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Tag Archive: Privacy

The “We” Economy

Written on November 16, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

Over 100 years ago, one of the most significant societal, economic and culture changes forever changed life around us. It created industry, populated urban areas, created the employee, introduced the theory of selling your time for monetary value and for better or worst, it, the Industrial Revolution, manifested and proliferated a ‘Me’ Economy. And until recently, that has remained relatively the same.

Over the past decade, a drastic shift has been occurring. Whether you dub it the Digital, Internet or most recently Social Media Revolution, this significant force is moving us into a completely new direction. One that moves us towards a group mentality. It gathers the crowd. It “benefits” us if we all choose to be a part of it. It creates a system of trade-offs that not only causes you to sell your time for some sort of value but one that asks you to sell your personal behaviour, privacy and information as well. This is the ‘We’ Economy.

The very foundations of Facebook, GroupOn, Twitter, Klout, LinkedIn, YouTube and everything that is social involves one, and the most important and underlying aspect, which is that we all choose to participate. This also extends into the current world of apps, smart phones and tablets. The reality is that it doesn’t take too much for us to participate. Who doesn’t want to see and follow their friends? Want a deal? Have a professional profile? Want to watch videos of all makes and kinds? Leverage their social activity of bragging rights, recognition or some sort of perk? Have a cool mobile product and useful apps? The We Economy needs us all to participate. And we are, willingly, participating.

Our participation validates this new business model and it validates the ideas behind it. It’s business and it’s personal. Your personal self is of significant value of which becomes quite lucrative and valuable when you and I and millions of others decide to opt-in. We are the fuel and sole purpose that moves a new world that is stepped in service. A service that is engulfed at satisfies our needs of self-gratification. Right now, we’re all consumed by this. And naturally so. From the effects of cool, new and exciting to peer and group mentalities, it’s in our human nature to pursue these endeavours. Regardless of them being deemed good or bad.

But if everything is based on business and selling a product or service, how true can our experiences really be? As Sam Fiorella points out in his blog post, I’m Taking Back My Influence; Opting Out of Klout, building your perceived online influence is ultimately a business venture based on tracking your social media information. It requires that we participate for both the sake of validity, it’s existence and business. Further, Google’s introduction of their new social network Google+ is suppose to have a direct correlation to your Google+ and search results. Not to mention it’s frequent algorithm changes, most recently, for “fresher” results. And then there is Apple’s Siri, who will ultimately change and decide things for us. Flipping many aspects like online search on it’s head.

The current mentality and one that propagates the We Economy is that we either choose to be a part of it or lose out. It is shaped by the information we provide and not the information that it is unaware of. It produces statistics, data, behaviours and algorithms that are suppose to be deemed real, relevant and accurate. It is one that unknowingly shapes us more than we know or acknowledge. It tells us and forces us to believe what we see is what we want. We do not care about or acknowledge the unknown. So we become biased to everything we see online, in our profiles, in searches, in conversations, et cetera. All encompassed by ‘we’.

To say this is good or bad will be truly unknown. Where one would argue that by participating in this social world we are entering an age of many issues that will inherently effect us, such as our misconception of free social media and apps (free = exposure to advertisements + our willingness to be monitored, participating and providing information). However, another would argue that based on everything we provide it will eventually lead to optimal experiences, and services, and products we truly want. And ones we didn’t know we wanted, yet.

Our human nature and intuition has become very much a participatory one, and the further intervention of business into our daily lives has created a series of circumstances that is both unfounded and unprecedented. Like anything else, the good comes with the bad and the opinions follow it. Though, what we know for certain is this, we are amidst a new-era in human history. A new way of behaving, living and thinking. One that is full of mobile devices, social networks, online activities and our ongoing participation by all of us in it. This is the We Economy.

Photo source: razorray15

Is the Social Media Privacy Issue Really A Privacy Issue?

Written on November 15, 2010 by Josip Petrusa

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For some time now, the privacy issue has been at the forefront of all social media discussion. And a serious one at that. Whether it is one of the many individual angles we each face or one of corporate interest based on our employers or business, our understandings and use of social media will keep the privacy issue a hotly contested one.

After all, it should be. Shouldn’t it? We’re entitled to the preservation of our privacy. Aren’t we?

Well there are many realities to this situation. Yes, we are all entitled to a level of privacy. However, we all must understand that we freely give up certain liberties for the free and unpaid use of social media services. And we should be allowed to interact with any individuals we choose in any manner we choose. But we must understand that people do observe and monitor our actions for their own reasons, with possible implications arising from that. And round and round we go.

The debate here is imperative, necessary and extremely crucial. So much so that many individuals and users have taken the privacy issue into their own hands. Many of which have been accomplished simply by implementing a social lifestyle of preventative measures that are undoubtedly indicative and pointing towards a want for greater privacy.

And what better example to dissect than the king of the social media itself, Facebook.

From our early care-free and willy-nilly days on Facebook, many of us, with a few years experience, have taken on preventative behaviours. The most immediate example would be that of limiting all aspects of our profiles and search to only our “friends”. Equally, many us began removing tagged photos from our profiles. Not to mention the deletion and short-listing of “friends” for any variety of reasons.

Then the clever approaches started to come forward and take form. The use of pseudonyms has become common and widespread. Further, individuals began to remove en masse wall-posting capabilities on days prior to their birthdays. I guess we all have our own feelings towards a day of mass messaging. Interestingly, many of these users have begun to keep and implement this setting throughout their online tenure. And even removing the wall from their profile.

But the most fascinating aspect to come out of all of this is something that came out of an article I read over the weekend.

As a blogger and someone immersed in social media, I’m intrigued on a geekish level by elements such as the numbers behind it all. Recently, I’ve been noticing a fair share of profiles disappearing and reappearing both on my personal profile and blog fan page. At first, I thought nothing of the fluctuations. But on closer observation I began to realize a small group of my “friends” were deactivating and reactivating their profiles on a regular basis.

What’s truly amazing here is the article I came across expressed how a growing number of the youngest Facebook users, the Millennials, are continually taking an extreme offline approach by deactivating their profile when logging off Facebook and reactivating it when logging back on, in order to preserve the greatest amount of privacy and control on to their social profiles. Just as surprising is the idea that these same users still want to have a social presence and be part of Facebook in all it’s glory but only in a manner when they’re physically online. Imagine what effect this will have to online relationships, gaming and brand pages if this trend continues.

Understandably, privacy is a serious element within the world of social media. But, if we truly wanted to be private and ensure that privacy, why participate? And on the other hand, why participate if we want extreme levels of privacy in an inherently social setting? Why not log off forever and not place ourselves in this predicament? Even with all the preventative measures we take, we only lessen any consequences but still understand our privacy can be compromised.

So is this all really a matter of privacy, or is the privacy issue itself really one of control? Our concern clearly doesn’t reflect our actions. And there has yet to be the slightest significance of user-revolt. We all know that the internet and what we put on it will last forever, as everyone from Facebook, to corporations, to the government will be listening and recording. This is not about the privacy of our information. This is about us controlling who we are. This is about the having the ability to control our increasingly online presence and lives.

(Photo credit)

Gen-Y Moms Are Digital Moms

Written on October 14, 2010 by Josip Petrusa

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I always and still wonder how digital we will be once we become parents. As parents, our lives will undoubtedly change as we alter and shift our priorities. But what does this mean for our digital nature? After all, Generation Y is a generation that has grown up and continues to grow digitally inclined. Will we carry on and evolve in our digital nature, creating families immersed in the digital world? Or will our smart phone and social media ways regress to be figments of our young adulthood?

Still in mainstream infancy, the social and mobile worlds have yet to be fully realized. With quick swings occurring and segment maturation being an unrecognizable reality at this moment, predicting what can happen next year, in 3 years, 5 years and in 10 is, frankly, impossible.

There has already been some debate over this last summer regarding the social media sharing characteristic of Gen-Y. But even then, I don’t see a future of sharing but rather one of growing connectivity. Trust me, there’s a significant difference between sharing and connecting.

Equally, I’ve brought up the idea that Gen-Y will unknowingly introduce to the world a series of Truman Show-esque children. Complete childhood’s will be recorded online for the world to see. And with friends, family and our long lost colleagues on Facebook, I’ve begun to see a strong influx of young mothers absolutely sharing everything about their young children. Whether this is positive, negative or meaningless remains to be seen. But it’s happening in a large series of circumstances where young Gen-Y mothers have had children. At least, in my experience of course.

All that being said, it’s common knowledge to know that mothers are affluent members of blog communities. Both as bloggers and readers. Commonly and most notably known as mommy bloggers. However, what is new and truly interesting is the findings behind how youth Gen-Y moms are communicating.

In pure Gen-Y fashion, these young mothers lead the way in phone, text and Facebook as methods of communicating with immediate family members. As a recent article via eMarketer reports, Gen-Y does them 21%, 14% and 10% of the time respectively. Further, their amount of in-person conversation with immediate family shows significant disparity from mothers older than them. In-person immediate family communication accounts for less than half of all Gen-Y mother communication at 48% in comparison to Gen-X at 58% and Baby Boomers at 62%.

So what does all this mean? Well, obviously, if the means are there we will use them, especially if they can instantaneously satisfy the situation at hand. Secondly, I can’t see dominating lifestyle factors, such as social media and mobile phones, which have been integrated into Gen-Y life, simply dissipating in a cold turkey like manner. And lastly, although there are clear privacy issues involved with the social and mobile worlds, we still trust these mediums enough to continually incorporate them into our lives.

I also understand that these characteristics aren’t necessarily exclusive to Gen-Y. Non Gen-Y mothers do the same things. I won’t deny that. The point here is not to indicate the similarities but rather, to show the notion that picking up a digital lifestyle is vastly different from growing up digital. And growing a digital family structure. And digitally grown parents parenting their digital children. We can hardly understand both the positive and negative implications here. Though, what is for certain here is Gen-Y moms are digital moms. Were we all really expecting everything to stay the same?

(Photo 1 credit, Photo 2 credit)

It’s Not Just About Privacy, Millennials Want Trust

Written on September 2, 2010 by Josip Petrusa

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Historically, information has been used to keep records of citizens, patrons, customers, employees and more. As the times evolved, this information was used to maximize opportunity, improve experiences and simply, use the information to gain any advantage possible. But as everything else evolved, methods of gathering information followed suit.

Collecting information seems like a harmless act. We’ve decided to give it to them, so they have the absolute ability and authority to use it. It’s been in the small print since the earliest days of the internet amongst other technological innovations over the last two decades. And we’ve accepted most of it without question. Even disregarding George Orwell’s concerns from 70 years earlier.

Knowingly and unknowingly, we’ve given up privacy over the years simply by surfing the web. What’s fascinating with this is the growth of social networking sites and our understanding that we’re giving up privacy for the sake of it’s use. 85% of Millennials understand that by participating in social media, they’re giving up part of their privacy. Further, 81% said their social profiles are but only a snapshot of who they really are.

Seems like a perfect trade off, doesn’t it? Alright, so we’ve all signed the “deal with the devil”, since we want to use it but we’re not saying everything about ourselves. And many Millennials have accepted this. Even with mass privacy concerns in the social media environment, users have hardly been deterred from it as a result of privacy concerns. And Facebook would be the perfect example of this. How many Millennials, how many of you have stopped using it because of its extreme privacy issues? Not many. Nothing notable to talk about out of it’s 500 million plus users.

Of course we understand, especially with social media, what we put up will be viewed by others, even by those on the back-end. It’s often been said that our lack-of-concern has made many Millennials unwary of the impact our incredible online use can have for each Millennial’s personal image. Trust me, we understand this. Some of us even want to be found.

Millennials are very willing to accept the “terms of use” in everything we sign up for. From the apps on our smart phones to the many sites we frequent, we understand our actions are monitored. Sadly, we accept it for the sake of use. But at the same time, we hope, we trust that the information that is taken from us about us will be used accordingly.

For many of us, the ideas of privacy and trust running synonymously together. However, mistakenly, we often assume one in the same for both ideas. Merriam-Webster defines them as the following:

Privacy (noun): the quality or state of being apart from company or observation. Freedom from unauthorized intrusion.

Trust (noun) – assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something. One in which confidence is placed.

There clearly is two defining distinctions. And though the notions of privacy and trust do run hand it hand, Millennials belief in trading a little privacy does not coincide with them trusting the same environments.

Of those aged 18-29 years olds, 79% “never” trust social networking sites or only trust them “some of the time”. And even though Millennials are highest amongst all users who alter their privacy settings to be more private, there’s an unmistakeable want for a sense of trust of their privacy. We want control of what we put online. And we don’t want our permissions to be dragged in to other unknown areas. But then again it’s easier for everyone to be “tricked” into participating in something unknowingly, since many users, customers, people never “opt-out” of anything. Imagine how useless things would be if you had to “opt-in”. No one would.

A distorted understanding of users-based permissions, of which are in the small print, will cause a negative-trend amongst all users. 70% of all consumers who “liked” a Facebook fan page feel they didn’t give that company permission to market to them. Getting permission from Millennials is imperative. The worst thing you can do is spam a Millennial. It’s not only useless, but it gives us something to hold against you. And trust, we’ll remember. And tweet about it. And start a Facebook page about it. It’s not good for company PR. Since 44% of us have used social media to both rant and rave about brands, companies and products. How about giving us something to “rave” about instead.

What’s interesting about all this, it’s having profound effects on Millennials in the offline world. Millennials trust offline marketing pitches 3 to 1 more than those online. Makes you wonder why there is such an emphasis in online and social media marketing if we don’t trust you. Even though we’re willing to give up some of our privacy, we’re not willing to give up our trust.

The result of this has created Facebook spin-offs like CollegeOnly, where only those in actual colleges are allowed to be users on the site. Investors are not even granted user access. Talk about privacy, trust and a Millennial orientated social networking site.

It seems that even though we’ve given up levels of our privacy, any distrust in our relationship will cause Millennials to react. As issues of privacy have become a growing case, especially with the likes of Facebook – pun intended – Millennials will ultimately not trust the online world or even social media for that matter. So what does this mean to you? It means that you shouldn’t betray us. We’ve given you our privacy but we won’t as willingly hand you our trust. That’s something you will have to earn.

(Photo credit)

Facebook Babies: A Generation Growing Up Online

Written on July 21, 2010 by Josip Petrusa

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About two weeks ago, Mashable published an article based on a study by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research. The study points out the behavior of women on Facebook. And there’s more than a few interesting numbers to come out of this. 34% of women between the ages of 18-34 will check Facebook before doing anything else after they wake up; 21% will check it in the middle of the night; 79% are fine with putting up pictures of themselves kissing along with 42% putting up pictures of themselves intoxicated; and finally 39% consider themselves to be addicts.

Emerging Facebook Behavior

What’s interesting here is that 54% don’t trust Facebook with their private information and a clear majority of 89% say they would never put up anything they wouldn’t want their parents to see. It’s fascinating that the study points out behaviours on both sides of the spectrum. At one side, these women are clearly into the Facebook scene. However, in that same breath, they want to be private, to some degree, about what they share.

As we’ve all seen, Facebook privacy has become a serious issue. Governments have even rallied to oppose some of Facebook’s action. With all that being said, I’ve seen a growing trend on Facebook. And it’s one that has got me dumbfounded. One with more serious implications than any us can possibly comprehend – considering it’s never happened before. This trend is the emergence of Facebook Babies.

And I’m not talking about children being conceived because of Facebook or people starting their relationships on Facebook. That’s another story in itself. What I’m pointing out here is the drastic increase of individuals – and from my own observations, young Gen-X and older Gen-Y mothers – putting up pictures of their newborns on Facebook. If you’re experiencing deja-vu and flashbacks of Jim Carrey’s “The Truman Show” you’re not be alone.

Growing Up Online

Although “The Truman Show” is a movie based on chronicling the life of a man, which was made to be a reality-based TV show within the movie, these Facebook Babies will in essence experience the same thing. If these patterns hold true, these children will have their entire lives recorded on Facebook for the world to see. Can you even imagine your parents sharing everything about you growing up to people beyond those that were always around you? It’s mind-blowing to even think of the thought.

What’s even more interesting is that this goes back to my article of understanding the growing difference between sharing and connecting. I argue that the earlier half of the Millennials will be prone to sharing information online, more particularly those born in the early 1980s to early 1990s. When you take it one step further, these Facebook Babies are from parents, especially mothers, that are born in and around this time. As a result, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an entire generation literally grow-up online. Based on my numbers from my previous article, the study linked at the beginning and through observation, Facebook Babies will represent a generation starting in the years of 2008-2010 and one that might last to 2020-2024. Maybe even beyond.

Facebook Babies: A Generation of Firsts

We will watch an entire generation of firsts. First birthdays, first steps, first days of school and so on. Though privacy is a legitimate and serious issue, we’ve all lightly brushed that aside for what we presume to be a fair trade-off for use. The irony here is that the majority of us – Millennials and Gen-Y – would never want anything to do with our parents online, yet we are putting pictures up of our own young children. Not only is this ironic, the ramifications to this trend could be extremely severe. Something we’ll face only after it happens.

Unfortunately, we really won’t know the ramifications of any of this until time passes and these children grow up. In my opinion, this is a situation that is beyond serious and something that shouldn’t be taken lightly at all. No one really knows what this can lead to. It’s one thing to have photo albums in our house. However, it’s a completely different world and experience to be sharing those photo-albums with everyone else. Am I overstating the simple and harmless act of picture sharing? Possibly. Though, to some degree we already have serious issues with sharing pictures of children.

Like I stated above, imagine if your parents did this to you. After all, these Facebook Babies don’t know any better than to smile at the camera when you say “cheese.” They at least deserve the slightest protection and a safe environment. These Facebook Babies will always be smiling. Let’s not give them something to frown about when they grow up and realize what’s going on.

How Will Gen-Y Change the World: A Gen-Y Mini-Series (Part 4 of 5)

Written on June 4, 2010 by Josip Petrusa

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Smart phones, pads/tablets, apps, social media, social networking, laptops, wifi and 3G are all commonplace aspects of everyday life. And literally everyone is effected in one way or another by these characteristics of “personal” technology. I say “personal” simply due to the fact that we most often use these aspect for our personal self’s. Although everyone is part of this technological revolution, it’s one thing to be involved and it’s something completely different to be growing with it. Gen-Y and all Millennials are growing with this. As both technology and this generation grow along side one another, they will undoubtedly have overwhelming effects on each other.

“Personal” Technologies

As social beings, it is no wonder why these “personal” technologies are absolutely booming right now. We are networking, connecting and living off apps more now than ever before. And Gen-Y is thriving off this. While commuting, walking or waiting we’ll cross something off our “to-do” list with the press of a few buttons. We’re always doing something. Emailing, updating, sharing, BBMing, banking, shopping and the list goes on. There are few things you can’t do while on the go. And as our personal lives interact with the world, we’ve become fine with sharing information that we willingly put “out-there”. But we do have some issues with information taken from us and put out “out-there”.

That’s another reason why I call it “personal” technologies because we very willingly broadcast and share a lot of our personal information that would have never been known otherwise. How would someone have known what we “liked” before. The online privacy issue is only an infant dilemma that Facebook has begun to realise. Our issue is not about what we are sharing but what information is being taken from us and shared unwillingly. If there was such a thing as copyrights for each individual, these rights would have been broken. As serious of an issue this is, it won’t cause Gen-Y to “offline.” A Millennial brought Facebook to us while four Millennials are also bringing the opposite, the Anti-Facebook known as Diaspora, to us. It should be no surprise that Gen-Y is leading the social media and networking realms. (Here’s an interesting side-note: Obama’s online marketing campaign was headed by a co-founder of Facebook, who is also a Millennial. Obama absolutely dominated the Gen-Y vote in his presidential victory.)

Is It “Status Update” Worthy?

Gen-Y absolutely loves to share everything about themselves. But we don’t just share anything. We share on the basis of being responded to. We share to be “cool”, “funny” and anything else that would make us look good. But we also share on a “I can relate to that” basis. So don’t be surprised to see Gen-Y share a sense of failure. We’ve all done poorly on a test so in turn that failure turns out to be something we can all relate to and joke around about. Anything we share is on an “inclusion” basis and goes back to what I wrote in Part 3 about “groups” think. If something seems to fit these characteristics, it is definitely “status update” worthy for Gen-Y.

What’s interesting about this is we’re all looking for something to share. The great thing about sharing is we expose the world around us. We have the ability to create movements at the press of a “tweet”. There is great power to be harnessed on the online world. Whether it be informing everyone about the Iranian student protests, donating to victims of Haiti or demanding action for the BP oil spill, our technological generation can have a huge impact. But this impact can be both positive and negative.

Technological Reliance – A Gen-Y Problem

There is no doubt that technology has positive and powerful impacts to better our lifestyles. However there is an issue that Gen-Y will have to address as we move forward and that is our reliance on technology. Technology itself does not make the world a better place, its what we choose to do with that technology that makes things better. Having the ability to SMS donations for Haiti relief was truly amazing. But have we so soon forgotten the devastation that occurred. Who is helping now? And what about an equally devastating earthquake that occurred in Chile not too long after. Why didn’t we SMS relief for them. These are only but two issues where we think somehow everything will take care of itself. And I fear our reliance, especially on technology, will be a serious problem with Gen-Y.

We already feel helpless when we are without our smart phones for a few days. How many phones numbers do you remember? But the upside is, I don’t have to waste money on something someone else shared on how “bad” it was. And asking for help is a “share” or “tweet” away. But what kind of help are we willing to give? Will Gen-Y help the world or just each other? Are we just “status updaters” or actual doers? Many of these questions will answer themselves as we go forward into the future simply due to the fact that this relationship, although vast and large, is fairly new. However, it is certain that Gen-Y will continue to rely on technology and its “personal” abilities as we continue to update every step of the way.

We’ve come to the magical point in the Gen-Y Mini-Series as only the final part remains. On Monday I hope you tune into Part 5 and what will be the answer to the question “How Will Gen-Y Change the World?” Stay tuned, for just one more time…