no mom, you can't look at my facebook

Why do teens feel that while many people they know (almost their entire peer public) should be able to have access to all of the information and the projection of self that is represented on their social networking profile, while mom and dad must be left completely out of the loop? Danah Boyd addresses this question in "Why Youth <3 Social Network Sites." The need for social networking sites in the lives of teens and youth in general proves a need that they have traditionally always had: feeling like accessories in the constantly parentally guarded public that they have an opportunity to exist in, they feel as though they have no public at all. Only a few stellar youth are able to captivate the public as individuals, to appear as more than either a "good kid" or a "bad kid." Hence social networking sites create a new public, specifically composed of the users friends and peers, and therefore a comfortable place to express self and interact in a public way. The insertion of the broader, anti-teen public, such as a parent, ruins this public.

However, I have come to accept that this perfect and accepting public of peers is something of an impossible utopia. Now I regulate the content of my facebook with the assumption that caches of it, viewed by some webmining employer, may someday form the core of my resume. On the other hand, I assume that my future employers will look at my current facebook assuming I did not intend it for viewing by a broader public. At best, I am staying a step ahead of the game, at worst, my facebook is tamer than it really needs to be. The idea that facebook could become a resume (or an unwanted attachment to a college application) exemplifies many of the fears that publics (and privates) have to deal with in the face of new media technologies. While we may become savier userse of the technology, the risk of one public crossing into another is palpable.