This week’s blog post assignment was to cybersleuth another person in our class that we paired up with to see what we could discover about them, and then share about our experience.
As a precursor to this blog post, I feel it is important to share that the person I was paired up with is my friend on Facebook, which may have allowed me to be provided with a larger variety of information than if I had not been Facebook friends with them. However, aside from Facebook and Twitter (our EDTC accounts), I am not connected personally to my partner through any other form of social media.
When I googled my partners name (first and last name), the first thing that pops up is their personal Instagram profile. The next link is to their Edusites website blog. As I kept scrolling, their Facebook profile appears and their personal Twitter account shows up. Next, a link to what I assume to be connected to her job shows up, an obituary containing her name appears, her Pinterest account comes up, and lastly her contribution to two different sports events/competitions appear, as well as a prezi assignment. I feel like I was able to find a lot of different sources of information for my partner, which all looked to be positive.
I also decided to check on what images appeared when googling my partner’s name. There are about 9 pictures that appear to be from her personal Twitter account, one picture from her EDTC Twitter account, two pictures from her Edusites blog, and a few pictures related to her place of work.
This kind of activity is both fun, but also important in how it can show you how much information people could find about you from a simple google search. It is crucial to be aware of what someone could find if they had a goal of trying to bring you down in someway. It is important to note, that what you post and what people have access to seeing about you online can more greatly affect the way that people think about you, even if you present yourself in the best way face to face.
This TED talk by Jon Ronson called How one Tweet can ruin your life contains some very powerful statements that I think accurately depict what is currently going on digitally in society.
“Our desire to be seen as to be compassionate is what led us to commit this profoundly un-compassionate act”
Jon Ronson (TED Talk) – How one tweet can ruin your life
I often see that when people are trying to correct or, maybe more accurately, condemn another person for their actions, some people will respectfully do it, but others will be just as equally “bad” or “mean” as the person they are targeting. Yet, those that are making equally if not worse actions than the one being targeted, don’t tend to get blamed or condemned for their own actions.
Another quote he shares is,
Maybe there’s two types of people in the world: those people who favor “humans over ideology, and those people who favor ideology over humans. Right now the idealogues are winning, and they’re creating a stage for constant artificial high drama where everybody’s either a magnificent hero or a sickening villain, even though we know that’s not true about our fellow humans. What’s true is that we are clever and stupid; what’s true is that we’re grey areas.”
Jon Ronson (Ted talk) – how one tweet can ruin your life
We are humans. No one is perfect and we all make mistakes. However, everything that is done now is put under a microscope so that even mistakes that were made in the past when an individual was less healthy or less mature can be taken and used against them. There also seems to be little room for individuals to be able to explain themselves. There are of course things that are obviously wrong to be done, however, there are many situations that aren’t as black and white. It’s unfortunately all very complicated.
Lastly, I really like the quote he ended his TED talk with.
“The great thing about social media was how it gave a voice to voiceless people, but now we’re creating a surveillance society, where the smartest way to survive is to go back to being voiceless.”
Jon Ronson (ted talk) – HOw one tweet can ruin your life
This TED talk was made back in 2015. I think of all of the big events that have taken place more recently where there has been large division in opinions and perspectives. Cancel culture and a new public hatred for people with differing views has become a lot more prevalent. It is no wonder that people are becoming more fearful of speaking out and sharing about their beliefs. Unfortunately this also makes it so that people aren’t being educated about different perspectives and aren’t having the chance to expand upon their own understanding of different issues.
Split Image – Kate Fagan – May 7, 2015
This article presents the dangers of the false reality that social media can often present about individuals. You can’t always assume that the person you are seeing on social media is who they are at face value. Check on your people. It is not your responsibility to prevent someone from ending their own life, however, if you have any sense that someone you know is struggling, talk to them. Don’t give up on them.
Overall, digital identities are important. In this day and age, it is very difficult to not have a digital footprint that exists, so it is crucial that you do what you can to have a positive digital identity. In light of the TED talk and news article, it is also important to be aware of what you say and do on social media, as well as take note of the people that you know who are posting on social media.
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