Difference between revisions of "Hannah Margaret Weirens"
| Line 5: | Line 5: | ||
Googling my name is a fairly simple process. There does not seem to be another "Hannah Weirens," or if there is then I am glad I am more famous than her. Although there is a decent amount of relevant search results after Googling my name, a majority of it is content curated by me. As such, the internet has a very specific view of me as I am the one choosing the version of myself that I want to make public to the world via the internet. Specifically, it is the “highlights” of my life, not the everyday, boring stuff that would not make it onto my social media profiles. | Googling my name is a fairly simple process. There does not seem to be another "Hannah Weirens," or if there is then I am glad I am more famous than her. Although there is a decent amount of relevant search results after Googling my name, a majority of it is content curated by me. As such, the internet has a very specific view of me as I am the one choosing the version of myself that I want to make public to the world via the internet. Specifically, it is the “highlights” of my life, not the everyday, boring stuff that would not make it onto my social media profiles. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == '''My Social Media Profiles''' == | ||
[[File:U5.jpg|200px|thumb|right|My Depop profile picture]] | [[File:U5.jpg|200px|thumb|right|My Depop profile picture]] | ||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
The first few Google results are of my social media profiles, such as LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. First off, these profiles are completely curated by me. I get to decide what I post or what I don’t post, and for Twitter and Instagram, I am able to decide not only what I post, but I also have the option to make my profile private, and allow only those I accept to follow me and view my content. My LinkedIn, the only social media platform that I frequently use that is public, has my academic history and my work experience. Anyone who searches or even stumbles upon my profile as a mutual connection on LinkedIn, would see that I am a history major and entrepreneurship minor at the University of Michigan and interning at Williams Sonoma Inc. during the Summer of 2021. As such, people may get a put-together and serious impression of me as my LinkedIn would be their major source of information about me. | The first few Google results are of my social media profiles, such as LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. First off, these profiles are completely curated by me. I get to decide what I post or what I don’t post, and for Twitter and Instagram, I am able to decide not only what I post, but I also have the option to make my profile private, and allow only those I accept to follow me and view my content. My LinkedIn, the only social media platform that I frequently use that is public, has my academic history and my work experience. Anyone who searches or even stumbles upon my profile as a mutual connection on LinkedIn, would see that I am a history major and entrepreneurship minor at the University of Michigan and interning at Williams Sonoma Inc. during the Summer of 2021. As such, people may get a put-together and serious impression of me as my LinkedIn would be their major source of information about me. | ||
Revision as of 15:27, 4 March 2021
My name is Hannah Weirens (she/hers) and I am 21 years old. I was born in Tokyo and moved to New York when I was 3 years old. My dad lives in London, so I spend some time there as well. I am currently a Junior at the University of Michigan and am majoring in History and minoring in Entrepreneurship. In my free time I love to cook, listen to music, and exercise!
Contents
The Google Search of it All
Googling my name is a fairly simple process. There does not seem to be another "Hannah Weirens," or if there is then I am glad I am more famous than her. Although there is a decent amount of relevant search results after Googling my name, a majority of it is content curated by me. As such, the internet has a very specific view of me as I am the one choosing the version of myself that I want to make public to the world via the internet. Specifically, it is the “highlights” of my life, not the everyday, boring stuff that would not make it onto my social media profiles.
My Social Media Profiles
The first few Google results are of my social media profiles, such as LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. First off, these profiles are completely curated by me. I get to decide what I post or what I don’t post, and for Twitter and Instagram, I am able to decide not only what I post, but I also have the option to make my profile private, and allow only those I accept to follow me and view my content. My LinkedIn, the only social media platform that I frequently use that is public, has my academic history and my work experience. Anyone who searches or even stumbles upon my profile as a mutual connection on LinkedIn, would see that I am a history major and entrepreneurship minor at the University of Michigan and interning at Williams Sonoma Inc. during the Summer of 2021. As such, people may get a put-together and serious impression of me as my LinkedIn would be their major source of information about me.
Other Search Results
The other major search results involve my field hockey career in high school and other achievements of mine. For the Google Images results, a lot of the images are of me playing field hockey posted by local Westchester NY sports journalists. I was the captain of Bronxville High School’s Varsity Field Hockey team, and we were able to go to the state championships as well as regional and sectional championships, so it makes perfect sense that there would be a lot of content from that time of my life.
Some academic highlights from my life that came up in the Google search include the MDriven website due to me being a member of MDriven (a University of Michigan Finance and Entrepreneurship Club) and an article about me going to a gender-based violence conference in Washington, D.C. when I was a junior in high school.
What Did the Internet Get Right?
Google got basically everything right about me. A lot of it were things that I directly posted on the internet, like my social media profile/content, as well as things like my Depop (clothes selling site) page and Pinterest page, so those sources were hard to get wrong since I was the one supplying the content for them. The Google Images section had a lot of accurate photos of me that I did not post myself, for example photos from playing field hockey and a photo of me and a peer from the article about me attending a conference in Washington D.C.
Since I am a frequent social media user, the fact that my profiles/content came to the forefront of Google Search seems very appropriate. The overall portrayal of me from Googling my name does a fairly good job of capturing who “Hannah Weirens” is: my age, my schooling, my work, what I look like, and some of the things I like to do.
What Did the Internet Get Wrong?
The internet’s portrayal of me captured the main aspects of my life. Although a lot of the major aspects of my life are able to be found through a Google search, a lot of the minor aspects of my life are not. The pictures of me in the images section of Google are the “good” pictures that I decided to make public; there aren’t any pictures of me without makeup or without my hair done (besides the field hockey pictures, in which you can’t really see my face).
One thing that I saw that was completely false information about me is from my NY MileSplit (a track and field records website) profile from high school. It states that my personal record for the outdoor 400 Meter Dash is 1:12.14, but I never ran outdoor track (only indoor) and also never ran the 400 Meter Dash in any track competition. My high school had a very large track team, so perhaps they mixed me up for someone else on my team or someone from another high school with a similar name/bib number.
Reflection
I am a relatively open person, so having a decent amount of results come up when you Google my name does not make me uncomfortable at all, especially when a lot of the results are the profiles I personally curated. The information I have on my LinkedIn profile are all things I am perfectly fine with the general public knowing about me.
On the other hand, the NY MileSplit error that shows up under my profile is frustrating. If I think having a false stat of running a slower 400 meter race upsets me, then I cannot imagine being a public figure and having false information being said/printed about you every single day.
Additionally, some of the field hockey action shots from Google Images of me are quite unflattering. I am in a full-on sprint while being hunched over dribbling the field hockey ball with a chunky mouthguard in and unattractive goggles. Even though these pictures are not my prettiest moment, I do like that they come up in my Google search results as I playing field hockey was a big part of my high school career.
I always used to think I would love being a celebrity, but it's moments like this in which I realize how thankful I am for the privacy that I have. I can more or less choose what I decide to put onto the internet, whereas celebrities constantly have paparazzi capturing them at their worst moments or the tabloids spreading rumors about them.
In a world where all of our public and private information can be consolidated in a simple Google search, do we really know everything about each other? Or just the version of us that the public wants to see?
