Welcome to the Jungle – an Introduction to CPM
Trigger Warning: Please note that this blog briefly mentions disordered eating behavior
Hi there! Welcome to the first installment of my final project for COME 427: Communication Theory. This project is a series of blogs detailing Communication Privacy Management Theory (CPM) and its relation to disclosure on different social media platforms. This project entails five different blog posts, (you’re currently reading blog #1!) each discussing different topics and a short supplemental paper to sum up what we’ve learned and to dive into the research. I hope you’ll find the information I present surrounding CPM to be easy to understand while also informative. CPM is a huge part of our everyday lives in the way that we talk to other people, disclose private information, and share on social media, so I hope that being familiar with it will help you understand a little bit more about the way that you share. I’m excited to take you on this journey, and I hope you enjoy the ride!
Think of a time when you wanted to post something on social media, but second guessed yourself right before hitting “POST.” You probably thought to yourself “is it really a good idea for me to share this?” or “Will my followers/friends think I’m weird for saying or posting this?” or even “Grandma and Grandpa won’t like this.” In considering whether or not to share, we are considering our audience – who exactly we’re sharing with, and what they’ll know about us as a result. Sometimes, we decide that some aspects of our lives are best kept private rather than on social media. This is the beauty of CPM at work!
First off, I know what you’re thinking: “what even is Communication Privacy Management Theory?” Well, lucky for you, that’s exactly what we’ll be discussing in this first post. Let’s dive right in. CPM is a theory developed by Sandra Petronio that focuses on the tension between the concealing and the disclosing of private information. The theory was brought to light in 2002 but had been in the development process for over 20 years beforehand. CPM has been tried, tested, and used throughout numerous studies since its publication, so I can assure you that this theory is the real deal – meaning, it applies to our own lives, and we can use it to analyze our own behaviors. The basis of CPM theory presumes these 5 things:
- People believe that they own their private information.
- People have the right to control the flow of that information.
- People use privacy rules to decide whether to disclose or conceal the information. (risk vs reward)
- Sharing this information results in co-ownership with another person. Privacy rules regarding the information then need to be agreed upon by the co-owners.
- Violation of these privacy rules results in boundary turbulence, leading to anger, mistrust, or suspicion (Petronio, 2007).
“Okay, that’s great and all, but how does all this communication theory apply to me and my social media use?” I’m actually really glad you asked. Theories surrounding human behavior, especially communication behaviors aren’t just some faraway theme in a Liberal Arts student’s textbook– they actually exist all around us almost every day of our lives. Here’s an example: In a study conducted by Anna Herrman and Kelly Tenzek in 2017, the researchers analyzed the disclosure behaviors of people living with eating disorders (PLWED) and concluded that PLWED were actually more likely to disclose private information online to a community of pro-anorexia social media users than to their loved ones offline. (Herrman et al., 2017) These individuals, using their own privacy rules, determined that their information is safer in the hands of other sufferers than their own loved-ones. The reason for this discrepancy is because many PLWED feel uncomfortable sharing with their loved ones either out of fear that the loved one cannot handle the information or will react in a negative manner. PLWED are very careful in who they make “co-owners” of information about the eating disorder, and often avoid making family members co-owners, and as a result, frequently turn to online platforms to feel comfortable disclosing.
In a similar manner, all of us, as social media users, also handpick what we share online and what we share in-person. Whether we choose to share more or less information online than we would in-person, using our own privacy rules, we deliberately choose the information we share with the audience to whom we are disclosing it in mind. We keep in mind who will be the co-owners of our information when we post online and how that will impact our image. We use social media to curate a particular image of ourselves that we then project to our audience. In this way, we are choosing what, with whom, and how much information we share in an online environment just as we would when deciding to tell our mother about a mistake we made or telling our best friend about a new crush. This process is CPM at work in our brains – judging the risks and rewards of sharing information to the group.
Whether we are showcasing the most genuine version of ourselves or a more perfected, somewhat inauthentic, image, we are always essentially “marketing” ourselves to our audience in the online environment. What is interesting about disclosing information on social media in particular is that different social media platforms curate different audiences, drastically altering what we decide to disclose. Consulting our own privacy rules, we decide what and how much to disclose based on the audience of each particular social media platform. Here, then, lies the purpose of these blogs: to discuss how our disclosure habits differ depending on the social media platform. Keeping in mind the main characteristics of CPM, I invite you to read more about the social media habits of many people. Maybe you’ll even learn a little about yourself.
Works Cited
Herrman, A. R., & Tenzek, K. E. (2017). Communication Privacy Management: A Thematic Analysis of Revealing and Concealing Eating Disorders in an Online Community. Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, 18(1), 54–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/17459435.2017.1294617
Petronio, S. (2007). Translational research endeavors and the practices of communication privacy management. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 35, 218–222. doi:10.1080/ 00909880701422443
