Why do adolescents untag photos on Facebook?

Facebook users practice different strategies for managing their online self-presentation. Among the different available techniques, untagging is the most popular and frequently utilized. However, literature on the subject has not examined the untagging practices among adolescent Facebook users. In addition to this, there is no current knowledge of the differences between adolescent Facebook users who do and do not untag photos. The present study addresses this gap through a cross-sectional survey that involved 380 adolescent Facebook users (aged 12-18 years). The current study examines these differences in terms of adolescents' demographic attributes, digital imaging accessibility, online regret experience and management of digital photos. The study findings suggest that older males, extroverts, and those who perceive online information to be public, have more experience of taking and sharing photos, spend more time taking photos, practice strict protection of photos, demonstrate a negative perception of cloud storage, and rarely keep backups, are likely to untag photos. In addition to this, sociability and time lapse, in terms of realizing regretful experiences, significantly predicted the tendency among adolescents to untag photos. The study concludes by identifying various theoretical and practical implications of these findings. Limited prior research on differences between those who do and do not untag photos.Prior literature has not studied the untagging practices among adolescent Facebook users.Cross-sectional survey that was organized with 380 adolescent Facebook users (aged 12-18) years).Adolescents differed in demographics, accessibility, regret experience and management of digital photos.Sociability and time lapse in realising regretted experience predicted the tendency to untag.

[1]  David R. Millen,et al.  Identity management: multiple presentations of self in facebook , 2007, GROUP.

[2]  Baiyun Chen,et al.  Students' self-presentation on Facebook: An examination of personality and self-construal factors , 2012, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[3]  James C. McElroy,et al.  The influence of personality on Facebook usage, wall postings, and regret , 2012, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[4]  Yang Wang,et al.  "I regretted the minute I pressed share": a qualitative study of regrets on Facebook , 2011, SOUPS.

[5]  Morgan Meyer,et al.  Image management on Facebook : impression management, self esteem and the Cultivation Theory , 2011 .

[6]  Pieter H. Hartel,et al.  PRIVACY IN ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS , 2012, ICIS 2012.

[7]  Zeynep Tufekci,et al.  Facebook, Youth and Privacy in Networked Publics , 2012, ICWSM.

[8]  M. Zeelenberg,et al.  Regret in Decision Making , 2002 .

[9]  George R. Milne,et al.  Gender Differences in Privacy-Related Measures for Young Adult Facebook Users , 2010 .

[10]  Susannah R. Stern,et al.  Regretted Online Self-Presentations: U.S. College Students' Recollections and Reflections , 2015 .

[11]  L. Haddon,et al.  Risks and safety for children on the internet: the UK report: summary of key findings , 2010 .

[12]  Marcel Zeelenberg,et al.  Looking backward with an eye on the future : Propositions toward a theory of regret regulation , 2006 .

[13]  Mary Madden and Aaron Smith,et al.  Reputation Management and Social Media , 2010 .

[14]  Jacob Kramer-Duffield,et al.  Friends only: examining a privacy-enhancing behavior in facebook , 2010, CHI.

[15]  Ian Oakley,et al.  Understanding motivations for facebook use: usage metrics, network structure, and privacy , 2013, CHI.

[16]  Bernhard Debatin,et al.  Facebook and Online Privacy: Attitudes, Behaviors, and Unintended Consequences , 2009, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[17]  Cal Clark,et al.  Representation: A functional perspective , 1971 .

[18]  Miriam J. Metzger.  Privacy, Trust, and Disclosure: Exploring Barriers to Electronic Commerce , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[19]  J. Meek,et al.  Facebook, social integration and informal learning at university: ‘It is more for socialising and talking to friends about work than for actually doing work’ , 2009 .

[20]  Lindsay T. Graham,et al.  A Review of Facebook Research in the Social Sciences , 2012, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[21]  R. Ang,et al.  Cognitive, personality, and social factors associated with adolescents' online personal information disclosure. , 2013, Journal of adolescence.

[22]  James A. Danowski,et al.  The Faces of Facebookers: Investigating Social Enhancement and Social Compensation Hypotheses; Predicting FacebookTM and Offline Popularity from Sociability and Self-Esteem, and Mapping the Meanings of Popularity with Semantic Networks , 2008, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[23]  Michele M. Strano,et al.  Covering Your Face on Facebook , 2012, J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl..

[24]  Srdjan Capkun,et al.  Home is safer than the cloud!: privacy concerns for consumer cloud storage , 2011, SOUPS.

[25]  Heather Richter Lipford,et al.  Moving beyond untagging: photo privacy in a tagged world , 2010, CHI.

[26]  Jari Salo,et al.  Teenagers in social virtual worlds: Continuous use and purchasing behavior in Habbo Hotel , 2011, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[27]  Anabel Quan-Haase,et al.  PRIVACY PROTECTION STRATEGIES ON FACEBOOK , 2013 .

[28]  D. Boyd.  Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics , 2010 .

[29]  A. Siibak.  Constructing the Self through the Photo selection - Visual Impression Management on Social Networking Websites , 2009 .

[30]  Matti Mäntymäki,et al.  Digital natives in social virtual worlds: A multi-method study of gratifications and social influences in Habbo Hotel , 2014, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[31]  Wenjing Xie,et al.  See you, see me: Teenagers' self-disclosure and regret of posting on social network site , 2015, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[32]  Sandra L. Calvert,et al.  College students' social networking experiences on Facebook , 2009 .

[33]  José van Dijck,et al.  Digital photography: communication, identity, memory , 2008 .

[34]  S. Desmarais,et al.  Hey Mom, What’s on Your Facebook? Comparing Facebook Disclosure and Privacy in Adolescents and Adults , 2012 .

[35]  Amanda L. Forest,et al.  When Social Networking Is Not Working , 2012, Psychological science.

[36]  Xuan Zhao,et al.  The many faces of facebook: experiencing social media as performance, exhibition, and personal archive , 2013, CHI.

[37]  Susan B. Barnes,et al.  A privacy paradox: Social networking in the United States , 2006, First Monday.

[38]  Heeseok Lee,et al.  Exploring continued online service usage behavior: The roles of self-image congruity and regret , 2009, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[39]  John Zimmerman,et al.  Fragmentation and transition: understanding perceptions of virtual possessions among young adults in Spain, South Korea and the United States , 2013, CHI.

[40]  Yang Feng,et al.  Teens' concern for privacy when using social networking sites: An analysis of socialization agents and relationships with privacy-protecting behaviors , 2014, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[41]  Junghyun Kim,et al.  The Facebook Paths to Happiness: Effects of the Number of Facebook Friends and Self-Presentation on Subjective Well-Being , 2011, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[42]  Rense Corten,et al.  Who was first on Facebook? Determinants of early adoption among adolescents , 2016, New Media Soc..

[43]  Eileen Wood,et al.  All about me: Disclosure in online social networking profiles: The case of FACEBOOK , 2010, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[44]  P. Valkenburg,et al.  Precursors and Underlying Processes of Adolescents' Online Self-Disclosure: Developing and Testing an “Internet-Attribute-Perception” Model , 2006 .

[45]  Alice E. Marwick,et al.  The Conundrum of Visibility , 2009 .

[46]  Caroline Lang,et al.  Just untag it: Exploring the management of undesirable Facebook photos , 2015, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[47]  Alessandro Acquisti,et al.  Tweets are forever: a large-scale quantitative analysis of deleted tweets , 2013, CSCW.

[48]  Susan Waters,et al.  Exploring Privacy Management on Facebook: Motivations and Perceived Consequences of Voluntary Disclosure , 2011, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[49]  Norman M. Sadeh,et al.  Rethinking location sharing: exploring the implications of social-driven vs. purpose-driven location sharing , 2010, UbiComp.

[50]  Joshua Fogel,et al.  Internet social network communities: Risk taking, trust, and privacy concerns , 2009, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[51]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. , 2003, The Journal of applied psychology.

[52]  Jessica Vitak,et al.  Norm evolution and violation on Facebook , 2012, New Media Soc..

[53]  M. Zeelenberg.  Anticipated regret, expected feedback and behavioral decision-making , 1999 .

[54]  Sarah Tazghini,et al.  A mixed method approach to examining Facebook use and its relationship to self-esteem , 2013, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[55]  Airi Lampinen,et al.  We're in it together: interpersonal management of disclosure in social network services , 2011, CHI.

[56]  Danah Boyd,et al.  Facebook privacy settings: Who cares? , 2010, First Monday.

[57]  A. Lenhart.  Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015 , 2015 .

[58]  Michele M. Strano,et al.  Covering your face on Facebook.Managing identity through untagging and deletion , 2010 .

[59]  P. Keel,et al.  Do you "like" my photo? Facebook use maintains eating disorder risk. , 2014, The International journal of eating disorders.

[60]  Marika Lüders,et al.  Too Many Facebook “Friends”? Content Sharing and Sociability Versus the Need for Privacy in Social Network Sites , 2010, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[61]  Michele M. Dornisch,et al.  When is trust not enough? The role of perceived privacy of communication tools in comfort with self-disclosure , 2010, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[62]  My Bui,et al.  Modeling regret effects on consumer post‐purchase decisions , 2011 .

[63]  Katherine N. Lemon,et al.  Dynamic Customer Relationship Management: Incorporating Future Considerations into the Service Retention Decision , 2002 .