This week we had the chance to cyber sleuth some fellow students. I will be honest, it was not the first time that I have "creeped" someone on social media. When my friends meet someone new for example, I always head to social media first to see what I can find out about that person. When I hear myself say that out loud it seems really strange, but it has actually become the new way to find out information about others. Kendyll Herauf and I were partners for this activity. I followed the cyber sleuthing worksheet we were given in class to find some information about Kendyll. I found nothing alarming about any of her social media accounts. She is active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and of course her WordPress blog. My overall impression of her digital identity is that she is a happy woman with a husband and a child, and she seems very active based on a couple photos I found. She shares a lot of great resources for teaching on her Twitter account, and her FaceBook and Instagram accounts were private. In her Twitter bio it says she is an elementary teacher with a math certificate. There is absolutely nothing on any of her social media accounts that I could find that would hinder me from hiring her, if I was in that position. She seems like a genuinely friendly, outgoing, kind person based on her digital identity. The internet has a good way of digging up dirt on others in order to shame them or find out their wrongdoings. In class on Thursday, we discussed Justine Sacco and the offensive tweet she posted online that ultimately ruined her life. Jon Ronson discusses in his TedTalk Justine Sacco had only 170 Twitter followers at the time of her offensive tweet, and her name was only googled around 40 times a month prior to the tweet. Between December 20th and the end of December her name was googled over a million times. Her life was ultimately destroyed within a matter of hours because of one stupid tweet she posted online. The story of Justine Sacco is a great example to show the importance of watching what you post online. You may only have a few followers, but that won't stop the internet from digging up dirt on you. Because we are all educators or future educators, what we say and do is constantly monitored.
Many people have multiple social media accounts or multiple online identities to express themselves differently on each of them. I can admit that I also have multiple online identities. I have two twitter accounts, one specifically for this class and the other I have had since 2014. I have three Instagram accounts, my main account which is private, my embroidery account that I just created and I have an account specifically for my cat. The article posted in the weekly plans titled "Having multiple online identities is more normal than you think" states "different sites, different audiences, different purposes". I couldn't agree more. Certain social media sites I like to be a little more laid back, while others need to be a little more professional. I don't think there is anything wrong with having multiple online personas, but of course, we still need to watch what we are posting. Nothing posted online is ever truly private. The cyber sleuthing experience was definitely interesting, and definitely makes me think about my own online identity.
2 Comments
Shelly
6/6/2020 06:04:43 pm
Thank you for sharing your sleuthing experience! It is intriguing that you have multiple accounts on the same platforms.... I never thought of doing that. Food for thought🤔
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6/8/2020 01:18:55 pm
Some I use more than others! I just think it is helpful to have accounts dedicated to different things!
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