Millennials and the normalization of surveillance on Facebook

Abstract

While surveillance is usually understood as the purposeful monitoring of individuals by those in authority, ‘participatory surveillance’ is a type of surveillance where people willingly keep watch on each other through social media. An anonymous focus group and online survey of 81 Australians categorized as part of the Millennial Generation investigated their experience of both authority and participatory surveillance on Facebook, that is, their awareness of the level of surveillance they themselves are under and their surveillance of others. The results reveal that this group is generally concerned about privacy and security for their personal information, though not always sure what they should do to ensure it, and that they are willing to access and distribute the personal information of others. They generally feel that protecting their information from individuals and from the government is a greater concern than ensuring privacy from commercial entities. However this group believe that a reduction in privacy, on and off line, is part of contemporary life, and giving up some information is necessary to participate in the online environment. Social media’s participatory surveillance appears to be preparing young people for a lifetime of being watched, by helping to re-define understandings of privacy.