Talk:Mara Varady

Hi Mara,

I think you did a really nice job exploring your use of Facebook and how it relates to your offline self. I particularly enjoyed when you were talking about using the Timeline Review to tailor the pictures that you allowed when you are riding. The use of the images with the light editing to make the visuals more noticeable for non-equestrian riders was appreciated as well. The last line in that section, where you talk about being ‘the best version of myself’ which you equate to being ‘the best rider that I can be’, highlighted how curation was important to the way that you develop your separate representations. I wish, however, that you had talked a bit more about what else was important to you. Earlier in that paragraph, you mention that while riding was an important part of you, it was only one part. If riding is only one part, but it takes up so much of your profile, what does a regular user end up missing out on? Is it something you find important to your sense of self, or just something that is a part of your life and which you want to participate in a lot?

Regarding your sections, Quiet Around Strangers and Loud Around Friends, I think that the ideas presented work well to describe how you behave in offline contexts and the complexity of your self-presentation. The point about the public, semi-public, and private portions of Facebook was interesting, I wish you had had the opportunity to further explore the way that you present your self online through these three different contexts!

Lastly, I enjoyed the tone of the work, though sometimes it took a re-reading of a sentence to understand who you were referencing when the sentence involved yourself, Mara, and someone else, due to keeping track of you and Mara as separate entities though all background information was about yourself, so any references to that were referring to you though sometimes it referred to Mara’s past. Adding in an additional subject just added to the slight confusion sometimes. I might recommend better distinguishing yourself from your online persona or slight restructuring to sentences so that it flows a bit smoother.

- Lauren

Hey Mara!!

I really enjoyed your autobiography and thought it was insightful. In particular, I really liked your usage of pictures + captions and thought they were effective at conveying the message. The pictures of you on the horse with the arrow to demonstrate exactly what you were trying to describe about the pose were useful for someone who is not familiar with horse riding and also supported your argument that you like to post content on Facebook that portrays you in the best light. I also like how you broke up your autobiography into different sections such as "Quiet Around Strangers" and "Loud Around Friends" because it really gives us a better insight into your personality. Additionally, it was interesting how you also incorporated Facebook Messenger into your analysis as well. Often times, its easy to forget the messaging is a component of Facebook too and we may represent ourselves different through that medium and your autobiography did a good job of bringing that to light again.

However, I also wish there some more information other than your interest in horses and being part of the equestrian team. You allude to other aspects of your personality but don't really elaborate on them and I feel that a little more information on those topics would help deepen the assessment of your identity on Facebook. Omission of information can just as telling as including information and going into more depth on why you chose to focus your profile around equestrian may have also led to a deeper analysis. Additionally, in the privacy and conflict section, there is also an opportunity to elaborate more on how you feel about privacy features embedded within Facebook and why you do or not utilize them.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading your autobiography. You had a unique tone and I thought it was interesting how you referred to yourself in the third person. It serves to further emphasize the point that you feel as though your Facebook profile isn't totally "you". Great work and thanks for sharing this with us! -Rishika

Hi Mara,

I really enjoyed reading your avatar! The thing that stood out to me most was how honest you were with the reader throughout. You did this particularly well in the “Equestrian” section when you pointed our your flaws in one of the photos. It was cool to see from your perspective what photos are “appropriate” when it comes to riding. It seems like you dedicate a lot of your time to equestrian, and I completely understand where you come from when you say you don’t want to seem bad at something you spend a lot of time doing. Lastly, I found your section about conflict very relatable. I think it was a good topic to end with before wrapping everything up in your conclusion. Your writing flowed nicely and I thought it was a fun read. Great job!

-Sam Reilly