Difference between revisions of "Santiago Perez"

Revision as of 17:07, 19 February 2021

me

I have never met anyone with the same name as me growing up and even now that I am older, I still haven’t met any “Santiagos” in my life… until today. I have googled myself and have found some pretty interesting results. Not only did I google myself, but I also “instagramed” and “Facebooked” myself (did a search on myself). To start, I can now say that I have been made aware of 20+ “Santiagos,” virtually, that all have very interesting and diverse stories. I hope this doesn’t come off as creepy or intrusive, but I did click on some of the other Santiagos. It was very informative and entertaining to virtually “get to know” some of my fellow Santiagos. There is a whole slew of individuals that have the same name as me and some of those people are professors, artists, Baseball players and people from all walks of life that have the same name as me. Now, back to my focus, which is what data the internet spits out when I google myself. The internet got many things right, but it also got many things wrong, lets first look at the things they got right.

My Internet Identity

Google

When I googled myself, like I said, there was a lot of people with the same name as me, but then as I kept scrolling through the google pages, I finally found myself! There were three or four pages that mentioned me and some of the accomplishments of mine from when I was attending Schoolcraft college in Livonia, Michigan. The very first page that mentioned me was a website called “Expresso” that serves as a competition platform in which people all around the world can connect with each other, online and with their exercise equipment, to compete for the number one spot in endurance. The competition I participated in was a nation-wide competition between community colleges to see who can do the most miles on exercise bikes. The fitness center at Schoolcraft has an entire section of these bikes, and students along with professors are invited to compete against other schools. We would take turns on these bikes, so when someone gets tired of pedaling, they would tag someone else in. This website takes everyone’s times and total number of miles traversed and then adds all this data up to announce the winner. The link I clicked took me to my exact time and miles traversed! This took me on a trip down memory lane and it was really nice reminiscing about those days and all the fun I would have at the fitness center.

The second link that came up when I googled myself was another Schoolcraft College affiliation and this one even included a picture of me! It was from a time that I remember like it was yesterday…. I was walking the halls, on my way to class, when one of my friends notices me and flags me down. I approach her and she proceeds to inform me that she is currently interviewing people for this poll she was collect data for. It was a very simple survey in which she asks only one question: “Do you prefer Black Friday or Cyber Monday and why?” This was an interesting question to me, and I had fun participating in it, but I wasn’t expecting to dig that up. I believe that I must have agreed to let my data be used in any way the interviewer seems fit, so this did not upset me. However, I am going to be more aware of these types of surveys in the future because I wouldn’t want some of my responses to make me look bad in any type of way. When I gave permission to my friend, the interviewer, I was not thinking about the ethical implications that arise from these exchanges. Thanks to the course I am taking now, which focuses on technology and information ethics, I am much more conscience on protecting my data.

The third website that cites me is one that I am proud of and I am glad is associated with me because I worked very hard in order to be considered to be an associate. While attending Schoolcraft College, I applied for one of the most prestigious and well-known scholarships in the nation. It is called the “Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship” and I actually made it to the final round of applicants! There were three rounds that a student must pass in order to be granted this scholarship and I passed two of them. Even though I did not pass the third, it was still very nice to know that I was competing amongst the brightest and most talented individuals in our great nation. Making it to the finals caught wind at the college and I was quickly recognized by my professor and peers. They were all rooting for me and helped out in any way possible, which really put my hard work in perspective. Well… this third link took me directly to the Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship website and there I was! Listed amongst the final contestants in the nation. I was amongst 11 other students representing the great state of Michigan and we were all listed on this page.

Social Media

The Inaccuracies

When I was done checking out these links, I continued to scroll through the google pages, rummaging through links in search of my virtual self. About six google o’s deep I finally find some more information on myself. Some data brokers had a previous address of mine and also knew members of my family, although some of these so called “family members” weren’t members at all. It seems like they fused two individuals together because on the birthdate, they had mine and another one that isn’t mine. This is concerning to me and I will be trying to contact this website to see what I can do about this. I figure if they are going to have my information, they might as well get it right. I will be updating this page as soon as I find out what can be done about this.

Instagram

Ig

After googling, I proceeded to Instagram, but I got a little clever with my search this time. I actually created a fake profile and page then tried to search for myself. I quickly popped up, but not as the first find. I was near the bottom half of the people with the same name as me, so I proceeded to investigate. I already knew that I would pop up pretty quick because my profile is public. However, I think I am going to change my profiles visibility to private because this made me realize that people could study me, for good or for bad, and I would have no control over that. I quickly proceeded to change the visibility to private, then went and redid the search. This time I didn’t po up, no matter how much I scrolled down the list of Santiagos. This gave me more peace of mind because now, if someone is interested in me, for whatever reason, they must send me a friend request, or I must give them access to my profile.

Marketplace

Facebook

The Instagram search made me question my other profiles, hence the Facebook searching. Facebook is another one of my social media accounts, but I use it for the marketplace more than anything else. I like searching through the marketplace for good deals and I also post things to sell. I have sold quite a few things on the marketplace, and it is very convenient. I created a fake page then searched myself and I came up rather quickly. You could see everything about me on Facebook, such as school I am attending, jobs from the past, old posts, and even things that I once sold on their marketplace. At first, I did not know what to make of this, but I gave it some more thought. I concluded that I really did not want strangers knowing all this data about me so I made my profile private, although you can still see the items I have sold through the marketplace. This does not bother me as much because in my opinion, a buyer or consumer should always be able to research the seller. A seller should be as transparent as possible when doing online sells for many reasons. Consumers must have the peace of mind when shopping online that they are getting what they are paying for and that it is not a scam that they are buying into. When I first started buying things on Facebook, this was my main concern, and I would only shop with those individuals that kept that transparency throughout their profile and the buying process. Therefore, I will do the same… but I do not think it is a choice, I think that just how Facebook marketplace works; you cannot make your transactions private.