Cybersleuthing

This week in EDTC300, we cybersleuthed another classmate to see what we could uncover about this other person. I cybersleuthed Kaelynn LePoudre this week, and I found accounts of hers on three social media sites, as well as her online ePortfolio. The three social media sites were Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. As I know Kaelynn personally, I follow her on her private social media accounts, so I tried to only look at public information to get the perspective of an outsider trying to look in. From these accounts, I was able to gather information like her birthday, her relationship status (as well as her significant other’s name), her hometown, her high school, and her current city. Further, I was able to find out where she attends university, where she works, and her job title. Lastly, I found out her interests like nature, photography, hiking, gardening, and painting from her ePortfolio. From my sleuthing, I found out that once you can add something to a google search of someone’s name, like a hometown, you have more access to any public news articles or documents that feature the person’s name. For instance, I found Kaelynn’s track and field results from 2015.

Instagram Logo

Twitter Logo

Facebook Logo

On social media, most people like to hide the bad. As per the article, “Instagram is passed off as real life,” instead of just the highlight reel that it is. People post the good moments and make their lives look as ideal as possible. Every day we are exposed to perceptions of others’ lives on various social media sites, and this can be detrimental if we are in a tough spot ourselves. 

Further, social media posts can ruin lives, even just one, as stated by Jon Ronson in his TED Talk. They are forever, and they are exposed to the entire world. This can cause extremely poor mental health, as well as lost jobs and alienation from those around the person who posted something viewed as bad. Even if the post is a miscommunication, the damage is instant and lasting.