“Without privacy there was no point in being an individual.” – Jonathan Franzen
With the rise of social media channels, a lot of countries utilize them in different ways and purposes. In fact, privacy is an important point where all of our opinions may differ. We have all seen privacy scandals happen in the past few years and we are growing more aware of how our data is being used to “manipulate” some of our behaviors (e.g. targeted ads which influence our buying behavior). Some countries choose to be more private with what they share, whereas others really value followers, and are more open with their information and what they post on social media. Some of these differences can be attributed to cultural beliefs. In this article, we will be looking at individualistic and collectivistic cultures and how they differ in social media usage, self-disclosure, privacy outlooks, perceptions and behaviors.
This article will discuss the following points:
- The link between social media and cultures
- Differences in trust, privacy and self-disclosure
- Conclusion and resources
The link between social media and cultures
In this article, culture is defined as the shared attitudes, views, categorizations, expectations, norms, and roles between people who have a common language, historical background and location. There are two main distinctions when it comes to describing a culture:
- Collectivistic, or interdependent cultures - the key idea revolves around the community;
- Individualistic, or independent cultures - the key idea is about the rights, concerns, expectations, of each person.
This differentiation is reflected in each country’s relationships, how they dress, speak, carry business matters and so on[2,5].
We know that each culture is unique with their own set of traditions, beliefs. However, social media has created bonds between people where it does not matter if you come from different cultures or countries. With the rise of globalization and social media, the way we interact with each other is more similar than we think[3].
Self-construal
The concept of self-construal refers to how people view and perceive themselves with regards to other people. There are two types of self-construal: independent and interdependent self-construal. Eastern cultures are most mainly collectivist, hence place a high importance on social cohesion and the common good. This means that their self-construal is more interdependent.
In contrast to this, western individualist cultures place an emphasis on distinguishing oneself from others, and therefore place a high value on personal success. Hence, their self-construal is independent.
Differences in trust, privacy and self-disclosure
A study done by Trepte and Masur (2016) investigated countries in regard to social media usage, self-disclosure, privacy attitudes and perspectives. The countries that were examined are: United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and China [4].
When we look at differences between each country in terms of how much they use social media each day, there are no particular findings[4]. The authors found that all countries use social media for at least an hour / an hour and 30 minutes. The only differences they found were related to what kind of websites they use. Europeans were more likely to engage in wiki types of platforms, whereas Chinese and American users were more likely to spend time on microblogging platforms like Twitter[4].
An interesting finding from this study involves people’s perspectives on privacy. It was found that German participants are more prone to apply privacy settings which will limit the amount of data and information that is taken. Specifically, they limited their profile information such as name, age, where they are from etc. compared to other countries. In addition to this, Germans saw certain information as more private. For example, the data shows that posting things about their relationship status could influence their privacy. Thus, they are more careful with what they share. In general, Europeans had a smaller network and number of followers, limited how visible they are on social media, and were more likely to use privacy settings. In contrast, American participants were more likely to have an open profile, upload more pictures and engage in these types of behaviors more than the other countries[4].
Another finding that is interesting is what is seen as private changes from country to country. Chinese users’ data shows that information about work, financial status etc. were not that private for them. But information about what they like and dislike, food, music, and their ideas about politics seemed more private compared to other countries[4].
A study [6]showed that people who are young and that use social media a lot are more likely to trust what they see on social media channels, and hence prone to sharing aspects of their lives. Additionally, the authors point to the fact that people who are more experienced on social media share a higher amount of information about their personal lives. Thus, they concluded that the more social media you use, the more you may trust what is on there.
Lastly, people who are more prone to sharing information on social media platforms will do it often when there is a high sense of ethical culture[1]. Thus, ethics can be pointed as a mediator in the relationship between social media usage and privacy concerns. In this study, how much a person shared their information online was linked with the user’s cultural background. For Korean users, it is crucial that the community thinks the platform is trustable, but for American users what the individual thinks matters more. Again, this goes back to the argument of collectivistic cultures and individualistic cultures. There should be more studies to investigate this effect to understand the role of cultures[1].
All in all, the evidence shows that each culture influences how a person views trust, privacy, self-disclosure and self-construal. Europeans tend to be more careful with what they share, but Americans demonstrate an open culture in the online environment. For Asian countries, what kind of information is shared influences what they see as private[1,4,6].
Conclusion
In conclusion, culture can have an influence on how you view privacy and what you do. Personally, I was intrigued by this topic when I saw the new season of You on Netflix. As we have seen throughout the tv show, just by looking at your social media, people can get to know you a lot more than you think. Let us know what you think about privacy down below. Do you share a lot of information online or do you like to keep things to yourself? Do you think your information is fully protected? Watch this series as food for thought!
If you would like to learn more about the topic, you can watch these videos:
1. Is social media erasing the borders between cultures?: Tim Richardson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZKIlHnOsL0&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
2. On Internet Culture and Social Media, Crystal Abidin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTH4iDCpWfU
3. Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture, Min Kim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpjWioF6iMo
References:
1. Chai, S. (2020). Does Cultural Difference Matter on Social Media? An Examination of Ethical Culture and Information Privacy Concerns. Sustainability, 12(19), 8286.
2. Gackenbach, J., Yu, Y., Lee, M. N., Zhou, Z., & Yu, G. (2016). Gaming, social media, and gender in Chinese and Canadian cultures. Gender, Technology and Development, 20(3), 243-278.
3. Sawyer, R., & Chen, G. M. (2012). The impact of social media on intercultural adaptation.
4. Trepte, S., & Masur, P. K. (2016). Cultural differences in social media use, privacy, and self-disclosure: Research report on a multicultural study.
5. Triandis, H. C. (1993). Collectivism and individualism as cultural syndromes. Cross-cultural research, 27(3-4), 155-180.
6. Warner-Søderholm, G., Bertsch, A., Sawe, E., Lee, D., Wolfe, T., Meyer, J., ... & Fatilua, U. N. (2018). Who trusts social media?. Computers in human behavior, 81, 303-315.