“Self censoring” – a new social media trend?

What do social media and tattoos have in common? They’re both things you might live to regret!

At the end of 2009 the major search engines brokered deals with the larger social media players (i.e. Twitter), allowing them to index real time content and thus further embedding social information within search results.

Will consumers and businesses start trawling for information via the likes of Google and what will they come up with?

As we continue to live in the now, we tend to forget about the potential long term implications associated with Social Media. For example, a recent security flaw on Facebook highlighted that there is the potential to compromise private conversations.

Should consumer privacy concerns continue to mount; what are the implications to businesses? Will consumers tend to shy away from engaging with brands within Social Media platforms? How will consumer behaviour change?

An article published recently in the New York Times discussed how the concerned “Tell-All Generation Learns to Keep Things Offline” are increasingly “self censoring” digital assets they post on social media networks. Concerns regarding potential career prospects were covered in the article; where photos of not so flattering or derogative comments may come back to haunt you one day. Will prospective employers use these forums to conduct character references? Other concerns related to identity theft and other privacy related matters are also discussed.

Research findings published in the New York Times article showed “In its telephone survey of 1,000 people, the Berkeley Centre for Law and Technology at the University of California found that 88 percent of the 18- to 24-year-olds it surveyed last July said there should be a law that requires Web sites to delete stored information. And 62 percent said they wanted a law that gave people the right to know everything a Web site knows about them.”

Given this insight how will social media play out? Will it be the role of government to facilitate stringent privacy legislation or will it be left in the hands of the consumer?

What are your thoughts? Will this slow down uptake?

Tags: facebook security, Search Engines, social media, social media platforms, twitter