Communication Privacy Management

Communication Privacy Management is an interesting theory in regards to both on-line communication and on-line relationships. Since the theory revolves around what people want to reveal and what they want to keep confidential, online profiles can be seen as entities that encompass many of the perimeters discussed in the book. A perfect example is the creation of a Facebook account. When making one the user has the power to configure their settings to fit their mold of what they deem is private information or information that matters deeply to them. For example, you can hide the fact you are in a relationship or only choose to show that fact to friends, ultimately allowing you to retain power over what you disclose or retain. It also builds off of the CPM's second principle of private information control. When user's make there settings to show very little about themselves they have high control over that information as opposed to them posting all of the their life details out there, which would give them low control.

When it comes to on-line relationships and dating I think this theory is particularly accurate. When's the last time you intentionally put a bad photo of yourself via online communication? That's the beauty of the internet, you can disclose whatever you want, retain whatever you want, and it doesn't even need to be true. How many times have you heard of an on line date story that went bad because the people talking to each other didn't look anything like their photo's? In fact, this is such a culturally relevant topic that there has been a movie and a show on it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuE98oeL-e0

We see only what people want us to see and vice versa. This is the important aspect of CPM that you need to keep in mind. I also believe the reason on-line communication is so big is because it remedies some of the downfalls addressed by CPM, such as the fifth principle of turbulence. The fifth principle is labeled turbulence and talks about the problems that can happen when someone's privacy rules get broken down or mistakes are made within a communication that make disclosure ambiguous. This issue isn't as big on-line as it would be in person as communication on-line can be calculated and be made over the course of weeks, where as a face to face communication lasts for a shorter period of time. In the end this theory applies to on-line relationships and communication because online media outlets and CPM both share overlap of idea's ranging from privacy and disclosure all the way to the very principles CPM uses and how they are applicable to on-line activities. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE6iAjEv9dQ