Talk:Lauren Keltz
I really like how you first analyzed your Facebook identity and linked it to your social community and how they correlate to each other. Instead of keeping the image you presented on your Facebook and following the codes of community, you decided to come up with ways to make effective changes on your Facebook page for others to know more about who you really are in real life and get to understand you on a deeper level. It is really thoughtful of you to introduce the primary and secondary Facebook elements where you can take control of and slowly create a new online identity, which actually matches your real self relatively well. Personally, I am in the same situation as you where most of my Facebook pictures involved partying with groups of friends and going out during the night. While reading your Avatar entry, I started to think about possible changes I can execute in order to improve my Facebook page making it defines my real self more well roundedly. The quote you mentioned by Steve Matthews about how people tend to remove the professional elements of our lives in the online environment is a great example applied to many people. By showing a picture of you eating ice cream with friends during the day and riding a camel during a trip to Israel, you prove to the readers that you are making great efforts to make your "ethical values more in synch with your professional ethical norms"on Facebook.
The style of your writing is really professional. One thing you can possibly improve on is to make it more creative by using third person narrative. Since you believe that your codes of community drive you to create an online identity that does not define you in many aspects, maybe you can write using third person view and analyze both your online identity and your real self to emphasize the contract. Overall, I enjoy reading your autobiography since I tend to follow the codes of community as well in the online environment. The issue you brought up and the changes you want to make inspire me to consider make changes and improvement to my online identity.
Comment 2:
As we are friends both on Facebook and in reality, I believe you did a very good job of explaining how your offline self is embodied in an online platform. Although I know you to be a studious person with many other interests than just partying, your profile definitely makes you seem like a party girl (no offense). However, you are not the only one; the majority of my other Facebook friends as well as myself portray ourselves this way because Facebook only provides us with features that enable us to post this kind of material. I agree with you that there are other ways to portray other aspects of our social selves without deviating from the social norms on Facebook. Although you wish to have your whole self displayed through Facebook, I believe that this is almost impossible simply because of the restrictions you stated earlier and the lack of space on Facebook for some of this information. However, I believe your audience can definitely get a better view of the well rounded person you are by the minimal changes you suggest.
Your autobiography is extremely well written. The piece flows and is very insightful. You looked at many of the important elements of Facebook, which you believe represent you most clearly and provided insight to how they embody you online. I thought your sophisticated style of writing was a great reflection on how you would like to be seen more holistically as a person versus the lax party girl you are currently portrayed as. You provided great suggestions on how to better display your online self, which I think everyone could really apply to their own profiles as well! - Lauren Binder
