On Internet today, we share information about ourselves without reflecting over whom we share it with. We update a thought or opinion from our private sphere, safe from judgmental others, which dares us to share even more explicit information.
With this study I wanted to see how people should react by having a wall in the real world that symbolized a wall from any social networks on Internet. To what extent should they share their opinions or thoughts in public? How did they feel about posting something and then leave. Should they wonder if someone else should comment their post? Should the wall attract any attention from by passers?
I started to set up a wall in the center of Lund, where I knew many people pass on daily basis. The bus central was a perfect spot where people might have the time of writing or reading when waiting for their bus.
Then I asked bypassing people if they used social networking, and if they would like to post something on this public wall. While they were posting something I had some questions prepared for them. I asked them why they placed their post in a specific spot, but no one seemed to have an answer for that, so I put my focus on other questions like, how they behave on the Internet, and what the difference is to post something in an opened place compared to the Internet.
I considered the bad weather conditions when I prepared this study. I knew that people might be cold and not that willing to collaborate and to some extent I was right, even though I did get some interesting input. One observation was that it was the younger group of people that took their time of writing something, while it was the older groups that took their time of reading. The biggest crowd of people moving on this area was the younger people around the age of 17 – 24, on their way to or from school or older people that did not use any social media. I used 5 hours to this study, until my toes could not handle the cold anymore.
I had set up 2 walls out of 4 on a pole, and when people were reading, I saw that they continued around the pole to see if something was posted on the other two sides as well. This is a pattern that is similar on the Internet. People are a curious kind, and will continue to read once they found something by interest.
Another interesting observation was when I decided to take my lunch. I prepared the wall with pens and white papers stuck all over, before I headed for a coffee shop near by where I had a good view of the wall. I could see people gather around the pole and read and even write. When I returned half an hour later there were several posts and comments made on the wall. The conclusion I took from that and from the earlier conversations was that people write when they feel they are in a private sphere. Lots of the participants said they did not feel comfortable to share something on the wall because they were in a public place where others could see them. But as soon as I left for my lunch, the same amount of posts I had received when I was standing there for a few hours was posted when I was absent for not more than half an hour.
One question I asked was how opened they are with themselves on the Internet in the social networking communities they are members of, e.g. facebook compared to a public space. Most of the people answered that they are private on the Internet, and that they do not add people they do not know, when they receive friend requests. When I asked them if they could precise people they know, the answer from most of the participants were that; as long as they had met that person once, or if it was a friend of a friend those people were included in the group of people they know. One younger man said that he could sometimes add someone if he think he recognize the name. Later when he get accepted from that person, he goes through the photo albums and if it seems like the wrong person, he still keeps that person on his friend list.
One girl did not feel secure of writing any post, even though she adds everyone on facebook and do not think of her privacy settings at all. But she felt awkward of posting anything in public and had to be drunk to do so. A statement from many of the interviewed people was that facebook was safer; because you had more control of who it is that can read it. One man said it felt more “dangerous” to post something in public than the net. A few people wanted to return the day after to see the responses they might have gotten on their posts, and got disappointed when I told them, I would take them with me afterwards. One man took a photo at his post, and asked me to take a photo at him with the post so he could put it in his facebook. One man stopped and was reading the posts, but when I asked him if he wanted to contribute, he declined with the words that his religion forbids explicit content on the net. “Then you will sin and one day you will have to pay for it.” I asked him how he feels when others might upload photos of him, because it might happen. He said that it feels incredibly insulting and it happened once, and the principal at his school had to step in to get those photos of the Internet. A man in his forties also stopped to read the posts and told me that I was looking at a living proof of an outsider. He thought it was interesting to read the other posts, but he has only used social networking by 2 occasions.
Only a few people that wrote on the wall signed with their own name. When being interviewed they said that they could sign with their names, but should never write down information like email or address. Still they did not sign with their names.
I feel this was an interesting start but I believe that if the weather was better and I had done some things differently, I should have received more useful input. From 19 documented people making posts, 17 of them were under the age of 20. I believe I need to be more provocative in my next test and I am already planning for it.
My impression from the people was that they liked the idea of posting on a wall in public, but felt uncomfortable when they were “supervised” by others or by me. My impression was that they thought they were private on the Internet without reflecting over what private is for them. Some people commented on others and some put some “provocative” posts that could have created interesting reactions from others if the posts should have been up longer than the 5 hours. I wonder if the test should have been different if I put the notes and provided pens, and left it there for a whole day without me being around. I am actually thinking of doing another test like that, when I put the wall up early in the morning and returns around 5pm and collect the result.
. Pretty cool site.
