According to Jenkins, Purushotma, Weigel, Clinton, & Robison (2009, p. 6), participatory culture is, essentially, a culture where people are happy to contribute content to a community that encourages and appreciates it. Participatory culture can be seen from the way Facebook users update their profiles, upload photos, share videos and links, answer quizzes, write on walls, and respond to status updates. In relation to blogging, users participate in blog conversations by leaving comments or leaving a message in the chatbox, if there is any. In microblogging, users participate by responding to the question, ‘What’s happening’ (About Twitter, n.d.). Twitter makes participation with the application as simple as possible with fewer features in comparison to Facebook, and with icon buttons such as a star to favourite a tweet, a bin to delete a tweet, and a reply button to reply. Wikipedia is another example of participatory culture where users can contribute information, correct or edit articles. Other forms of participatory culture that are more entertaining in nature include mash-ups, remixes, and Internet memes. The consumption of social media that encourages participatory culture, however, raises privacy issues that may have implications for the offline world, especially Facebook, personal blogs, and Twitter, as these applications are more personal in nature; users tend to use these applications for personal reasons such as maintaining existing relationships or making new connections, and therefore, personally identifiable information is more likely to be found from the contents of these applications compared to a wiki or remix. This paper will argue that the privacy issues raised by the consumption of social media are such that effective education on the dangers is needed for users because education is fundamental in developing responsibility and judgment. We will first discuss Facebook, followed by personal blogs, and finally, Twitter.
