Managing tensions between privacy and connection in the sharing of personal information ownership on social media: overall and by gender

ABSTRACTDrawing on the premise of dialectical tensions in the management of privacy and connectivity, this study proposes a model presenting a clue to the privacy paradox: how social media users negotiate information ownership while reacting to privacy concerns. The study further examines gender differences in the perception of privacy concerns and negotiation of information ownership. The findings show that others’ sharing of information ownership influenced one’s own sharing of information ownership. While privacy concerns increased privacy rule adaptation, positive norms of shared information ownership negatively influenced privacy rule adaptation. There were gender differences found: women were more likely than men to react positively to expand shared information ownership and to regulate the degree of shared information ownership by adapting their privacy rules. Men were less likely than women to be concerned about privacy in reflection of the positive norms of sharing information ownership on social media.KEYWORDS: Privacyshared information ownershipnorms of shared information ownershipprivacy rule adaptation Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 IRB Protocol # E15-483, approved by the Institutional Review Board at Rutgers University.2 Future researchers should note that when this model was tested with the desire for connection and others’ sharing of information were not tied to any variables, the modification indices prioritized adding a path from others’ sharing of information ownership to self’s sharing of information ownership, rather than a path from the desire for connection to self’s sharing of information ownership. This finding shows that others’ sharing of information ownership plays a more significant role than the desire for connection in predicting self’s sharing of information ownership.