Difference between revisions of "JJ Wright"

Revision as of 22:53, 4 March 2021

My Data Identity

I’ve always thought my name was pretty unique. It was often the first thing people asked me about when they met me. “Oh ‘JJ’… Is that a nickname? What does it stand for?” I recite the same line I always do for this question: “Well, my full name is Johnny Jo. It was my dad’s idea to name me after both my grandmas, Johnnie and Joann (who usually goes by Jo), and call me JJ for short.” After this, I would often get a mixed response. Johnny Jo is considered a “boys name” so it seems strange to some. On the other hand, a lot of people have told me they like the name because it’s cute and unique. When we were told to search our names online and see what we could find, I was surprised that Google came up with over 55 million results for ‘Johnny Jo Wright.’ Clearly, my name isn’t as unique as I previously thought, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

With so much of our data being collected and sold across so many different platforms these days, blending in with the crowd seems advantageous. Anonymity ensures privacy and safety in today’s technology-driven world. Often, people are terrified of someone finding their IP address or social security number somewhere on the world wide web or having their private data unethically mishandled. Simultaneously, these same people want to make sure they have up-to-date social media profiles and that their online persona looks appealing to others. With this paradigm in mind, I was eager to see just how much data I had online and whether or not it was authentic, complete, and stable.

Google Search

I started with Google. Using incognito mode so my Chrome browser wouldn't recognize me, I began my search. The first page didn’t yield much beyond a few obituaries for men named ‘Johnny Wright’ or ‘Jo-Jo Wright.’ ‘JJ’ Wright didn't help much either, but I did find out that a Grammy-award winning musician and I share the same name. I decided to expand my search and started using different variations, such as including my hometown and past schools. Most things I found were related to activities I’ve done in the past, including track and field, cross country, and girl scouts. I even found an LS&A article about my MRADS summer experience that I didn’t know existed. The most current thing I found was my staff picture and bio for the research lab I have been working at part-time since 2017. The most revealing thing I was able to find was my Facebook. I keep it private, but you can still see my hometown, college, and place of work. What I was able to find was accurate, but I didn’t find much at all so I wouldn’t consider my data-footprint very complete, at least not on the surface.

Data Broker

To dig deeper, I decided to try using a data broker. Data brokers can provide a plethora of information including your relatives, address, colleagues, and public record if you have one. This has the potential to be a very powerful tool, but of course no data is free these days, not even our own. Another downside to this is that these websites that store and sell our data are just like any other company and use marketing techniques to try and get you to pay. Some of these techniques include showing peoples success stories flashing across the screen and making you wait an unnecessarily long time so you feel like you should pay since you already invested something in it. Nevertheless, I decided to use BeenVerified and, even though I want to keep my data private, I was a bit disappointed to see that I wasn’t in the database. However, I did find my mom and dad who had accurate addresses and phone numbers.

Social Media

Lastly, I looked at the social media accounts I currently use to assess their completeness and stability in presenting me as I am now. I’m confident that all my social media is authentic because it’s created and used by me, but whether or not it actually presents a clear picture of who I am today is questionable. I would say the peak of my social media usage was between 2014-2016 when I was in high school, which shows a very different person from who I am now. My Snapchat, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Facebook are all relatively inactive now. When I look at them I see posts from over four or five year’s ago. Most of the posts and shared pictures no longer accurately represent me and I see that they lack stability due to my inactivity. I still check Twitter and Instagram multiple times throughout the day, but those are also inaccurate and outdated. The past two years, I’ve posted on Instagram on average twice a year. In high school I would try to post every month or so to keep my profile aligned with my current activities, friends, and accomplishments. As I got older, I lost interest in doing so and recognized that social media was taking a toll on my mental health so I used it a lot less. All that being said, I still check these accounts often and feel that social pressure to keep my profile updated. I will admit, after seeing how little data I could find about myself online, I’m tempted to create a more comprehensive data identity. The question is, do I really want that?

My instagram account

Analysis

Overall, what little information I could find was authentic, but it was severely lacking in completeness. Even though this is something I prefer for my own privacy and safety, I was a bit disappointed to not find much public information about myself. Throughout the search, I felt very torn between the feeling of not wanting my data to appear publicly online, and wanting to have an authentic, complete, and stable online persona for others to see. I also felt this disappointment when looking at my own social media. I used to be an active Instagram and Snapchat user, but now I rarely share anything. I’ve been active on Twitter since 2013, but I keep my profile private.

When I think about these feelings I have about my online persona critically, I start to realize the bigger picture and how big data comes into play. Like I mentioned earlier, data brokers can be great tools, but just like many others in the tech industry, they are trying to make money off of people’s data. Their advertisements were obvious and gimmicky, but I still fell for it. Social media is similar, just more inconspicuous about their marketing tactics. When we go on social media, we get ads catered to our interests and the people we interact with the most are bumped to the top of our feed. It feels like everyone is online and actively creating these intricate profiles of themselves, everyone except for ourselves.

I believe social media wants us to feel this way and that’s their marketing tool. They want us to want to post. If we, as individuals, are feeling like the only one without an aesthetically pleasing, updated, and accurate profile, we will feel more pressure to post and that’s exactly how social media apps make their money. They hook us in and make us feel this imaginary social pressure to be online. Logically, I don’t want my data online and I don’t care about it being authentic, complete, and stable because I prefer privacy. Emotionally, I feel the social pressure to update my social media more often for those very same reasons; I want to have an authentic, complete, and stable online identity. In the end, I feel torn between the two, but I see the pressure to post more, be active, and share my data online as a manipulation of the very companies that make money off of such things.

Image found online of me at work

Conclusion

Looking at my data identity online was a fun experiment at first, but by the end I was faced with the cognitive dissonance of not wanting my data online, while simultaneously spending a lot of time on social media and feeling inclined to post more. This exercise helped me see more clearly the manipulative nature of capitalist-driven tech companies that make many people feel this same way. I would not say the data about me online is very accurate or representative and that might be a detriment to me when new friends want to learn more about me based on my Instagram, but I also have to consider my own values and what’s important to me. I know that I personally value privacy and security overall, so I will try to reflect that by being more conscious of my social media use and continuing to post the limited amount of data that I feel most comfortable with.