Context Collapse
Context collapse refers to when a social media user who belongs to a specific peer or social group shares a post publicly but with the expectation that the audience understands the social norms and practices of the group creating a “private” post in public. Then another social media user, not part of the peer group, encounters or interacts with the post using a different set of norms, values, and practices.
We have a lot of social norms to invent these days. Learning to handle context collapse is the social project of the internet the way learning to live with strangers was the social project of 20th century urbanization. Civil inattention, the custom we have of ignoring people you don’t know in public space in order to give them privacy, is an urban invention. It’s why we don’t suddenly butt into other people’s conversation at cafes, or deliver our opinion of how people dress when they walk by us. It’s a good time to start asking what civil inattention looks like on the internet.