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PRIVACY PARADOX OR  

PRIVACY APATHY?  

EXPLORING THE  

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN  

SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE 

AND PUBLIC OPINION ON 

GOVERNMENT USAGE OF 

DATA COLLECTION  

PROGRAMS 
 

ROBERT WARGASKI 

 

✵ ABSTRACT 
The prominence of social media as a mech-

anism for global communication has raised ques-

tions regarding its integrity and security of personal 

information identifiers such as name, address, and 

location history. The rise of government surveillance 

programs, such as those Edward Snowden exposed 

in 2013, are a case study in mass collection of iden-

tifying personal information without the consent of 

the American public. This paper looks to determine 

if there is a causal relationship between social media 

usage and negative opinions regarding mass per-

sonal identifying information government collection 

programs within the United States. Using data com-

piled by the Pew Research Center, I found that there 

was no statistically significant relationship at all. This 

has powerful policy implications such as the normal-

ization of the surveillance state. Further research is 

needed to address concerns regarding the broad 

variables used as part of this paper. 

 

 

1 INTRODUCTION 
Social media is mainly associated with the 

development of Facebook in 2004 and websites 

such as Twitter in 2006. In a recent United States Su-

preme Court ruling, it was argued that social media 

is “the modern public square” and vital for infor-

mation dissemination (Packingham v. North Caro-

lina, 2017). As of September 2021, a little under 50% 

of Americans stated that they get news regularly 

from sites such as Twitter. Among young people 

aged 18-24, social media is one of the primary me-

diums by which news is obtained (Walker and 

Matsa, 2021). Social media has provided a platform 

for anyone to voice their opinions, which has led to 

bipartisan growth in political activism, freelance 

journalism, and other various activities (Jurrat, 

2011).  

In recent years, Congressional hearings 

have forced social media executives to answer 

questions regarding breaches revealing the per-

sonal data of its users (Facebook, social. 2018). Pub-

lic controversies have raised questions about what 

steps these companies use to secure users’ data. 

The types of data collected by social media compa-

nies can include location information, health rec-

ords, text messages, and emails (Levinson-Wald-

man et al., 2022). In addition, questions regarding 

data collection have not been solely relegated to 

the private sector. High-profile cases such as the Ed-

ward Snowden leaks in 2013 revealed government-

backed mass data collection programs. The issue 

has galvanized public interest in government data 

collection programs (Cassidy, 2013).     

In this paper, I will determine if there is a 

connection between social media usage and con-

cern about government collection of personal infor-

mation. I hypothesize that social media usage en-

courages apathy regarding government collection 

of personal information. As mentioned previously, 

high-profile cases such as Snowden’s expose many 

citizens to the reality that the government has the 

tools and the influence to collect private citizens' in-

formation without them knowing (Levinson-Wald-

man et al., 2022). If social media usage does indeed 

persuade American citizens to remain unconcerned 

with government collection of personal information, 



ARESTY RUTGERS UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH JOURNAL, VOLUME I, ISSUE IV 

 

those results could be indicative of broader policy 

implications regarding the normalization of the so-

called “surveillance state” (“Defining the Surveil-

lance,” 2013).  

 

THE PRIVACY PARADOX: PRONE TO APATHY?  

When looking at the literature surrounding 

social media usage and general views on privacy, 

multiple public opinion polls show that Americans 

believe they lack oversight over their own infor-

mation once it is online. According to a Pew Re-

search poll, around 91% of Americans believe they 

have zero control over what information social me-

dia companies collect about them in a given day 

(Madden and Rainie, 2015). Despite this, a separate 

Pew Research poll found that 90% of Americans 

deemed controlling what information was collected 

about them as “very important.” To many scholars, 

this is known as the “privacy paradox.” As defined 

by Barth and de Jong (2017), the privacy paradox 

explains the difference between how an individual 

intends to protect their data on the internet and how 

they actually behave online. This idea is corrobo-

rated by arguments that users of social media often-

times voluntarily disclose personal information in or-

der to develop a “self-identity” within the platform, 

disregarding their intentions to keep their personal 

information private (Wu, 2018). In practice, this 

means that even though individuals are against so-

cial media companies having access to their per-

sonal information, they knowingly give up such in-

formation to these same companies. In interviews, 

individuals state that they engage in this behavior 

with a sense of apathy, arguing that once infor-

mation is on the internet, they have no control over 

it (Hargiattai and Marwick, 2016). This behavior is 

most commonly associated with younger individu-

als, primarily because they rely on social media 

more than their older counterparts and therefore 

feel as though they have no option to opt-out (Blank 

et al.). 

 

GOVERNMENT MASS COLLECTION PROGRAMS: PRIVACY 

OVER SECURITY?  

When looking specifically at American atti-

tudes towards government collection of personal 

information, there is staunch opposition. According 

to a Pew Research poll published shortly after the 

Snowden leaks, more than half of all Americans dis-

approve of the government’s metadata collection 

programs. When accounting for differences in polit-

ical ideology, opposition to government surveil-

lance remains surprisingly bipartisan with a majority 

of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents all in 

opposition to enhanced surveillance measures 

(Gao, 2015). When looking more specifically at data 

collection programs such as those enacted by the 

NSA after 9/11, public opposition to these types of 

programs is mixed (Reddick et al., 2015). Half of 

Americans believe the metadata collection pro-

grams are justified. However, 56% of Americans also 

believe there are not enough limits on the collection 

programs (Dimock et al., 2013). 

 

DOES CONTEXT MATTER? 

Views on privacy and government data col-

lection are often context-dependent and can shift 

depending on the stated goals of the data collection 

program. In a survey taken during the COVID-19 cri-

sis, most Americans stated that they would be likely 

to engage in contact-tracing programs monitoring 

who they had been in contact with for the purposes 

of viral transmission mapping. Americans who were 

in favor of the practice argued that the benefits of 

public health outweighed the costs to personal free-

doms (McClaine, 2020). Conversely, many Ameri-

cans were against private entities such as Facebook 

collecting their data for use in advertisements 

(Gramlich, 2021). It seems that in cases where vital 

infrastructure such as hospital capacity is at stake, in-

dividuals are much more willing to knowingly pro-

vide social media companies with their personal in-

formation. Conversely, advertisements in most 

cases are deemed a nuisance and individuals are 

therefore less willing to provide their personal infor-

mation for the express purpose of advertisements. 

Immediately following the 9/11 attacks, many Amer-

icans called for practices such as forcing everyone 

to carry a national I.D. card with them (Maniam, 

2021). However, a decade later, 54% of Americans 



ARESTY RUTGERS UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH JOURNAL, VOLUME I, ISSUE IV 

 

stated that curbing civil liberties would not stop ter-

rorist attacks. In 2015, Americans called govern-

ment collection of electronic data and communica-

tions “very concerning” (Maniam, 2021). In other 

words, it seems that context matters in the privacy 

vs. security debate. If personal information is being 

used for situations that are deemed “good,” individ-

uals are more likely to go along with the policies in 

place. The opposite is true for situations deemed a 

nuisance or otherwise. 

 

HYPOTHESIS 

In a comparison of individuals, those who 

use social media are more likely to have favorable 

views towards government collection of personal in-

formation when compared to those who do not use 

social media. 

 

3 METHODS 
The dataset I used involved results from re-

search that was conducted by the Pew Research 

center concerning privacy and security issues in the 

modern age, specifically in terms of growing reli-

ance on social media. The survey, titled “American 

Trends Panel Wave 49,” was fielded online from 

June 3rd to June 17th, 2019, with approximately 

4,272 individuals responding. Survey de-

mographics showed that around 63% of respond-

ents were white, 12% were black, and 15% were His-

panic. No other races were surveyed. Around 48% 

of respondents were male and 52% were female. In 

terms of age distribution for the survey, around 20% 

were 18-29, 33% were 30-49, 26% were 50-64, and 

20% were 65 and older. Around 43% leaned Repub-

lican, while around 52% leaned Democrat. The re-

maining 5% did not fall into either Republican or 

Democrat party affiliation. All data was self-reported 

on an ordinal scale.      

The independent variable used was titled 

“SNSUSER_W49.” As seen in FIGURE 1, the independ-

ent variable asked respondents if they used social 

media or not, placing the results into one of two cat-

egories. In terms of what constituted “social media 

usage,” any social media usage irrespective of fre-

quency, so long as it is self-reported by the survey 

participant as “yes,” is flagged as “social media use.” 

FIGURE 1: Graph of dependent variable.  

 

Out of the 4,272 respondents recorded, 

3,500 of them stated that they use social media in 

some form, forming 81.9% of the responses. In con-

trast, 18.1% of respondents stated that they do not 

use social media.  

The dependent variable I chose was “CON-

CERNGOV_W49” which asked participants “How 

concerned are you, if at all, about how the govern-

ment uses the data it collects about you?” on an or-

dinal scale. As seen in FIGURE 2, respondents selected 

answers ranging from “Very concerned,” “Some-

what concerned,” “Not too concerned,” and “Not at 

all concerned.” Of the total number of respondents 

who took the survey in its entirety, 2,134 responses 

were missing and only 2,138 responses were valid. 

FIGURE 2: Graph of dependent variable. 



ARESTY RUTGERS UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH JOURNAL, VOLUME I, ISSUE IV 

 

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FIGURE 3: Graph of crosstab. 

  
 

For the analysis, a crosstab was used along 

with the corresponding graph to determine a gen-

eral relationship between the independent and de-

pendent variables. The crosstab can show a general 

pattern which helps predict any potential statistical 

significance with other statistical analytic tech-

niques. Building on that, the crosstab was then con-

trolled for age to determine if age made a differ-

ence to the results of the original. Each individual 

crosstab represented a specific age range. Cramer’s 

V was used to determine the strength of association 

between the variables, along with a traditional chi-

square test. Finally, a correlation and subsequent re-

gression analysis were done to determine if the re-

sults of the dependent variable were indeed differ-

ent from the independent variable. 

 

3 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS 
First, a crosstab was run as seen in FIGURE 3. 

Overall, I found that there was no significant differ-

ence in views concerning government data collec-

tion between social media users and non-users.  

These patterns hold even when controlling 

for age with the controlled crosstab showing similar 

results as seen in FIGURE 5. In the 18-29 age category, 

there is still only a 2-3% difference in opinion across 

all concern levels. Between those who are 30-49, the 

difference is again within 2-3%, except for the “not 

concerned at all” category with a little over 5% dif-

ference. For those who were 50 and over, there was 

again a difference between 2-5%. There seems to 

be no significant difference in opinion between 

those who use social media and those who don’t, 

even when controlling for age.  

The Cramer’s V result was 0.091, suggesting 

a very weak association between the independent 

and dependent variables. A chi-squared test found 

that the P-Value was 0.001, suggesting I can reject 

the null hypothesis. The Pearson Chi-Square test re-

sulted in 17.880, which suggests that only around 

17.880% of cases would have the same connection 

if the null hypothesis were correct.  

Finally, for my regression analysis, I found 

that the R-value is 0.022, the R squared value is 

0.000476, and the adjusted R squared value is 

0.000008. For the adjusted R squared value specifi-

cally, 0.0008% of the variation within the dependent 

variable is responsible for outcomes of the inde-

pendent variable. 



ARESTY RUTGERS UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH JOURNAL, VOLUME I, ISSUE IV 

 

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FIGURE 4: Table of regression analysis. 

FIGURE 5: Coefficient chart. 

 

5 DISCUSSION 
Based on the analysis, the results suggest 

that there is no statistically significant relationship 

between whether an individual uses social media or 

not and whether that is a good predictor of their 

views on government collection of personal infor-

mation. Specifically, when looking at both the 

Cramer’s V and regression analysis, there is little in-

dication that the independent variable impacts the 

dependent variable. While the correlation and 

crosstabs seemed to indicate some sort of relation-

ship, they both ended up being too weak to con-

clude that there was a robust and viable relation-

ship. Therefore, based on the evidence, it is appro-

priate to accept the null hypothesis.   

In terms of why there seems to be no rela-

tionship between social media use and views on 

government collection of information, one of the 

reasons could be that it is accepted as normal by US 

citizens (Goitein, 2013). The classic argument in fa-

vor of surveillance is that if someone is not doing an-

ything wrong, they should not be concerned about 

what information their government has on them.  

 

Even with the knowledge of high-profile cases such 

as the Snowden leaks, it assumes that the public, at 

least to some extent, is okay with the practice so 

long as they live comfortably (Cofone, 2020). Addi-

tionally, because government collection of infor-

mation includes email, phone calls, and GPS logs, 

whether someone uses a social media platform may 

not have been a strong predictor to begin with. Pos-

sibly, other factors such as political party affiliation 

are at play (Gao). Besides that, younger generations 

use social media at higher rates than older ones and 

often are not as worried about surveillance as older 

individuals, probably because they have grown up 

in what could be called a quasi-surveillance state in 

the wake of incidents such as 9/11 and view the 

practice with a sense of apathy (Desilver, 2013).  

The previous analysis is highly speculative, 

and further research is needed to establish a con-

nection. Specifically, future researchers should fo-

cus on how individuals who use different social me-

dia platforms compare. I used a single variable com-

piling all individuals who either use social media or 

do not use social media for my research. However, 

that could have skewed the results since there was 

no specificity as to whether the type of websites 

used impacted an individual’s views on government 



ARESTY RUTGERS UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH JOURNAL, VOLUME I, ISSUE IV 

 

information collection. For instance, people who 

use only Facebook might have different opinions 

than people who simultaneously use Facebook, 

Twitter, and Instagram. A future research design 

should account for this variation, as social media 

sites have gained an exponential following in recent 

years, giving researchers rich data pools to use. 

Many of the issues present with the current 

findings could be due to the survey methodology 

used. For one, all the information compiled by the 

Pew Research Center was based on self-reported 

survey responses. In addition, the survey data based 

on my parameters was incomplete. Around half of 

the total respondents were unaccounted for in my 

research because they were not flagged as people 

who do or do not use social media. Therefore, they 

had to be disregarded in the statistical analysis. 

Overall, this is perhaps the greatest flaw in my re-

search methodology and should be taken into ac-

count in future studies∎ 

 

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Robert Wargaski is a Junior in the School of Arts and Sciences. He is major-

ing in Political Science with a focus on counterterrorism and national security 

policy. In the future, Robert plans to go to graduate school for Political Sci-

ence and hopes to someday work in the federal intelligence community. 

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https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/30/key-findings-about-americans-views-on-covid-19-contact-tracing/
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https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/15-1194_08l1.pdf
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/15-1194_08l1.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740624X15000246
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https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2021/09/20/news-consumption-across-social-media-in-2021/
https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2021/09/20/news-consumption-across-social-media-in-2021/
https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24113

