Response to Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck

Social convergence, which emerged due to advances in media and technology, has led to the loss of people’s ability to control information because it has replaced the idea of separating social contexts and audiences with convergence applications (such as news feeds).  “Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck” by Danah Boyd was written in response to users’ privacy concerns after Facebook’s 2006 addition of the news feed feature.  The article examined the costs of social convergence.  I agree with Boyd’s belief that social convergence “is most likely here to stay” and that people must think about how they can adjust to it, and how it may change their privilege of privacy.  I think Facebook’s addition of privacy controls effectively balanced out the costs of its social convergence by its news feeds.  However, without the privacy option, I know many people would not post any public information on Facebook.   I also agree with Boyd, that “the question remains as to whether or not privacy is something that society wishes to support.”  Conversely, I think that many people create social profiles on websites, not simply to maintain contacts, but in order to gain friends or followers and they actually want their lives displayed to the public.  I think a person’s issue with regard to privacy loss as a result of social convergence depends primarily on their degree of desire to protect their privacy.