Mackenzie Cole

Introduction

Perhaps the best rule my parents ever enforced was the banning of Facebook. When I was in 5th grade and all my classmates began bypassing the age requirement with their parent's permission, mine denied me from it entirely. Zuckerberg never got ahold of my precious awkward years. I am now a very grateful twenty-one-year-old. My digital persona is now only fragments of accounts that I barely enjoyed, having only had a handful of stints consistently using my accounts. If I could pull my old Webkinz or Club Penguin accounts, that would be another story. I am currently redesigning my portfolio website, making it unlisted to Google's search engines, which only further hides my identity online.

Searching for Mackenzie Cole

Common Name Anonymity

Although being generic is something I hoped to avoid my whole life, my name comes with its perks. At the University of Michigan alone, there are three more people that go by 'Mackenzie Cole.' Without first obtaining more personal information, Google does not return results pertaining to me. I am coining this phenomenon 'Common Name Anonymity.' It is the thin veil of anonymity provided to those who have names so common, their digital identity is difficult to track down.

Imposters

• other accounts found
• other people found

Effective Searches

• keywords + correct accounts
• social media platforms

While there are many benefits to public voter records, I am unsettled to find that my home address is found more easily than my Instagram account. Along with the full names of both my parents and due to the public nature of my address, a value Zillow estimate or 'Zestimate' for my home. The implications of sensitive personal information like home value and address being public go beyond internet security and into personal privacy and safety. Once establishing my hometown I could add 'Rochester Hills' to my search which began to narrow in on correct results.

'Mackenzie Cole Rochester Hills' lead me through a time machine to my past. Articles from my days as a swimmer resurfaced. My days as a Highlander at Rochester Adams High School depict an honors swimmer with a passion for the DECA club. From here, I find my DECA Twitter account that I managed as Vice President of Brand Management @DECA_Mackenzie. This trail of breadcrumbs would lead you to believe I was becoming a business major, yet here I am 4 years later finishing my BFA.

"Kenz"

The academic Twitter account is what exposes my personal Twitter account, headed with my nickname "Kenz". I haven't regularly used this account since High School. Most of my recent posts are the occasional retweet. My most engaged tweet remains

Conclusions

What Only I Know

I suppose the internet really has no idea who I am at all and I am responsible for that. When I did find myself, I saw how surface-leveled all my social media accounts were. My digital identity lacks all the substance and depth I am proud of developing. I am comforted that old Tumblr accounts, One Direction 'stan' blogs, and middle-school Ask.fm accounts did not resurface without prior knowledge of my usernames. Those old accounts are skeletons sitting in my childhood closet, perhaps they are part of the reason I have been so private on the internet in my adult life.