Self Censoring

Description
This dynamic pattern occurs when users actively consider other users of the same application, adapting their own content or behavior in such a way that they either "look better" or safeguard their privacy.

Examples
A user may feel that the information he or she puts onto the social media is not interesting for other users to read, and thus does not enter. Furthermore, users may not feel secure about posting their whereabouts on social medias, as they are afraid of burglars.

Mini-games inside social medias might also fall under self censoring patterns, as users may feel ashamed about how much they play, or as in the first example, may feel that their friends are not interested in how much he or she plays.

A user may also censor content at a later occation. When a university student graduates he or she might censor parts of his or her old content to look more professional when applying for a job.

Another example is to resist an urge to comment on old-established content since it might be perceived as a result of stalking.

Pros and Cons
This dynamic pattern needs to be balanced. The application generally wants the users to post and interact with each other as much as possible. Users are very different, and use the application unequally much.

For simplicity, it is possible to compare frequent users, normal users and non-frequent users. The non-frequent user and the normal user might think of the frequent user’s many posts as spam and in the worst case scenario, unfriend the ”spammer”. This is neither good for the users nor is it good for the application, but could be helped with some self-censoring from the frequent user’s part. However, too much self-censorship could lead to being a non-frequent user, which is not appreciated by the application.

Relations
Having only the choices of posting to the world, to all friends or not at all could lead to Self Censoring. Being able to divide friends into groups and to have the choice of only sharing to this group, might counter Self Censoring.

When all posts and interactions with the application is saved on servers, and might not be able to erase, might also lead to Self Censoring.

Self Censoring is also supported by behaviors like Relationship Status Dilemma, Friend Surfing, Stage Fright and Fear Of Failing. It is countered by patterns like Posting As Time Killing and Showing Off.

The pattern in turn supports Protecting Privacy, Buffering Content, Untrue RSVPs, Maintaining A Facade and Re-Following.

Contributors
Created by Malin Mattsson from the inspiration of Andreas Bjerkeholt. Revised by Christian Broniewicz.