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Ethics, Privacy, and Self-Restraint in Social Networking

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Abstract

Privacy is a basic human need. It is anthropologically and psychologically rooted in the sense of shame and the need for bodily integrity, personal space, and intimacy in interpersonal relationships. Especially in modern Western cultures, it is understood as a necessary condition for individual autonomy, identity, and integrity (Altman 1975; Westin 1967; see also Margulis, this volume, Chap. 2). The desire for privacy is historically variable and has increased noticeably throughout the process of modernization. As Jürgen Habermas (1962) has shown in his seminal study The Transformation of the Public Sphere, this process led to the emergence of the private sphere as a corollary to the public sphere: the private sphere offers the protection and freedom necessary for the undisturbed growth and self-fulfillment of the modern subject, who then, as a citizen, can participate in exchanging opinions and forming public discourse in the communicative space of the public sphere.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA

    Bernhard Debatin

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  1. Bernhard Debatin
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Correspondence to Bernhard Debatin .

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  1. , Fachbereich Psychologie, Universität Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 5, Hamburg, 20146, Germany

    Sabine Trepte

  2. , Fachbereich Psychologie, Universität Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 5, Hamburg, 20146, Germany

    Leonard Reinecke

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Debatin, B. (2011). Ethics, Privacy, and Self-Restraint in Social Networking. In: Trepte, S., Reinecke, L. (eds) Privacy Online. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21521-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21521-6_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-21520-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-21521-6

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