to the emergency room, and she would probably have to have surgery. My sister and I are very close, and this news was rather distressing for me. I wanted to let her know that I was thinking about her, and that I wished I could be in New Mexico to help her and her family, and other things like that. Calling her wasn't really an option, since she was in the hospital and I would be driving for the next 40 minutes and then going straight into class. My next thought was: I know! I'll update my status on Facebook to let her know that I'm thinking about her!
While this thought seemed promising at first, it got me thinking about updating the Facebook status. I wanted to say that I was thinking about my sister, but I didn't know how much she wanted everyone on her Facebook to know about her situation, and I knew that if I was vague on purpose ("My thoughts are with you, Chels! Hope you're doing ok!" or something like that) then I would get a whole bunch of comments asking why I was thinking about her, what was going on, was everything ok, etc., etc. And herein lies my quandary: How do you post a Facebook status update that conveys all you want it to convey without infringing on someone else's privacy?
I know that Facebook status updates don't always necessarily concern telling someone else's story. However, people are still such a huge part of our lives, and Facebook is all about letting people interact with one another. It would be almost impossible to eliminate Facebook statuses that involved other people and their privacy, especially now that Facebook has features like linking, where you can link your status to someone else's profile. I think that many people don't stop to think about how much their status updates can affect their friends and family. That makes it sounds so dramatic, but it's true. What if my sister didn't want anyone to know about her visit to the hospital and I blabbed about it on Facebook? What if, even though I had been vague about the situation, my sister became inundated with phone calls from her Relief Society Presidency because they somehow saw my status update? A lot of times people just aren't aware enough of their Facebook surroundings to think before they update.
Our society today is so focused on social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, where anyone can receive daily, hourly, even minutely updates on almost anyone else's life. We love to hear about happy circumstances and disasters alike. In this world where the public sphere is increasingly crowding into the private sphere, when do we draw the line in order to preserve a person's privacy?
In writing this post, I realize I've probably told too much of my sister's more-than-unfortunate day today. It's a good thing family is so forgiving.
While this thought seemed promising at first, it got me thinking about updating the Facebook status. I wanted to say that I was thinking about my sister, but I didn't know how much she wanted everyone on her Facebook to know about her situation, and I knew that if I was vague on purpose ("My thoughts are with you, Chels! Hope you're doing ok!" or something like that) then I would get a whole bunch of comments asking why I was thinking about her, what was going on, was everything ok, etc., etc. And herein lies my quandary: How do you post a Facebook status update that conveys all you want it to convey without infringing on someone else's privacy?
I know that Facebook status updates don't always necessarily concern telling someone else's story. However, people are still such a huge part of our lives, and Facebook is all about letting people interact with one another. It would be almost impossible to eliminate Facebook statuses that involved other people and their privacy, especially now that Facebook has features like linking, where you can link your status to someone else's profile. I think that many people don't stop to think about how much their status updates can affect their friends and family. That makes it sounds so dramatic, but it's true. What if my sister didn't want anyone to know about her visit to the hospital and I blabbed about it on Facebook? What if, even though I had been vague about the situation, my sister became inundated with phone calls from her Relief Society Presidency because they somehow saw my status update? A lot of times people just aren't aware enough of their Facebook surroundings to think before they update.
Our society today is so focused on social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, where anyone can receive daily, hourly, even minutely updates on almost anyone else's life. We love to hear about happy circumstances and disasters alike. In this world where the public sphere is increasingly crowding into the private sphere, when do we draw the line in order to preserve a person's privacy?
In writing this post, I realize I've probably told too much of my sister's more-than-unfortunate day today. It's a good thing family is so forgiving.
