Facebook Celebrity: Why We Give Away Our Privacy on Facebook

With recent additions to Facebook such as the "Mini-Feed," our Facebook friends will always know what we're up to, whether it's attending the block party on Saturday night or tagging photographs of ourselves. These days I hear so many Facebook users complain about the lack of privacy, but then why use Facebook if it encroaches on your privacy so much? The easiest solution to these complaints is to stop using Facebook. The problem is that while many might entertain the idea, few can bear it's consequences. But why do we stay connected if we claim to hate it's invasion of our privacy?

The reason is because we actually love it. We may not realize it, but subconsciously we love it when other people invade our privacy. It is not as if we have paparazzi problems whenever we leave our houses, so we enjoy it when other people pay close attention to our lives and activities. This is a phenomenon that I am terming "facelebrity" (pronounced "fay-celebrity" or "face-elebrity").

In fact everyone who joins Facebook automatically becomes a facelebrity. Any one of your Facebook friends sees what changes you make to your profile and events in their News-Feed. Thus, like it or not, they are stalking you, gleaning more information about you than you are willing to tell them directly. I believe that we all get a sense of importance from this fact. When we make changes to our Facebook accounts, we know that people see these changes. Why exactly do we make these changes?

Let's look at one example. In your profile under "Favorites" exists a category for movies. You watch Braveheart and really enjoy it for its cinematic value. You subsequently list Braveheart under you favorite movies. Listing Braveheart on Facebook does not change the fact that you liked the movie, nor does is validate that fact. On some level you changed your movie preferences so that other people on Facebook would see; this mean that you are trying to convey something or create an image for yourself on Facebook. One might argue that you list such details about yourself to find others who share the same interests; how often do you really click on a movie to see who else shares it as a favorite?

What does this say about us? Just as when we enter a new environment or meet new people, many of us attempt to reshape our image slightly, tailoring it to make changes that we desire in ourselves. This is human nature; we constantly change and adapt to our surroundings. Facebook offers an artificial but easy method of change, in which our person can change with a few clicks, whereas in the real world, it may take real time and effort.

On Facebook we are all facelebrities, creating our personal images through our profile decisions and virtual actions. Facebook provides a certain aspect of celebrity to the common man, which is one reason that so many subscribe; it allows us to taste facelebrity.