Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T20:43:17.948Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reclaiming Care and Privacy in the Age of Social Media

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2022

Hugh Desmond
Hugh Desmond*
Affiliation:
Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, CNRS/Paris-I Sorbonne
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Social media has invaded our private, professional, and public lives. While corporations continue to portray social media as a celebration of self-expression and freedom, public opinion, by contrast, seems to have decidedly turned against social media. Yet we continue to use it just the same. What is social media, and how should we live with it? Is it the promise of a happier and more interconnected humanity, or a vehicle for toxic self-promotion? In this essay I examine the very structure of social media communications in order to sketch how we should engage with social media. Social media communications are, I argue, a public communication of private content. This allows connections to be made with others in ways that would not otherwise be possible; however, it also submits the private to a status competition, which in turn is linked to mental health challenges. A ‘virtuous’ engagement with social media means being aware of these dynamics, and choosing to subordinate social media to other, more important goods.

Type
Paper
Information
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 92: Values and Virtues for a Challenging World , October 2022 , pp. 45 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allcott, Hunt, Braghieri, Luca, Eichmeyer, Sarah, and Matthew Gentzkow, ‘The Welfare Effects of Social Media’, American Economic Review 110 (2020) 629–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Cameron, Hildreth, John Angus D., and Howland, Laura, ‘Is the Desire for Status a Fundamental Human Motive? A Review of the Empirical Literature.’ Psychological Bulletin 141 (2015) 574–601.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Auxier, Brooke, ‘64% of Americans Say Social Media Have a Mostly Negative Effect on the Way Things Are Going in the U.S. Today’. Pew Research Center (blog). (2020). https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/15/64-of-americans-say-social-media-have-a-mostly-negative-effect-on-the-way-things-are-going-in-the-u-s-today/.Google Scholar
Baier, Annette, ‘Trust and Antitrust’, Ethics 96 (1986) 231–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartling, Sönke and Friesike, Sascha, ‘Towards Another Scientific Revolution’. In Opening Science, edited by Bartling, Sönke and Friesike, Sascha, (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2014) 3–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BBC News, ‘Covid Misinformation on Facebook Is Killing People - Biden’, 17 July 2021, sec. US & Canada. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57870778.Google Scholar
Borup, Mads, Brown, Nik, Konrad, Kornelia, and Van Lente, Harro, ‘The Sociology of Expectations in Science and Technology’. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management 18 (2006) 285–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537320600777002.Google Scholar
danah boyd, ‘Social Network Sites as Networked Publics: Affordances, Dynamics, and Implications’. In Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites, edited by Papacharissi, Zizi, (New York: Routledge, 2011) 39–59.Google Scholar
Brady, William J., McLoughlin, Killian, Doan, Tuan N., and Crockett, Molly J., ‘How Social Learning Amplifies Moral Outrage Expression in Online Social Networks’, Science Advances 7 (2021) eabe5641.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brunskill, David, ‘Social Media, Social Avatars and the Psyche: Is Facebook Good for Us?’, Australasian Psychiatry, 21 (2013) 527–532.Google Scholar
Chapais, Bernard, ‘Competence and the Evolutionary Origins of Status and Power in Humans’, Human Nature 26 (2015) 161–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cofone, Ignacio N., ‘Nothing to Hide, but Something to Lose’, University of Toronto Law Journal 70 (2020) 64–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deguara, Brittney, ‘Instagram Removes the like Count for Your Own Good’, Stuff, (2019).Google Scholar
Desmond, Hugh, ‘Professionalism in Science: Competence, Autonomy, and Service’, Science and Engineering Ethics 26 (2020a) 1287–1313. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-019-00143-x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desmond, Hugh. ‘Service and Status Competition May Help Explain Perceived Ethical Acceptability’, AJOB Neuroscience 11 (2020b) 258–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2020.1830874.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desmond, Hugh. ‘Precision Medicine, Data, and the Anthropology of Social Status’, The American Journal of Bioethics 21 (2021) 80–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2021.1891345.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunbar, Robin Ian MacDonald, ‘Neocortex Size as a Constraint on Group Size in Primates’. Journal of Human Evolution 22 (1992) 469–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/0047-2484(92)90081-J.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, Lee, ‘Dominance and Reproductive Success among Nonhuman Animals: A Cross-Species Comparison’, Ethology and Sociobiology 16 (1995): 257–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, Wendy E. and Zarbatany, Lynne, ‘Peer Group Status as a Moderator of Group Influence on Children; Deviant, Aggressive, and Prosocial Behavior’, Child Development 78 (2007), 1240–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellison, Nicole, Heino, Rebecca, and Gibbs, Jennifer, ‘Managing Impressions Online: Self-Presentation Processes in the Online Dating Environment’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 11 (2006), 415–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flink, James J., ‘Three Stages of American Automobile Consciousness’, American Quarterly 24 (1972), 451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frost-Arnold, Karen, ‘The Epistemic Dangers of Context Collapse Online’ In Applied Epistemology, by Frost-Arnold, Karen, (Oxford University Press, 2021) 437–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallo, Mariano and Marinelli, Mario, ‘Sustainable Mobility: A Review of Possible Actions and Policies’, Sustainability 12 (2020), 7499.Google Scholar
Grahame, Kenneth, The Wind in the Willows, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Elspbeth and Bardey, Aurore C., ‘Do Instagram Profiles Accurately Portray Personality? An Investigation Into Idealized Online Self-Presentation’, Frontiers in Psychology 10 (2019), 871.Google ScholarPubMed
Henrich, Joseph and Gil-White, Francisco J, ‘The Evolution of Prestige: Freely Conferred Deference as a Mechanism for Enhancing the Benefits of Cultural Transmission’, Evolution and Human Behavior 22 (2001), 165–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hogan, Bernie, ‘The Presentation of Self in the Age of Social Media: Distinguishing Performances and Exhibitions Online’ Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society 30 (2010) 377–86.Google Scholar
Joiner, Thomas, Why People Die By Suicide, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005).Google Scholar
Keys, Matthew, ‘A Brief History of Facebook's Ever-Changing Privacy Settings’. Medium, 4 May 2018. https://medium.com/@matthewkeys/a-brief-history-of-facebooks-ever-changing-privacy-settings-8167dadd3bd0.Google Scholar
Lees, Loretta, Slater, Tom, and Wyly, Elvin, Gentrification, (Routledge, 2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loader, Brian D. and Mercea, Dan, ‘Networking Democracy?’ Information, Communication & Society 14 (2011), 757–69.Google Scholar
Luc, Jessica G. Y., Archer, Michael A., Arora, Rakesh C., Bender, Edward M., Blitz, Arie, Cooke, David T., Hlci, Tamara Ni, et al. , ‘Does Tweeting Improve Citations? One-Year Results from the TSSMN Prospective Randomized Trial’, The Annals of Thoracic Surgery (2020).Google ScholarPubMed
Marmot, Michael, Status Syndrome: How Your Social Standing Directly Affects Your Health, (London: A&C Black, 2005).Google Scholar
Miller, Faye, ‘Ethical Design Is the Answer to Some of Social Media's Problems’. The Conversation, (2018). http://theconversation.com/ethical-design-is-the-answer-to-some-of-social-medias-problems-89531.Google Scholar
Thi. Nguyen, C., Thi, C., ‘Trust as an Unquestioning Attitude’. Oxford Studies in Epistemology (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Pew, ‘Demographics of Social Media Users and Adoption in the United States’, (2021). https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/.Google Scholar
Price, Michael E. and Van Vugt, Mark, ‘The Evolution of Leader–Follower Reciprocity: The Theory of Service-for-Prestige’, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8 (2014).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pronk, Tila M. and Denissen, Jaap J. A., ‘A Rejection Mind-Set: Choice Overload in Online Dating’, Social Psychological and Personality Science 11 (2020), 388–96.Google Scholar
Reagan, Gillian, ‘The Evolution of Facebook's Mission Statement’, Observer (blog), (13 July 2009). https://observer.com/2009/07/the-evolution-of-facebooks-mission-statement/.Google Scholar
Daniel, Daniel Redhead, Cheng, Joey, and O'Gorman, Rick, ‘Status Competition and Peer Relationships in Childhood’. In Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science, edited by Shackelford, Todd K. and Weekes-Shackelford, Viviana A. (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018) 1–9.Google Scholar
Schmuck, Desirée, Karsay, Kathrin, Matthes, Jörg, and Stevic, Anja, ‘Looking Up and Feeling Down: The Influence of Mobile Social Networking Site Use on Upward Social Comparison, Self-Esteem, and Well-Being of Adult Smartphone Users’, Telematics and Informatics 42 (2019), 101240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silva, Bruno Castanho and Proksch, Sven-Oliver, ‘Politicians Unleashed? Political Communication on Twitter and in Parliament in Western Europe’, Political Science Research and Methods (2021) 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanesini, Alessandra, ‘Social media as affective technologies: anger and polarisation’, Royal Institute Philosophy Supplementary Volume, 92 (2022) 87–109.Google Scholar
Toma, Catalina L. and Hancock, Jeffrey T., ‘Looks and Lies: The Role of Physical Attractiveness in Online Dating Self-Presentation and Deception’, Communication Research 37 (2010) 335–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650209356437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Twenge, Jean M., Haidt, Jonathan, Joiner, Thomas E., and Keith Campbell, W., ‘Underestimating Digital Media Harm’, Nature Human Behaviour 4 (2020) 346–48.Google ScholarPubMed
Twenge, Jean M., Joiner, Thomas E., Rogers, Megan L., and Martin, Gabrielle N., ‘Increases in Depressive Symptoms, Suicide-Related Outcomes, and Suicide Rates Among U.S. Adolescents After 2010 and Links to Increased New Media Screen Time’, Clinical Psychological Science 6 (2018) 3–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Udorie, June Eric, ‘Social Media Is Harming the Mental Health of Teenagers. The State Has to Act.’ The Guardian, (16 September 2015). https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/16/social-media-mental-health-teenagers-government-pshe-lessons.Google Scholar
UK Parliament, ‘Transport Act 1981’. Text. Statute Law Database. (1981). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/56.Google Scholar
Vallor, Shannon, Technology and the Virtues (Oxford University Press, 2016).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Orden, Kimberly A., Witte, Tracy K., Cukrowicz, Kelly C., Braithwaite, Scott, Selby, Edward A., and Joiner, Thomas E., ‘The Interpersonal Theory of Suicide’. Psychological Review 117 (2010), 575–600.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
de Vries, Dian A., Möller, Marthe, Wieringa, Marieke S., Eigenraam, Anniek W., and Hamelink, Kirsten, ‘Social Comparison as the Thief of Joy: Emotional Consequences of Viewing Strangers’ Instagram Posts’, Media Psychology 21 (2018) 222–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Jin-Liang, Wang, Hai-Zhen, Gaskin, James, and Hawk, Skyler, ‘The Mediating Roles of Upward Social Comparison and Self-Esteem and the Moderating Role of Social Comparison Orientation in the Association between Social Networking Site Usage and Subjective Well-Being’, Frontiers in Psychology 8 (2017).Google ScholarPubMed
Wheeler, Ladd, ‘Motivation as a Determinant of Upward Comparison’, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 1 (1966), 27–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, Richard G., Mind the Gap: Hierarchies, Health and Human Evolution (Yale University Press, 2001).Google Scholar