Made for Sharing
Choose either YouTube, Instagram or Tiktok and use this handout to identify this app’s features and how those encourage you to share more personal information. We’ve given examples from Snapchat of the different kinds of features you should think about. Your job is to find similar examples from other apps.
In the Structure Strip below, list the app’s features. Features are the things that you are able to do with the app. Some features describe a general action you can take (like sharing a photo) and others describe something more specific to that app (like sending a disappearing photo with Snapchat).
Make sure you think about:
- Filling in your profile
- Sharing posts, photos and videos
- Controlling who sees what
- Responding to and sharing other people’s posts, photos and videos
- How other people respond to what you post (Likes, shares, etc.)
- How the app responds to what you and/or your friends post (Snapchat streaks, for example)
For each of the features, write whether it is a default feature whether it is easy to do, or whether it is hard to do. (In general, something that takes just one or two taps or clicks is easy to do; something that takes three or more is hard to do.)
For instance, Friends see your Story by default on Snapchat. It is easy to send a Snap and hard to change your default privacy settings.
Then write down how you think those features – and whether they are default, easy, or hard to do – affect how much of personal information you share. Don’t think just about your own personal information, but your friends’ as well!
Features are the things that an app or device is able to do.
Defaults are what a tool does unless you change the settings or actively choose not to..