Why Facebook’s privacy policy doesn’t work: We’re not in college anymore
It’s pretty simple what’s going on, now that I’ve had a chance to think.
Facebook’s ethos is ‘radical transparency’
- Everything should be shared
- All information should be free
- We should share all our information
- This would make us all equal
This is why:
- we have the News Feed
- the privacy default is public
- Facebook is built for sharing
Whether you like it or not,
that’s the theory,
and those are the products of it.
But why does Facebook have this ethos, and why do so many people dislike it?
The reason is quite simple:
Facebook was designed by college students
College students like to share and gossip with classmates
As for everyone else, while we like to share too
We don’t like sharing with everyone
We don’t like all our circles to be open
Because we’ve added other circles since leaving college
We don’t necessarily share the same things
With old friends as work colleagues
Facebook’s privacy policy is ‘open’ because Facebook’s designers never left college
You can’t explain why radical transparency doesn’t work to Mark Zuckerberg, because he’s never had a boss, or work colleagues other than his college buddies. On a certain psychological level, the Facebook team is still at college, still sharing everything with everyone, still jostling for popularity. No wonder they can’t see what the problem is for the rest of us …
It really is that simple: remember, it was designed as an alternative to a college yearbook. But we’re not in college anymore!