Researching myself on the internet really made me question
what information I do and do not want accessible to the public. Until now, I
had never realized how much data the world could find about me. What's unsettling
is that half of the information wasn’t even posted by me. I started my search
on http://www.whitepages.com/reverse_phone,
and did not find anything about me. My name was there, but my “profile” was empty.
This was also the case for http://factfinder.census.gov/
and http://accessdane.co.dane.wi.us/.
I was happy to see that nothing was coming up until I explored http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/.
This website revealed information on the income, education, and race
distribution for every neighborhood in America. I was able to zoom in and find my exact neighborhood
on the map. This is an example of accessable information that was posted
without my consent.
I then looked myself up on Google. The majority of the generated links were social media sites. I was happy to find that my profile for Facebook and Myspace are private. The only thing people could see is my profile picture. One thing I found interesting was that there was another “Julia Zureikat” on Facebook that lives in Michigan. The interesting part was that she is from Amman, Jordan, which is where my dad and his whole side is from. However, my immediate family is the only generation of “Zureikats” that have come to America, so it made me question the legitimacy of her identity.
As I continued my search, I realized that my Vine account is public. I do not use Vine anymore, but all of my old videos are accessable to anyone. I downloaded the application and changed my privacy settings right away. As a student applying for jobs and internships, I must be aware of what recruiters can see. Although my Vines were not inappropriate, I felt uncomfortable that strangers could see videos from my personal life.
Overall I found this weekend’s assignment to be very interesting and fun. By stalking myself on digital platforms, I have come to see what my online identity looks like. People are able to see my family’s education level, income, and address which I cannot control. What I can control is my social media identity, and I have made sure to privatize the information I do not want visible. Through this assignment, I have learned to become more conscious of what personal information I offer to the public, and realized that my online identity has the potential of being very incongruent with my real persona.
I then looked myself up on Google. The majority of the generated links were social media sites. I was happy to find that my profile for Facebook and Myspace are private. The only thing people could see is my profile picture. One thing I found interesting was that there was another “Julia Zureikat” on Facebook that lives in Michigan. The interesting part was that she is from Amman, Jordan, which is where my dad and his whole side is from. However, my immediate family is the only generation of “Zureikats” that have come to America, so it made me question the legitimacy of her identity.
As I continued my search, I realized that my Vine account is public. I do not use Vine anymore, but all of my old videos are accessable to anyone. I downloaded the application and changed my privacy settings right away. As a student applying for jobs and internships, I must be aware of what recruiters can see. Although my Vines were not inappropriate, I felt uncomfortable that strangers could see videos from my personal life.
Overall I found this weekend’s assignment to be very interesting and fun. By stalking myself on digital platforms, I have come to see what my online identity looks like. People are able to see my family’s education level, income, and address which I cannot control. What I can control is my social media identity, and I have made sure to privatize the information I do not want visible. Through this assignment, I have learned to become more conscious of what personal information I offer to the public, and realized that my online identity has the potential of being very incongruent with my real persona.
1 comment:
I feel that our experiences with this assignment were different. I am impressed that you were able to find that much information about yourself and your family. I had a tough time finding real information. It's interesting how you were able to relate some of the information that you found about other people to your own.
Post a Comment