Discuss the effects of disclosure and privacy on relationships.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Privacy and disclosure decisions affect relationships in three major ways. They affect intimacy level, reciprocity expectations, and information co-ownership.
As disclosure is the mechanism for increasing intimacy, one might think people move in a clear-cut way toward deeper disclosure as relationships develop. However, people actually move back and forth between periods of choosing to disclose and choosing to maintain privacy. People may choose privacy over disclosure to protect the other person’s feelings, avoid unnecessary conflict, protect the relationship, or re-establish a boundary of independence.
Whether one’s disclosure is matched by similar disclosure from one’s partner also can affect a relationship. Although one may expect immediate reciprocity, research suggests that there can be a long time lag after one person discloses before the other reciprocates.
A third way disclosure and privacy can affect relationships has to do with how partners treat the private information they know about one another. When one discloses private information, the person with whom one shares it becomes a co-owner. If a partner shares that confidential information without permission, it is likely to damage the relationship-at least temporarily.
As people rely more and more on technology to develop and maintain relationships the lines between what is public and what is private are blurring. The same problem exists on social networking sites. Once people post information, it is there for others to take and share with anyone.