Dakota D. Lewis
I was born into a family of 5, making it 6! I go by Dakota or any version of Koda.
I've always loved my name because it's unique and ambiguous to both gender and race. I think my name has shaped how I see the world, allowing me to circumvent racism in my educational and occupational experiences. I was naïve to this until learning about labor market discrimination[1]. Additionally, I have three middle names, all after a relative of mine. I think this adds to the expectations my family has for me to find success, not for myself but for those who can identify with the many adversities I've faced in life.
Trying to search for my name and full name online doesn't yield many results other than my social media pages. It turns out "Dakota Lewis" isn't as rare as I thought, and since I never use my full name, there isn't much information online about me, other than what I post myself. However, I am OK with this, and I don't see a reason to have an online public image at the moment because I still have much to achieve, and I prefer to control the information available about me. Although, in the future, I doubt ill be able to keep this low profile with the goals I've set forth for myself.
My Digital Identity
My social media accounts are moderately connected; Although it is not my focus, I rarely post articles, videos, or anything for that matter. If you think it's a bit weird for someone who studies technology and social networks to be so disassociated with them, I promise there is a good reason. The internet is not private, and it was built to connect, not to hide.
Thus, anything you put online could resurface in the future and be seen by everyone. And when you seek the public eye, you also want to keep it off of certain areas of your life; the best way to do that is to keep your private life off the public internet.
I try to use the same photo across all platforms, and this particular profile photo was taken as a sophomore in college. I think it's best to look at social media and networking as the same, presenting only information that I would be fine with the world knowing.
Even if I am not popular, knowing the dangers present on the internet in addition to the tech industries' insatiable hunger for more data, It's safest to have controlled interactions on the internet. Too many times I've heard of people's private accounts and information being used against them by others and the difficulties of getting something removed from the internet, it is just not worth it.
Studio_1201
Studio_1201 is a Design Consultancy and Creative Collective composed of a couple of pals that bumped heads on their educational journey. Some have been designers and creatives since the early days of high school, others since the early days of college, living long days and late nights, we're doing what we love.
I am a co-founder of Studio_1201.
Studio_1201 is a minority-owned, multi-disciplinary design firm, offering clients creative design strategies as well as technical solutions. Capabilities include Graphic Design, 3D Modeling & Visualization, Website & App Development, and Video production. Studio_1201 aims to create and materialize a client’s vision in efforts to improve the brand of their product and, or service.
After starting Studio_1201 in 2018, I converted my social media accounts to the company accounts to retain followers, and have since put most of my effort into developing the digital identity of my company rather than myself personally. One could find out more about me by exploring our website www.studio1201.com as managing the company has taken over most of my time and effort.
Google "Studio_1201" and you'll see that my SEO has placed our company in the top dominating the search results.
References
- ↑ Bertrand, Marianne, and Sendhil Mullainathan. "Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment on labor market discrimination." American economic review 94.4 (2004): 991-1013.
