Turf war?

I read an article in AP a few days ago describing how the growing internet proficiency of middle aged adults is making the younger netizens uncomfortable. Quite understandably, as the young ones are usually first to embrace new developments on the web, they have made some sort of claim to their "turf." However, now that their elders, their parents, their aunts and uncles and even their grandparents are getting on the same sites they frequent, joining the same social networks that they’re in and seeing a bulk of their activities online, they are feel that their "territory" is being invaded. So is a "turf war" in order? I think not.

This particular paragraph struck me:

Lakeshia Poole, a 24-year-old from Atlanta, says "my Facebook self has become a watered down version of me." Worried about older adults snooping around, she’s now more careful about what she posts and has also made her profile private, so only her online friends can see it.

"It’s somewhat a Catch-22, because now I’m hidden from the people I would really like to connect with," she says.

Obviously, the issue is about privacy. What’s not so obvious though is that the real issue about privacy is the ability to control just how private you want to be. It shouldn’t be an all or nothing deal. Thankfully, the trend is moving towards giving users a the ability to finely tune their privacy settings. On I.PH for instance, we’ve allowed users to set the privacy settings on a per post basis. That means I can choose who may and may not see a particular post or photograph. That way, I don’t need to hide my entire blog. People who don’t have special access simply don’t see certain contents. I also like the fact that I can grant special access to people who do not have their own I.PH accounts. Providing this amount of privacy control is the key and I’m pretty sure will eventually be the norm. Just to let you know though, we are already working on the next step in selectively shared content so do watch out for that.