Talk:Maya Balaji

Emily Fischer's Comment

I really enjoyed your post! It seems as though you were able to find a decent amount of information about yourself. It's really cool that the first link that appears when you Google your name is your Facebook. I also liked the way you discussed the two versions of yourself. I think most people can relate to that, and it was interesting to hear your take on the idea. You talked about the "lack of control" you have over your online identity, which I also thought was a cool analysis. However, the images you embedded in the article don't show anything! I wish I could see them, because I'm sure they would've made your post even better. Also, I think the organization could be redone a bit. Many of the headers contain the term "Online Identity," and I think your article would gain some clarity if you differentiated between these a little. Additionally, I think you could use some readings to back up your analysis/the idea of being unable to control your online identity. Overall, I think you did a really great job and I enjoyed reading what you wrote!

Aditya Gupta's Comment

Hi Maya,

I thought your approach to how you wrote your statement was very unique. I thought outlining the many different versions of yourself found online, culminating in what you ultimately believed to be a true representation of yourself on the internet was a very smart way to show the distinguishing factors between different forms of online data aggregation. Your statement flowed well and had a good purpose but it definitely felt like there was more to be written. I didn't feel as much of a connection between your post and the material we covered in class and the readings. You did a great job bringing up the data disparity, and how different sites treated your data, but I think it would be beneficial if you explained more about how this corresponds with your privacy, what you believe about your privacy and how there are many problems with data aggregators collecting data from multiple different people and storing them into one "file." I too actually experienced the same issue, given that I have a very common name, of there being many people for which they accumulated all of our respective data points and stored under a single alias. In general, really try to incorporate the readings. You made some solid points regarding your data profile, and I think using the readings to your advantage could really drive your points home.

- Aditya Gupta

Response from Andrew Lanham

Maya, I like your post, and I particularly like your engaging intro. I think that it’s relatable for many people to feel like they’re constantly having to think about their identities from multiple perspectives. I think that the presence of instant information has contributed largely to the sense of wanting to control one’s information. Your post made me think of something: people often want to come off as authentic to the world. You mention that your Facebook is the best representation of your authentic self. Often times, people put their Facebook, Instagram, etc. on private mode so that only a select amount of people can see who they truly are. I wonder whether people would rather that the world sees the things that are easily retrievable (certain government records, etc.) amplified to a ridiculous degree, or whether they would rather share their authentics self with the world by making their profiles public. Anyway, I like how your analysis makes the distinction between you as a person and you as a data point and how the two ideas contrast. Also, I like the structure of unpacking your online identity and then wrapping everything together at the end by comparing your online profile with your real-life profile. In terms of improvements, I think that you could add some images to the latter half of your post in order to make it a bit more engaging. It might also be beneficial to get another report from a data broker and see if there is different information.

Kyle Gericke's Response

Hi Maya, I really liked your introduction. It did a good job of easing the reader into the topic of your data identity and it drew me in as a reader. It is something that everybody can relate to and that is perfect as an introduction. I also liked your use of the third person when discussing all the different information that you found about yourself. This unique voice made your post stand out from others and definitely kept it fresh to me as a reader. One thing that you could change going forward is your use of images. Currently your images do not show up and they play a very important role in emphasizing the points you try to make, so making sure these work going forward is critical. One thing that I think you could include in your revision is a link to an ethical view of your information in a way to connect with the concepts in the class. Introducing one of the readings could help with this. Overall, great job!