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”Sporting Safe in the Liminal Sphere: “Tactics” and Facebook”

This article published by Santosh Khadka from Syracuse University, mentions the confusion of whether or not Facebook should be considered a private or public space. Using the definition of a liminal space: “falls somewhere in-between private and public spheres (1)”, in the introduction, Khadka uses the definition and begins to lists ways of how Facebook could be used as both a public and private space. In the section: “Private Space and Public Space”, Khadka argues that there are no existing private or public spaces. When going back to the kind of space Facebook falls in: “What Sphere is Facebook?”, Khadka claims that Facebooks falls in between public and private spaces, thus making it a liminal space. The reasoning behind this, according to the article is: “Friend
circle in Facebook usually goes beyond intimate
friends and families and includes colleagues, co-
workers and the people in profession (2).” So even though Facebook is meant to be private, due to the account settings, you can choose whether to keep your account private or public, leaving your account public will completely change your privacy, and everything you posts millions of others can see as well. Another text that supports why Facebook shouldn’t be considered a private space is: “Equally interesting is the fact
that every bit of posting—deleted or untagged—
or any activity as simple as a click on profile is
saved in Facebook databases and is trackable by Facebook’s authorized individuals even after the
deactivation of the account (2).” As our parents tried to warn us, once you post something it is on the internet forever. We can see this through the digital footprints of many known actors/actresses as well.