Putting those creepy stalking skills to good use!
Let’s be honest here, we have all at one point in our lives crept on someone’s profiles online whether it was to see who, what, when, where, or whatever else we were searching for! This past week in my EDTC 300 class we did an exercise where we “cyber-sleuthed” another person in the class to see what we could dig up on them! While searching for anything and everything I could find on my partner for the assignment, I took to every online app and website I could think of. I searched high and low on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Tiktok, VSCO, and Youtube, as well as a simple search of their names on the internet.
TO my surprise and my partners’ luck, it was not easy to find anything crazy about them. I found lots of professional information regarding their job, where they were located, some family information, as well as a few of their hobbies, but that was about all I could find (which is a good thing for them!). However, during this activity really made me think about how easily it can be for someone to search and possibly find information about you if they wanted to. Although I knew a majority of my personal accounts were private, and I have never posted anything horrible on the internet, the fact of knowing someone was searching and looking to find information about me gave me a bit of anxiety. It had me sitting thinking and wondering “what if there is something bad that I don’t know about”, and “I hope everything they find on or about me is true and not wrong information”. It really is scary to think about how if someone truly wanted to and tried hard enough they could potentially dig up stuff from your past that you might have thought was forgotten about or you forgot about.
Not only is it scary to think about the fact of someone looking you up online, but knowing that some people portray themselves very differently online than they are in person can also be interesting but also scary. The internet is such a huge factor in today’s world, education, and communication. We can only trust so much when it comes to communication and the web. As unfortunate as it is, many people create and show themselves as a different version than who they are in person whether that be because they are shy in person but bold online, more creative online, or just straight-up creepy, it is sometimes easier to be seen as a “screen” rather than your actual face in person. Here is an article I read online about how Evolution explains why we act differently online by Gaia Vince. One quote that stuck out to me in the article was “don’t overthink it, just press the button”. The reason it stuck out to me was because that quote is so relevant when it comes to portraying yourself differently online. It is so easy to not think about what you are typing, or creating online and to easily just push the button to post it, not thinking about any of the potential consequences, how someone might feel because of it, or what it might cost you in the future. Another great article to read is Having multiple online identities is more normal than you think. This article is also very relevant when talking about how people portray themselves online and how common it is for people to act differently online, or as if they were a different person.
Although I have never had a negative experience when it comes to the internet and my profiles or accounts, I could not imagine what it might be like to deal with and go through that type of trauma online. This activity really made me aware of how easy the past can come back to haunt you and if you are not careful on the internet there are always consequences, whether that means in two days, two months, or two years.