Privacy In It's Complicated By Danah Boyd

Private is to be closed, hidden, and to portray to be someone different or not themselves. However, even when people think that they are being private they really are not. Nothing is private in this day in time. On the contrary, In the book It’s Complicated, Danah Boyd presents one possible definition of privacy as being, “the claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to others” as suggested by Alan Westin (59). For instance, a person has the right to determine what kind of information is taken about them, and the purpose of that information. By having the right to privacy the government completely controls the people’s lives, and requires the
If a person has a reasonable desire to keep something private, it is disrespectful to ignore that person’s wishes without a convincing reason to do so. Certainly, the desire for privacy can conflict with important values, so having the right to privacy may not always win. Danah Boyd clarify the lack of respect an over protective mother has over her child behavior while surfing around the internet. Moreover, Bly Lauritano-Werner a seventeen year old girl enjoys interacting and communicating with her friends online. Nonetheless, she despises the fact that her mother keeps exploring her social media posts, which leads to disrespect and lack of privacy. Furthermore, Boyd illustrates, “When Bly interviews her mother during the segment, her mother claims that she has the right to look at what Bly posts. She argues that she should be able to look “because I have a connection with you” (57). This demonstrates that Bly Lauritano-Werner mother displayed a lack of respect in her interview. In the interview, Bly Lauritano-Werner desires to keep her social media private. However, her mother disrespects her wishes without strong evidence to support the notion to view her social media post. Nevertheless, life is not always a bed of roses. One cannot expect to win an argument as Bly Lauritano-Werner because her mother is the head of the household and responsible for her child behavior. Conversely, an individual must have a respect to his or her
Many people are not static; they change and grow throughout their lives. There is a great value in the ability to have a second chance, to be able to move beyond a mistake, to be able to reinvent oneself. Privacy nurtures this ability. It allows people to grow and mature without being attacked with all the negative things they might have done in the past. Boyd explains, “When parents choose to hoover, lurk, and track, they implicitly try to regulate teens’ practices. Parents often engage in these acts out of love but fail to realize how surveillance is a form of oppression that limits teens’ ability to make independent choices” (74). By not having the ability to make independent choices enables the teen to grow and mature. People learn by their mistakes which then helps growth and maturity but, if the teen is being under surveillance throughout each day enables change and growth throughout their lives. Consequently, an individual must have privacy in order to change and have second chances without being judge by their