According to WebHostingBuzz, 86% of internet users are bothered by the need to create accounts on different websites preferring to use social login as an alternative.
Social login allows you to use your social identity to access various accounts; it also allows a hosting site to personalize your user experience by accessing data from the your social network and to also post your online activity. For example, if you use Facebook to log in to Pinterest, then your pinning activity is posted to Facebook. The same is true for the online music streaming site Spotify; when you log in using your social networks, Spotify pushes the titles of the songs you are listening to to your friends or followers.
So how much sharing is too much sharing? In a world where there are more than 250 million tweets and 800 million Facebook status updates published every day, how much do we really need to know about each other? Do I need to know what you like, listen to, or want to read? If you are Justin Bieber, the answer to that question seems to be yes. Privacy appears to be a thing of the past. I know you; I know what you like; I know what your friends like, and you know the same about me.
In 2013, “social media sharing became the second most important factor to search engine rankings, surpassed only by strong content.” (WebHostingBuzz) Every minute 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter, and every day, 40 million photos are shared on Instagram. About half the adult internet users say that they post original content to the web while the other half claims to repost content they have found online.
This sharing of content leads to videos and photos going viral. In the same way that a virus spreads from person to person, “going viral” refers to content being shared by a large number of people over a short period of time. According to CNN, “Gangman Style” with over a billion views is the most watched YouTube video of all time beating Justin Bieber’s “Baby”.
Obviously friends know what friends like.
Read more:
Barnes, Susan B.. A privacy paradox: Social networking in the United States. First Monday [Online], Volume 11 Number 9, September 2006.
Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., Lampe, C. The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 12, Issue 4, 1143–1168, July 2007.
How Social Login is Changing Business–and Your Privacy from Forbes.com, Feb. 2012.
Lange, P. G.. Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social Networking on YouTube, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 13, Issue 1, 361–380, October 2007.
Social Login: A Data Capture Game Changer by Loren McDonald, Nov. 2011.
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I still try to avoid logging on to other sites by using my Facebook. Yet, I understand the convenience there are so many passwords out there to remember that I sometimes spend more times resetting my account than I do on it. You make a great point about privacy suffering for conveyance. I log on to my Goggle chrome browser, which collected even more analytics on my use.
I created a mastercard with all my logins and passwords for all the sites I have visited for LIBR559 that way I can remember what I used where. It is really nerve wracking to have to figure which password you used for which site especially if you do not frequent that site very often or if the site requires a password that is configured differently from one you might use often. Privacy and security always seem to be issues when surfing the web.