Dallas works as support staff in pre-primary at Montessori School of Regina. Their Instagram account is set to “private” I could see a picture of them wearing a pink toque and sun-with-face shirt staring deeply at a plant. It says they have ECE, and K-5 Ed at U of R. I can follow their cats, and we have 1 mutual friend. When I click on their cat’s page, it is not private, I can see more. I see a Dunder Mifflin blanket, I think that they like The Office. A lot of colors and tie-dye, perhaps into counterculture. Their Facebook profile picture has them sitting close with what looks like a partner that they are in a relationship with. They look happy. The banner picture on FB is a picture of different stormtroopers from the Star Wars franchise. They have a disclaimer stating “ Hi! I’m using this Facebook account strictly for work, education, and family-related subject matter.” I think this is a smart move, I don’t know if there is another account for their personal stuff or not. Really love their cats. Watches TV based on Dunder Mifflin’s blanket. Likes plants. They are found on the MSR website, Instagram, and Facebook. I could not find them on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube. Yes, I would trust them, they seem happy and genuine in their photos. None of the photos look photoshopped or touched up. Yes, I would hire them, I did not see the promotion of drug use, anything around hate, racism, sexism, or anything like that. Yes, they look cool and seem to share some common interests, cats, plants, and the Office. I saw a lot of rainbows from their glasses to throws and pillows, I would assume they are queer positive. From that, I would assume they are not right-leaning in their politics and probably are not huge into organized religion. As I said, these are assumptions based on one symbol that means a lot of things to a lot of people. I would recommend getting a LinkedIn page, just so there is more of a footprint for future employers to check out. They have done a great job of controlling the narrative about them on the internet, so now they just have to funnel people to the right place.
The Monica Lewinsky talk was very well done, in fact, it made me cry. I was in grade 8 when the Monica Lewinsky story broke. What I remember was that she didn’t seem like a real person to me. To me, she was just another TV character out there to entertain. It is odd to look back on, I feel that this is common. That we forget that these people are in fact real. I just saw her as a joke, I remember the part in the Eminem music video where he pokes fun at her and Clinton and laughing. Going forward I would like to share this Ted Talk, because she is so well spoken and to the point.
I read this Engadget Article about having multiple on-line personalities. I can totally relate to this, as I have very strong views supporting NDP, queer plus, universal basic income, etc. Also I was member of rave culture for nearly 20 years, and there are many photos and videos that people outside that circle do not need to see. I do not have contact with my hereditary family and my chosen family (the one I married into) are cool. However, I am mindful that going into teaching is VERY different from my past occupations, and so the way in which I present my self is also different. I must be bi-partisan in all of my online conversations. So to curb this, I completely changed my name to a fake name that Hunter S. Thompson used to use to check into hotel rooms. Cody Selanders only exists on LinkedIn and a bunch of news articles about my circus arts/ hula hoop manufacturing stuff, which ties into teaching and is partly why I became a teacher.