The Sweetness of Solitude in SNS: An Integrative Model on Online Privacy, Withdrawal, and Self-disclosure

• In Event: Online Media II: Analyses of Communication Networks

Abstract

Both self-disclosure and withdrawal are related to information privacy in social networking sites. Yet few theorization efforts have been made to account for what online withdrawal is, why it occurs, how it influences privacy, and whether or not it correlates with self-disclosure. This conceptual article presents an integrative model for online privacy by way of integrating the theory of crowding in environmental psychology with the communication privacy management theory (CPM). The model suggests that self-disclosure and withdrawal contribute to and are affected by two distinct components of privacy and that these effects are explained by boundary permeability and psychological crowding. Ultimately, the model provides a cohesive framework that advances information privacy theory and allows for novel research opportunities by introducing a new factor that predicts and be predicted by privacy.

Author

• Jin Huang, U of Southern California - Annenberg School for Communication