Exploring in Engagement in Lateral Surveillance on Social Media

• In Event: Deepfakes, Surveillance, and Cyberhygiene

Abstract

Americans currently live in a society marked by a vast surveillance dragnet that has continually evolved over time. One such evolution is the conceptualization of lateral surveillance. First, explored by Andrejevic (2005), lateral surveillance describes peer to peer surveillance. Though this is not a new phenomenon, research on lateral surveillance has been limited. Broadly, research on lateral surveillance on social media is even more underdeveloped, with most of the current literature focusing heavily on lateral surveillance on Facebook (Jiow & Morales, 2015; Lukacs and Quan-Haase ,2015, Ivana, 2013; Trottier, 2012). This presentation explores how college student engage in or avoid lateral (peer-to-peer) surveillance, both actively (as the surveillant) and passively (as an observer of lateral surveillance) and examines what motivates college student to engage in lateral surveillance. Included in this presentation is a decision-making framework provides a step-by-step walkthrough of the process that college students go through when deciding to engage in lateral surveillance. Findings related to the framework show that there are a variety of situations and themes that influence lateral surveillance decision making and that the process is very quick.

Author

• Katorah Williams, University of Scranton