Are Malls and Twitter Really Private?

Twitter is an interactive digital space where you can meet others and the mall is a

physical space where you can go shopping. Both of these are spaces that you can utilize at your

convenience to explore, in which you can find people with similar interests and initiate

conversations with them. Despite the convenience, these spaces bring up the question of whether

they are public or private spaces and if they can be classified as a third space.

To begin, within the article “Sporting Safe in the Liminal Sphere: “Tactics” and

Facebook” by Santosh Khadka, PhD in composition and associate Professor of English, argues

the application of private and public spheres on social spaces such as facebook. Khadka states

“In its original formulation, the term public sphere referred to a social realm where dialogues,

debates and discussions on the matter of public concern took place”(p.207). In other words, he

implies that public spheres were designated spaces where the conversations were initiated and

discussions occurred. Nowadays, Twitter alongside Facebook has evolved into a platform where

you can see the news reports, trending topics, and what someone is up to by simply clicking on

their profile and seeing their recent post, allowing for limitless connections with other people.

The simplicity of being able to see what people are doing and for you to post something that the

internet can see makes Twitter fall into a public space, where privacy is low and your

information is available to the public. A woman we interviewed named Diana was asked a few

questions on whether Twitter is public or private and how it is used today. She said, “Twitter is

public because you can take a vow of silence with protective tweets or you can speak up and be
accessible”. “For example President Trump uses Twitter to share his opinions, thoughts by

making comments about other politicians, celebrities, and the daily news”(Martinez, Eric.

Project Space Interview). Diana stated with reasons why she believes Twitter is public, since you

can have your voice have publicly. On the other hand, the mall is a physical space where people

typically go to shop for clothes. A mall commonly has the doors opens at certain times, within

that time, the mall is open for anyone to come in and browse as they wish. There is also no

requirement for being able to enter a mall premises, there is no age requirement, you may be

young or old and it does not matter. I interviewed a woman I encountered in a shopping mall

named Paulina, and asked what she likes about the mall and whether she thinks a mall is public

or private. Paulina stated she likes to go to the mall with her friends to shop for clothes and “the

mall is a public space because anyone can just come in and it is free and open to the public”

(Martinez, Eric. Project Space Interview). She meant since the mall can be accessed by anyone it

makes it a public space.

A third space according to Ray Oldenburg: “The third place is a generic designation for a

great variety of public places that host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated

gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work” (p. 16) There are eight

characteristics that apply to grounds that can make it a third space. For example, conversation is

something that must be done, in fact the mall and twitter can both have this characteristic.

“…The talk there must be good…” says Oldenburg (p. 28) On twitter and the mall there are

continuous conversations that are held, whether it be with your friends or people you encounter

is a category of videos or the same store. Oldenburg also mentions accessibility and
accommodation, meaning that the spaces must be easily accessible to the person. Twitter is very

easy to get to since it usually remains in our pockets through most of the day, however the mall

take a drive depending where you live, but can still be entered throughout the day. One more key

point mentioned by Oldenburg is leveler, implying that there is no criteria of membership status

to be held. A mall doesn’t have any requirements to be met before you can go in, but Twitter

does have a slight precursor being that you must make an account with an email and password.

Besides that you can go and browse as you wish.

To conclude, shopping Malls and Twitter have many implications behind these spaces

but regarding the public or private controversy, they both can be classified as public spaces do to

the easy convenience and low privacy characteristics. These public spaces also reach the bridge

that is known as a third space between work and home where one can relax and have the freedom

of accessing them without any prerequisites.

 Work Cited

Limbu, Marohang, and Binod Gurung. Emerging Pedagogies in the Networked Knowledge

Society: Practices Integrating Social Media and Globalization. Information Science Reference,

2014.

Oldenburg, Ray. The Great Good Place: Cafés, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and

Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. New York: Marlowe, 1999. Print

(Martinez, Eric. Project Space Interview Questions)