Dr. Boyd’s lecture focuses on how the social media environment is changing the concept of privacy. Over the 40-minute lecture, Dr boyd presented her theories on how young people use social media to define themselves, their friendship circles, the idea of privacy and how the online environment and the technologies used to access it can be better utilised for communicating.
According to Dr. Boyd, young social media user’s concept of privacy revolves around the idea of sharing with those they trust. When private information is shared in a public forum, the theme of the new privacy comes through with the idea “Just because something is publicly accessible public, it doesn’t mean it was meant for you”. Dr. Boyd presents the idea that young people “navigate their private feelings in plain sight” using “social steganography” to communicate private ideas and feelings in a public forum to a select audience of friends.