Creep Me – Draft 2 (Includes Updated Introduction)
Introduction – Draft 1 (MS Word File)
Introduction Pre and Post Write (MS Word File)
First Draft. Please see above for newer revisions.
In the time period before the rise of social media, to stalk someone would require a great amount of effort and tedious tracking of daily activities. However, 2010 has arrived and social networking has given the power to track a person’s daily activities, including activities several months into the past, preserved in digital form. While normally seen as an invasion of privacy, social media actively encourages self-disclosure to gain a more accurate representation of a user’s interests. The hallmark of examples is Facebook, the social networking website which enjoys one of the most penetrating market spaces in universities. The combination of encouraged self-disclosure and constant connectivity form a new phenomenon, one that has yet to be named in academia. Commonly known as “Facebook creeping” (or simply “creeping”) among the college populace, it is an intermediate ground between traditional online stalking and a social game played among peers. This activity resembles stalker-like behavior on the exterior; however there is generally no intention to harm others and the activity is often done between online “friends”, who may range from complete strangers to close friends. Additionally, some social networking users accept default privacy settings and disclose large amounts of information, which figuratively screams “Creep me!” to anyone who may stumble upon their profile.
However, the lines are still very blurry; if a person were to go on the street and ask for a definition, he or she would receive a myriad of contradictory replies. The intention of this study is to discover the sociological aspects behind why people engage in creeping. As a result, it will forge a definition based on public opinion and compute statistics on what type of people engage in said behavior, as well as their attitudes towards stalker-like activity.
Few studies have been performed directly on the phenomenon in question, however there have been many studies investigating privacy invasion on social networks, use of social capital in online social networking, as well as the changing nature of friendship due to social media. One study notes that social networks blur the nature of friendship because of the inherent egalitarian definition of friend; in other words, there is no distinction among peer groups (Tufekci, 2008). In face-to-face communication, there may be many categories of friends, ranging from close friends, friends in the workplace, friends in college, acquaintances, to strangers. However, until the recent implementation of custom privacy settings in social networks, all “friends” were viewed as equal as far as how much self-disclosed information they could receive via a social network. Additionally, friendships are being kept for longer periods of time than in traditional environments, especially between peers whom seldom communicate (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007).
Privacy has become at the forefront of old media’s crusade against new media, often highlighting stalking incidents on social networks. However, for all the attention that these incidents receive, little attention has been given to creeping, which most college students would attest, occurs with much more frequency than traditional stalking. Current studies investigating privacy concerns find that there is a possible “third person” effect in regards to concerns over personal privacy; in other words, people feel that invasions of privacy are more of a threat to others than themselves (Debatin et.al, 2009). This effect could describe why people engage in the aforementioned behavior, yet have less concern for their own privacy. This is despite findings that most users disclose much more than they intended (Gross & Acquisti, 2005). In addition, it is possible there is a double standard with social acceptability of stalker-like behavior, because people use social networks for the purpose of “social capital accumulation” (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007). Any violation of social protocol could lead to a decrease in capital if the behavior were publically disclosed. For example, Facebook refuses to provide an application to see who views a user’s profile. If users were aware of stalker-like levels of activity from their peers, the social reputation, and therefore capital, of the “stalkers” would be ruined. However, if users found that few people viewed their profile, it may be seen as insulting.
It may be theorized that stalker-like behavior is actually encouraged, even at a subconscious level, because of a desire for attention. Do people send out signals asking to be stalked? This paper will actively investigate these matters. While presently, only light information has been presented about sociological aspects of stalker-like behavior, the literature review will explain these phenomena to a higher degree.
Debatin, B., Lovejoy, J., Horn, A., & Hughes, B. (2009). Facebook and online privacy: Attitudes, behaviors, and unintended consequences. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 15(1), 83-108. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01494.x.
Ellison, N., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook ‘friends:’ Social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143-1168. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x.
Gross, R. & Acquisti, A. (2005) Revelation and Privacy in Online Social Networks (The Facebook Case). Retrieved from http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/~acquisti/papers/privacy-facebook-gross-acquisti.pdf.
Tufekci, Z. (2008). Can You See Me Now? Audience and Disclosure Regulation in Online Social Network Sites. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 28(1), 20-36. doi:10.1177/0270467607311484.
