Context collapse

The true influence of Post Internet People on general internet socialization was both more subtle and more important than simply a shiny new social networking site.

By joining the social internet after their parents were already there, they faced an especially dire version of “context collapse.” This is danah boyd’s term for when people from all your overlapping friend groups see all your shared posts from different aspects of your life.

For adults who occasionally see a coworker’s personal photos or political updates, context collapse is a fairly minor issue, a problem of specific individuals being indiscreet.

For young people, context collapse is a collective problem: they need space to figure out who they are, where they aren’t being constantly supervised by authority figures.

Source: Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch