Privacy on Facebook

Facebook is used by people from all around the world all varying in age, sex and race. This social networking site forms as an ideal platform for communication. You can keep in touch with pre-existing friends no matter what their location is around the globe. Through this online site you create a profile for yourself in which you can share as little or as much personal information about yourself as desired. You can establish online relationships with people from the offline world resulting in what Danah Boyd calls “social convergence.” Boyd says “social convergence requires people to handle disparate audiences simultaneously without a social script” (Boyd 18). She further goes on to discuss how people perform differently in different situations. It is a well known fact that people act differently in different places and spaces. With Facebook you are thrown in the deep end as all your friends can see your information through your profile page. Through social convergence people from various aspects of your life, (e.g. family, work colleagues and friends) can all see the same information thus there is no longer the separation of identity. Social convergence means you can no longer separate people from different aspects of your life as you can see them and they can see you within the confines of social networking sites especially Facebook. I can see why some people think social convergence is a problem. For example, you can be friends with your boss or your family alongside your everyday friends. Your friends can upload and tag you in images such as being drunk or jumping in a rubbish bin or even post on your wall about silly things you have done. This is not something you want your boss or your family members to see although through social convergence they can as they are your friend and can see your profile. This is easily dismissible though as you can hide information from your family or boss by only allowing them to see particular aspects of your profile hiding incriminating photos or comments. Thus I don’t think social convergence is a problem and as Boyd says it is most likely here to stay, we just need to be prepared for what it could mean (19).

I think this is interesting to look at. Bascally we can see that as more and more people converge onto Facebook more and more people from different aspects of your life will be able to see the other parts of your life throgh your interaction with your other 'online friends.'
I dont see this as a problem personally. Facebook always gives you the option of hiding people from seeing particular information to specific people. This is handy as you can be friends with family without being looked down upon due to your Saturday night halabalu.