The ethics of social media births and deaths. Interview with Dr. Tama Leaver, Curtin University

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What are the sorts of sneaky ethical considerations we might need to consider

beyond the issues we've covered in this module so far?

Sure, it's important to respect all aspects of people and

the broad social media approach of do no harm.

But is this all we need to think about?

Dr. Tama Lever is a senior lecturer at the Department of Internet Studies at

Curtin University in Western Australia and he's an expert on social media.

One of the entirely fascinating areas Tama focuses on is births and

deaths in social media.

I spoke with Tama about some of the ethical considerations surrounding

the use of social media at our births and deaths.

The Internet Studies Department here has the strange pleasure of being

the first named internet studies department in the world, so we've been doing internet

studies for more than 15 years now, which seems a really long time in internet time.

The department itself has quite diverse research interests.

But one of our core things has been a question of social media and

identity in very different ways, but the real question that interest me today

is the way that looking at birth and pre-birth practices.

I'm looking at death and the mortalization.

If looking at those ends of the way that we use social media and

looking at how those provoke big questions and big challenges that we have the easy

answers for, looking at those ends it forms better what we do everyday and

lets us remember that social media is always a co-created process.

We're always creating ourselves but we're always creating the legacy and

history of someone else at the same time.

So let's focus in on what you're talking about there, the book ends of,

I guess life, our digital lives is where you're very much interested in.

So, the births and deaths.

And how our identities are born and

died within social media, is that a correct way of talking about it?

Absolutely, well there are many values but one of the most significant

values in studying birth and death on social media is that what it really

reveals to us is that social media is never just about an individual.

Social media by its nature is a collaborative process but

it's also a collaborative construction but when you look at say the way that

parents construct their children identity often before birth.

So the sharing of an ultrasound photo and those joyous moments

are also the moments where that young person gets named into being.

So the traces that we start leaving exist before they’re born and

as those traces developed, we as parents and loved ones and as broader

community essentially shaped that persons online identity and online presents.

And at the other end of course when we think about death and

memorialization we have some fairly, well we all

think we have fairly clearly established norms around death and mourning.

And yet, social media, from the question of sort of selfies at funerals through to

what do we do with the traces of people on Facebook or on email or

on their various presences.

What do we do with them?

Again, speaks to the fact that people

making those decisions are not the people being represented.

So it's a collaborative process about both beginning lives.

We are on social media for a period of time, and

then we have to work out what to do with the stuff at the other end.

And so looking at birth and death really reveals the complexity of

the relationships that build even one person's identity and reputation online.

So, what are some of the tensions you see in the affordances of people

getting into these kinds of socially constructed activities in social media?

And then some of the ethical challenges that you see

running concurrently with that.

If we just take the most basic question around it,

the question of privacy, for example.

The sharing of an ultrasound photo.

Is a joyous moment and it's also a moment where the question of

being directly responsible for somebody else's privacy kicks in.

And what we can see in that moment is we're making a series of decisions about

the sharing of our personal joy and our, sort of, excitement, but also a decision

about the first traces of another human being being something that we're sharing.

But equally there's other questions about persistence.

So do we want to be using social media services that by default leave everything

behind and that question of the difference between say Instagram versus Snapchat,

which doesn't by default persist is equally an interesting question.

And the question of unintended sharing.

So an ultrasounds fascinating, not just because of the picture of

the young person that's growing, but because of the framing of that.

If you look at an ultrasound picture, by default,

it lists the mothers name, it lists the location where the photos taken.

It list the estimated date of birth.

It list a whole bunch of other sort of vital statistics.

And so that information is captured in an image.

And we often don't think of image as a sharing too much extra data if you'd

like but it's one of those real moments where it's trivial work for an algorithm

to read that information, turn back into text and make it searchable for example.

And equally if that image persists then the longer it's there,

the more likely it could be read through those sort of filters.

And of course we've got the basic question of GPS being turned on on many devices.

So these questions of traces, these questions of history and

these questions of prophecy all wrapped together In that instant of sharing.

So let's go to the other end of the life cycle now to the death end.

What's your take on the right to be forgotten with social media?

The right to be forgotten is incredibly challenging because it involves

us reconceptualizing social media from the ground up.

Social media at it's heart is driven by of

what I talk about as a social media contradiction.

So as a service to users we generally conceptualize the social

part as the communicative ability, is the joy of sharing.

That's the thing that we focus on as most important for

the companies that provide these platforms,

their invested in the media half, is the fact that this information persist,

that this information is aggregatable and analysable, and

you can basically derived advertising from the persistance of that information.

And this contradiction is a really hard thing to see in the moment if you like,

but really drives a lot of the challenges that come up.

So, the right to be forgotten in relation to the social media contradiction then is

we're going to have to basically have social media companies that work out

a different way to do their practice.

If we genuinely want social media that doesn't persist.

If we want social media that is in the moment and goes away.

Than the question of the way that most platforms operate has to change.

I think that's a really fundamental difficulty because these platforms

are premised on

the more information we've got about you, the better picture we can build,

the better we can sell tag of advertising.

I do think especially for young people there

creating spaces where they can experiment with their identity and

make mistakes and not haunt them forever is incredibly important.

And I do think that while Snapchat might not be the perfect

answer that idea of social media that deletes by default I think is very,

very important and I think does provide some of those spaces of

youthful experimentation that you have to have.

If everything we ever do is recorded none of us would be successful adults.

We'd all be able to point to things and go, that was the big mistake you made.

It's recorded forever, I will judge you because of that.

And I think if we can cordon off certain spaces for

young people at least, that's a significant part of, I think the broader

right to be forgotten conversations for adults will be a much harder one, but

I think if culturally I think we still sort of acknowledge that young people

should get the benefit of not being judged by all the rules that apply to adults.

I think that's where the right to be forgotten conversation is most important.

Some of what Dr.

Lever highlights is the seemingly innocent social media practices that we

undertake in our everyday lives may have unthought of consequences.

A proud mother or father sharing an image of their newborn or

even the ultrasound image in the pre-natal state

is an arrangement that never receive consent from all parties and

it's really interesting to think through why this is problematic.

The proud parent is sharing this moment with their family and

friends via social media.

Which is a very simple and fast way to let all of those special people know about

this wonderful moment, wherever they are.

However, as we've previously pointed out, social media is full of

hidden infrastructure, policy, and private shortcomings.

So without consent parents are placing their children

at the mercy of these arrangements.

And for the most part oblivious to the potential complications.

Now this is only one example, but it's crucial to have this critical approach

whenever we're using social media.

What might seem like a simple use may have dire consequences.

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Ethical Social Media

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