Spying On A Classmates Social Media Presence!?
I know the title might come off a little strong, but this week I cybersleuthed my classmate Payton Pugh (with her permission, of course). From my findings, I learned that Payton is a pretty private person. I was able to find her Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and VSCO accounts, but 3/4 were private. I was able to find things from her Facebook and VSCO and a little from Google. When I googled her name, I found her edusites portfolio, Facebook profile, and a couple of other things. I was expecting to find her edusites if that was the platform she was using (which it was) because I use edusites, and mine pops up when I search my own name. Another thing I found was a news article about her playing badminton when she was in middle or high school. Facebook is where I was able to find the most about her. Like I mentioned, I ended up googling a Facebook post and learning one of her interests was with the Saskatchewan Women in Ag (SKWIA). Along with her own Facebook profile, I was able to presume she is very involved in agriculture and farming. Through her VSCO and Facebook, I was able to see that she’s an outgoing, outdoorsy family gal. For as private as the majority of her accounts are, I was still able to find out quite a bit about Payton. This was also a good eye-opening experience for me, as I have pretty much all the same social media accounts private (besides VSCO), and you can still find a decent amount about a person.
Even though I was able to find some things, I have no idea how accurate they are to her. Kate Fagan’s “Split Image” article talks about university student Madison Holleran, who passed from suicide even though her Instagram account portrayed her as ‘happy.’ I think it’s important to realize not all the information you see about someone is necessarily true. This quote from the article sticks out to me:
“Even people you think are perfect are going through something difficult.”
Although things may look like one thing, they can also end up being the other. This is also why it’s important to be mindful of what we are sharing and how we react to it. In “How One Tweet Can Ruin Your Life,” Jon Ronson’s followers brought up the idea that the one tweet made by Justine Sacco (that we looked at in class) might not have had the intent of being racist. These are two experiences we can think back to before posting, engaging, or even cyber-sluthing someone.
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