Mothering on Facebook: exploring the privacy/openness paradox
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(Published version)
Date
2017
Authors
Chalklen, C.
Anderson, H.
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Journal article
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Social Media + Society, 2017; 3(2):1-10
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To post or not to post photographs of children? Is it worth commenting on potentially controversial topics such as vaccinations and breastfeeding in a public forum or even a private group? Facebook offers mothers of young children a range of affordances that were unimaginable in a pre–social networking site (SNS) era, but at the same time presents a new set of dilemmas surrounding parenting in the digital domain. The SNS activity of parents brings the lives of children into online spaces in a way that builds community and social capital, but at the same time creates ethical tensions and raises a series of contemporary quandaries. Drawing upon data from a mixed-methods study, including an online survey of 117 mothers and semi-structured interviews with 17, this article examines Australian mothers’ complex concerns around Facebook and the often-uneasy balance between the need for privacy and the benefits of openness, especially in relation to sharing information about children. The findings show that while issues around privacy were one of the most commonly cited downsides to Facebook use, mothers are becoming increasingly adept at negotiating ways to protect their privacy while enjoying the benefits of openness. These negotiation tactics demonstrate a strong awareness in mothers of young children of the social–political implications of parenting in the digital domain.
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Copyright 2017 The Authors This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercia l3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/)