Blog Post 8: Tracing the Trails of Kyle Tatton

In high school, I used to be quite active on social media, sharing posts once and awhile and allowing others to tag me in their photos. However, as time has passed, I’ve realized that at the end of the day, online presence does not make anyone more important than another. I have learned that at the end of the day, it seems like nobody really pays too much attention. So, I’ve leaned towards a more private life, especially online! If you were to search for me, online, you wouldn’t find much now apart from my profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, as well as my name on sports team rosters. You may also find a photo of me playing sports or engaging in some activity, but that’s about it.

Now, let’s talk about my investigation on Kyle Tatton and his digital footprint, which is quite different from mine. When I searched for Kyle’s name on Google, I didn’t find much at first.  I almost gave up the Google search because all that came up was Facebook and Instagram. However, I decided to explore more, and I found information on his family through Facebook. Surprisingly enough, there wasn’t as much about Kyle himself, but rather his family’s profiles provided me with more information about Kyle and his family relationships. By using Facebook to basically stalk Kyle’s family members LOL, I was able to find out details about Kyle’s life, like his birthday and some of his achievements (graduation, sports accomplishments). I even found multiple photos of him with all his relatives, which gave me the impression that he was close with his family. His family’s posts also provided me information on his interests and hobbies, like his love for the outdoors, basketball, music, and spending time with family.

Even though I found a lot about Kyle and his family, I couldn’t find anything on Kyle’s political beliefs or views from his profiles. However, after meeting him through a Zoom call, I found that his digital footprint and online identity didn’t fully showcase what a kind, caring, and family-oriented person he truly is. His Instagram showed only moments of his life, showing his values and interests, however, it did not show his positive and outgoing personality! As the article “Having multiple online identities is more normal than you think” says, “people have diverse, rich lives that aren’t contained within a single idea and personae” (Engadget, April 12 2024). This perfectly explains Kyle because he may be shown through photos or digital text online, but his great qualities mainly shone through when I got to know his personality on Zoom!