Mothering on Facebook: Exploring the Privacy/Openness Paradox

Abstract

To post or not to post photographs of children? Is it worth commenting on potentially controversial topics such as vaccinations and breastfeeding in a public forum or even a private group? Facebook offers mothers of young children a range of affordances that were unimaginable in a pre–social networking site (SNS) era, but at the same time presents a new set of dilemmas surrounding parenting in the digital domain. The SNS activity of parents brings the lives of children into online spaces in a way that builds community and social capital, but at the same time creates ethical tensions and raises a series of contemporary quandaries. Drawing upon data from a mixed-methods study, including an online survey of 117 mothers and semi-structured interviews with 17, this article examines Australian mothers’ complex concerns around Facebook and the often-uneasy balance between the need for privacy and the benefits of openness, especially in relation to sharing information about children. The findings show that while issues around privacy were one of the most commonly cited downsides to Facebook use, mothers are becoming increasingly adept at negotiating ways to protect their privacy while enjoying the benefits of openness. These negotiation tactics demonstrate a strong awareness in mothers of young children of the social–political implications of parenting in the digital domain.

‘It Just Gives Me a Bit of Peace of Mind’: Australian Women’s Use of Digital Media for Pregnancy and Early Motherhood

“…Social media provided them with connections to others around the world; but also, crucially, were able to act as forums for very localised knowledges and to facilitate face-to-face friendships (studies by Johnson [28] and Chalken [18] revealed similar findings). There was a reciprocal relationship between in-person interactions and online media.…”

“…The discussion here presented contributes to previous work in this area in several ways: by focusing on the experiences of Australian women (a group that has received little attention thus far); by addressing the full panoply of digital media that are now available to women for both pregnancy and parenting rather than focusing on one media type alone, as most other studies have done; and by considering the complexities of the intersections between information, emotional support, intimacy, personal data generation, sharing and privacy as they are conducted and experienced on the digital media used by women during these life stages. The handful of studies published thus far on the Australian context have found that women are actively using apps and social media for pregnancy and parenting [18,[27][28][29][30]. However, little research has yet investigated the details of how Australian women take up these media in relation to each other, and across their experiences of pregnancy and into the early parenting period.…”

“…They have suggested that women are only just beginning to consider the implications for their children of creating digital profiles about them on social media and using apps [14,16,18,26].…”

“…They typically take a multitude of digital photographs and videos of their children from birth onwards, some of which may be shared with the world on social media sites. Facebook is now commonly used to share details of pregnancy and children with friends and family, while women may use YouTube and Instagram to broadcast images of such events as foetal ultrasounds, the birth of a child and the child's subsequent 'firsts' (first steps, first words and so on) [14][15][16][17][18].…”

Sharenting: Pride, affect and the day‐to‐day politics of digital mothering

“…A small number of articles have begun to investigate the ways in which digital technologies become interwoven in everyday mothering practice (e.g. Blum‐Ross & Livingstone, ; Chalklen & Anderson, ; Frizzo‐Barker & Chow‐White, ; Johnson, , ; Moravec, ). For example, specific apps act as tools to embody “good” mothering ideals (such as using apps that allow child development tracking) as well as providing a means to delegate some responsibilities (vaccine timers, notifications, scheduling).…”